Apoptosis is a unique cell suicide process that plays important roles in a wide variety of developmental and normal physiological processes in animal species, and causes diseases when inappropriately controlled. Although yeast do not possess the proteases ultimately responsible for the morphological events recognized as apoptosis, these simple unicellular eukaryotes can serve as a powerful tool for apoptosis researchers. Ectopic expression of several human and animal apoptosis proteins in either budding or fission yeast results in phenotypes that create opportunities for genetic screens. Recent exploitation of yeast as tools for studying human apoptosis-regulatory proteins has yielded novel insights into cell death mechanisms, suggesting strategies for identification of genes and drugs that modulate the functions of proteins involved in apoptosis control.