Iosif Yusupov

Iosef Yusupov is an American set designer who was one of the scenic designers for the George Tsypin creative team of the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Sochi, Russia. Currently living in the United States, he has designed many shows (plays, operas and TV) in New York City and has worked motion pictures as a scenic artist. His sets that he builds create an illusion of 3-dimensions, with 2-dimensional material. Yusupov was the eldest son of five, born in Samarcand, Uzbekistan to Ifraim Cohen-Yusupov, a descendant of Moroccan-born Rabbi Yosef ben Moshe Mammon (Maimon) Maravi. After Yusupov graduated from the Saint Petersburg Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography, he went on to design sets in Russia and Eastern Europe. He received the State Prize of the USSR for the Arts for help in the production of Oedipus Rex at the Tadzhik Lakhuti Academic Drama Theater. When he moved to the United States, he met George Tsypin and has worked for him intermittently as an assistant since the early 1990s. Yusupov has also worked with directors Yefim Maizel, Rosemary Andress and Andrew Paul.