Sivan Ben Yishai studied theatre direction and dramatic writing in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem before gathering practical experience at the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio and Centre for Improvisation Tel Aviv. Now she is based in Berlin, working as an author. In 2015 she directed two of her own plays in Berlin: 3RDLND/If you know what I mean and I think you do at the German-Israeli Future Forum and I know I’m ugly but I glitter in the dark as part of the ID Festival at Radialsystem V. In May 2016 she participated in the authors' programme “In the Future III” from the Neues Institut für Dramatisches Schreiben (NIDS, New Institute for Dramatic Writing). Her play Your very own Double Crisis Club came out of that programme and was premiered at 2017's Autorentheatertagen festival for playwrights at the Deutsches Theater Berlin in a production directed by András Dömötör.
The world premieres of the second and third parts of what would become a tetralogy, The Story of the Life and Death of the New Bew Wew Woopidu Jew (Direction: Sasha Marianna Salzmann) and Papa Loves You (Direction: Suna Gürler), were both commissioned for the 2017/2018 season at the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin. The final part, Or: You Deserve Your War (Eight Soldiers Moonsick), was also created at the Gorki as part of the Krieg im Frieden programme in September 2018, a co-production from the Gorki, NIDS and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. In November 2019, this play’s world premiere will take part at Gorki (Direction: Sasha Marianna Salzmann).
In 2013 Ben Yishai won the Assitej competition in the category Best Show of the Year. She was also named best playwright of the year and best director of the year for this play. In the season 19/20, Sivan Ben Yishai is in-house-author at Nationaltheater Mannheim and Supranationaltheater Frauheim
