Yat Malmgren (28 March 1916 – 6 June 2002) was a Swedish dancer and acting teacher, born in Gävle, Sweden to Gustaf Sigurd Eriksson and Signe Emma Maria Malmgren.
Born as Gert Olof Sigurd Eriksson, he changed his surname due to a strained relationship with his father to Malmgren, which was his mother's maiden name. He became known as Yat rather than Gert when he lived in England because of difficulties with the Swedish pronunciation of the name.
Malmgren was a key figure at the Drama Centre London; his teaching approach drew from the applied psychology of movement developed by Rudolf Laban, with whom he collaborated. Malmgren's method of character development is concerned with a technique for expressing the inner state of a character through movement and is a synthesis of Laban's theory of movement expression, C.G. Jung's character types (published in 1923) and key principles of acting established by Konstantin Stanislavski.
There are no official published works on Malmgren's method. However, the system is described in detail in two PhD theses. The first, entitled "The Way of Transformation (The Laban – Malmgren System of Character Analysis)" is by Vladimir Mirodan, Principal of the Drama Centre, 2001-2011. This thesis is available online through the ETHoS system of the British library and can be found here: . The second, entitled "The Knowing Body: Meaning and method in Yat Malmgren's actor training technique" is by Janys Hayes and is available online (see below).
Several institutions around the world teach the method developed by Malmgren, which has come to be known as the "Yat" method. These institutions include the Drama Centre, Gothenburg University - where he became an honorary doctor, Australia's National Institute for Dramatic Art, Sydney; and The University of Wollongong. His work also influences training in Israel, Peru, Iran, Brazil, Iceland, and the USA amongst many others.
Malmgren taught a number of famous actors including: Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Anthony Hopkins, Andrew Tiernan, Geraldine James, Helen McCrory, Paul Bettany, Russell Brand, Anne-Marie Duff, John Simm, Sean Harris, and Andrew Pleavin.