Yank Azman

Azman was born in a displaced persons camp in Bad Wörishofen, Germany to Cesia (née Waishand), a sales clerk, and Kuba Zajfman, a tailor and furrier, Holocaust survivors from Chmielnik, Poland.^[1] They emigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Toronto where he attended Harbord Collegiate Institute, William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute and later the Ontario College of Art^[2] (now known as OCAD University) and the University of Toronto.

Although his first stage appearance was at age six,^[3] his professional acting career began with the CBC Television series Toby^{[citation needed]} in 1968. By the 1970s after training at Young People's Theatre and The Second City, he was working in improvisational and children's theatre with Gilda Radner^[4] and in 1974 was cast as one of an ensemble (which included Valri Bromfield and Jayne Eastwood) to star on the CTV comedy series Funny Farm.^[5] During the 1970s he appeared on stage at: Factory Theatre's Hurray for Johnny Canuck^[6] with Maury Chaykin and Jim Henshaw; Theatre Passe Muraille in Bethune; and Theatre New Brunswick as Brighella in Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters^[7] among others. Since then he has worked steadily in film and television^[8] with such roles as Tom Shaughnessy on My Life as A Dog and frequent guest appearances on such shows as Murdoch Mysteries.

He began a lifelong interest in art and antiques after being inspired by Painters Eleven artist Harold Town while working together on the Canadian Centennial project at William Lyon Mackenzie C.I.^[9] In 1979, he started supplying antiques as props^[10] for the movies and to retail stores such as Polo Ralph Lauren^[11] and then opened a shop at the Harbourfront Antique Market. Toronto Life Magazine called him the "friendliest dealer in town."^[12] He has made numerous guest appearances as an antiques expert^[13] on such television shows as Room Service with Sarah Richardson on HGTV,^[14] Breakfast Television on Citytv and in 2002 he hosted a television pilot called Flea Market Millionaire^[15] for the Discovery Channel. Azman has also lectured on antiques at the CITT (Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology) at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University)^[16] and on Material Culture at the Faculty of Liberal Studies at Ontario College of Art & Design.

Azman has long worked as a voice actor and has voiced several characters in animated series such as Starcom: The U.S. Space Force and The Adventures of Tintin.

Azman is married to Canadian artist^[17][18] & antique dealer Pulver Zajfman^[19] and lives in Toronto and Miami Beach. He is a member of Mensa^[20] and has a mild form of dyscalculia.