Yossi was born in Tel-Aviv in 1933. From the age of 12 he acted in "Bamateinu" a children theatre. At the same time he acted as a child in a professional theater
"Haoel" in two productions.

During those years he took parts in radio plays for youth programs in the radio station "The Voice of Jerusalem" ( During the British mandate).

During his army service he studied at the "Nisan Nativ Acting Studio" .

After the army he was accepted at the "Cameri Theatre" as an actor (1954), played small parts and was fired, and the same happened in the "Habima" theatre and the "Haoel" theatre.

1955 – he decided to study in London . He was accepted to the "Royal Academy of Dramatic Art" as a scholarship student. The end of 1957 he graduated from "R.A.D.A" with an owners degree.

During his 2 years of staying in London he worked as an announcer in the Hebrew section of the B.B.C.

Back in Israel he joined the "Cameri Theatre" and after a few months he was fired.

He joined "EL-AL" as a steward and after a while he was offered (by people who knew him from R.A.D.A) to join the english theatre in South-Africa - "The Leonard Shach Company" in Cape Town .

He acted in South-Africa for two years among his parts, Goldberg in "The Birthday Party" by Pinter, Biderman in "The Fire Raisers" by Max Frisch and more…

1964 – He returned to Israel to the "Haifa Theatre" where he played leads.

1965 – He played the king in "The King and I" for the musical theatre "G.G" in Tel-Aviv.He repeated this part in 1987 for The Cameri Theatre. He played DR. Karasko in "The man of Lamancha" than joined the "Haifa Theatre" again in leading parts in "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" and in "The Diary of Scoundrel".

1968 – He joined the "Cameri Theatre" again and acts there till today with a few short intervals, mainly centrals parts.

Parallel to his career in the theatre he was an editor and presenter of many radio programs in various stations. He directed and took parts in many radio plays.

At the same time he became the co director to Eric Smith who established in 1973 the " Eric Puppets Theatre ", who got its national reputation after doing the famous tv serial for children with puppets "Tamari's Hut". The company got prizes and excellent write-ups in many capitals of the world.

Yossi did some international movies and TV serials like: "Golda" – with Ingrid Bergman, playing Moshe Dayan. "Diamonds" with Shelly Winters, some westerns – Italian productions, " Beauty and the Beast" Rebecca De mornier and

"Puss in Boots" with Christopher Walkin and many more…

Among his Israeli movies and T.V productions, "Kazablan", "Hedva and Shlomic", "Himo King of Jerusalem", "Emergency ward", "Buba", "Zbang" what a wonderful place" – a new Israeli movie and many more…

He played many leading parts in the theatre among them "The Birthday Party", "The Openheimer affair", the "Home Coming", "Treasure Island", "The King & I", "Good", "Lies", "Kidush", "The Chairs",

"Angels in America ", "The Merchant of Venice ", "The Miser", "Pollard",

"Inspector General", "Volpone" , "Visiting MR Green", "The Woman in Black" and many more…

During his career he won many prizes among them "David's Harp" for playing the witch in "The 3 Hotsmach", 2 prizes as an excellent actor from the Tel-Aviv municipality, The Moshe Halevi Prize, The Rosenblum prize, The American – Israeli Cultural foundation Klachkin prize, The Avner Hiskiyahu prize, a prize for his Contribution to Jewish Humor, Actor of the Year by the Israeli Theatre Academy for – 2002, Man of the Year by the second channel of the Israel television .