Veronika "Vivi" Vozniak (aka Weronika Wozniak) is a Polish actress, translator and martial artist based in New York City.
She was born in Poznań, Poland and at the age of 5 she joined the youth dance group Rytmix in Konin, Poland. While being a member of the dance group until 2006, she received such awards as 1st Place in The 27th International Song and Dance Festival. In 2006 her family moved to Wroclaw, Poland and she continued to dance in many studios, including Dance Studio Gemar, changing her main competitive category to Hip-Hop. In 2009, she won 8th Place in The World Championships of Hip-Hop, Electic Boogie and Break Dance in Kalisz.
As a teenager, she made her first camera appearance in TV Show Pierwsza Miłość as a guest star in 2014. Two years later, Weronika decided to give a shot to acting by moving to New York City for Conservatory Program at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. The first short film she has acted in, "Lost In The Wind", directed by NYU then-sophomore student Dan L. Nguyen Phan, was accepted to Cannes Festival Short Film Corner selection in 2016. Among teachers like Irma Sandrey, Geoffrey Horne, Robert Ellermann, Barry Shapiro, Mauricio Bustamante, Jeremy Kruse, Weronika also had the honor of participating in acting intensive taught by Vincent D'Onofrio in her final year.
Veronika made first steps in her theatrical career in The United States by joining the original Off-Broadway cast of an interactive stage-combat play "The Video Games" with MB Stage Productions at The Elektra Theatre (now Times Square Arts Center), where she appeared as a swing in 2016, and later on got cast as Shiek (The Legend Of Zelda) in 2017.
During The Video Games production in NYC she started training Karate Ken Wa Kan Dojo under the mentorship of Shihan Michelle Gay – 5th-degree black belt and 5-time Women’s full contact champion and Certified Laban Movement Analyst. She received awards in many Kyokushin tournaments, and received her blackbelt in June 2023.
From the end of 2017 and throughout 2018 Weronika was focused on movement theatre, inspired by her dance background. She worked extensively on devised theatre play ‘The Vandals’ with The How Theatre Company, joining the ensemble in 4 iterations across Manhattan and Brooklyn. And later during the pandemic in residency at CultureLAB she workshopped and performed "5-hour piece". At the theatre company, she met Polina Ionina, who became her long-term collaborator. Most recently, she has been co-producing, set designing, and assisting play "My Favorite Person" which premiered in CultureLab at LIC in 2021, finished run at HERE Arts Center in 2022, and soon will be performing at Istanbul Fringe Festival 2023. She will also be joining the producing team and ensemble in a new How's devised movement piece called "Rat King".
During the pandemic, she has been part of online productions, whether on zoom, or live-streamed from the theatre. In her first theatrical season with The Seeing Place, an Off-Off-Broadway ensemble, she performed online in the productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"(2020), "Dog Act"(2021), and "Queen With Conspiracy"(2021). She also acted in The Evening Crane Theatre’s play “Spyglass Seven” streamed for The International Edgar Allan Poe Festival and shot a period short film with the same company called "Caprices". Quarantine also gave her an opportunity to start something new - in the years 2020-2022, she hosted her own radio program in Polish Nasze Radio USA, where she interviewed artists of Polish origin and updated the Polish community on what's happening in NYC's culture and entertainment.
In October 2021 she was back on stage with a live audience for the first time at the re-opening of The Seeing Place Theater. Once again but this time in person she recreated her role as Willow in the reading of "Queer Witch Conspiracy".
Veronika was also part of a workshop for "Ideologix" a bilingual play written by Eri Nox, a collaboration between Playmachine and Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Poland. The play's first iteration happened online in mid-2021 and then traveled to Cracow. For the Polish iteration of this show in November she jumped on the team remotely as a dialect coach and cultural consultant.
She is an advocate for underrepresented groups, especially LGBTQIA+ (her own) and whenever she can, she tells stories of her community on stage and contributes to non-profit organizations. She took part in The Seeing Place's Ripple For Change Award., and collaborated in raising over $2000 for Black Theatre Network and Ali Forney Center through online theatre. She is overjoyed to be recently presenting Queer stories on bigger stages - in June 2023 she performed at Lincoln Center's Criminal Queerness Festival, in a new play "cHIMera" written by Wojtek Rodak.
She has been working with many Polish institutions over the years, including Polish Theatre Institute at Kosciuszko Foundation, Polish Cultural Institute in NY, Polish Consulate in New York, Polish and Slavic Center, as well as New York Polish Film Festival. You can also see her hosting XXV International Chopin & Friends at The Consulate General of Poland in New York every November.
Most recently, her film "New Lives" dir. by Joey Schweitzer was screened at EnergaCAMERIAMGE, won Best Short Film Award at boston Jewish Film Festival, and was also screened at Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, Greenpoint Film Festival, HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series, New York Shorts International Film Festival, Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival and New York University First Run Film Festival where she received Best Actress Award.
Veronika is currently looking for representation across the board in NYC and LA.