JOYBOY, also known as Joy-Marie Thompson is a performing artist, writer, and educator from a small town of Western Pennsylvania. Melding physical theater, clowning, and comedy together, they aim to create stories that explore themes surrounding identity and power dynamics. By blending comedy, physical theater, and surreal imagery, JoyBoy transcends and challenges narrative norms while offering a more imaginative and emergent future. 

As a performer, they have worked with choreographers such as Sidra Bell, Staycee Pearl, Shamel Pitts, Stephanie Batten Bland, Maxine Doyle, and Damani Pompey. They have appeared in The Mckittrick Hotel’s Sleep No More, The Public Theater for Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s shadow/land, The Metropolitan Opera’s El Niño and Aida and Geoff Sobelle’s HOME. Their commercial credits include performing in music videos for Chloe Flower and The Kills. JOYBOY has performed dance comedy shows in night life venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, NY. 

As a choreographer and creative director,, they have presented work for PRISMA Festival, Derida Stage, PearlDiving Movement Residency, Arts on Site, The Brick Theater, Triskelion Arts, The August Wilson Center for African-American Culture, and The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. As an educator, JOYBOY teaches improvisation and contemporary dance as an adjunct lecturer at SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance. Their writing has been published by thINKingDANCE and Imagining: A Gibney Journal. Awards include the 2018 Vert Terborgh Award presented by the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase and the 2019 Investing in Professional Artist Grant presented by The Pittsburgh Foundation. Currently, JOYBOY is the 2025 Artist in Residence at Triskelion Arts.