All About Muppets

Randal J. Metz is a professional puppeteer, variety/stage performer, writer, and director who is best known for creating puppet productions and performing for Children Fairyland's Open Storybook Puppet Theater. The company holds the record for being the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the US. In the early years of Randal's life, he got to meet Jerry Juhl in a puppetry class taught by him and in the 1980s got to meet Frank Oz and even was apprenticed by Michael Earl. It would seem the Metz had puppetry in his eyes since childhood, which resulted to him meeting his heroes in his teenage years. From 1986-1990, he studied marionettes with Bob Baker of The Bob Baker Marionette Theater and in 1994, he participated in the Survey of Puppet Theater Techniques taught by the legendary Muppet performers. In addition to puppetry, he also wrote and published six books, all focused on puppetry in California and at Children's Fairyland. Randal J. Metz seems to be the most r...

Keith Harris was a British ventriloquist, puppeteer, and voice actor who was best known for performing his two characters, Orville the Duck and Cuddles the Monkey. He did his two characters for The Keith Harris Show, audio recordings, and club appearances as well as on the 1991 music video Helping Hand, which featured Fraggle Rock characters. As a kid, Keith assisted his father's ventriloquist acts, then made his own characters as a teenager which he performed at holiday resorts, and eventually, he ended up attracting some television producers' attention. Harris later did pantomime appearances during the late 1990s before he made guest appearances on many shows during the 2000s, like The Weakest Link for example. Despite not doing any Henson or Muppet series, he was one of the interviewees for the BBC documentary I Love Muppets which featured Muppet cast, crew, and celebrities. Even though he was successful during the 1980s-1990s, the end of his well-known show really affected ...

Andrew G. Cooper is a Canadian puppeteer and filmmaker who served as one of the additional performers on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock and is also another non-binary puppeteer. They usually assisted and/or doubled for the main performers' characters on the whole series, including the holiday specials. Another project Andrew puppeteered on is a short called Windchasers, as well as writing, producing, and directing that short. Cooper worked with several other performers on both projects such as Ellis Lalonde, Geneviève Paré, Ali DeRegt, and Anna Cummer. Who knew there would be lots of puppeteers that are non-binary no one knows about until looking up the puppeteer's bio online? Other projects they made include Star Bars: A Brew Hope, Under the Plaza, (exp)lore, and The Robber Bridegroom, to name a few. Andrew G. Cooper also creates theatrical productions across Canada like Frankenstein, The Time Machinist, Starslingers, and The Untold Tales of the Brothers Grimm, to name a few. ...

Jane Pickworth is a British puppeteer, voice actress, and visual artist who has done numerous productions since 1992. She trained with the Jim Henson Company in 2002 and later served as an additional performer on The Furchester Hotel with others like Mikey Brett, Emily Morus-Jones, and Dilpreet Kaur Walia. Jane even puppeteered Tutter for a Bear in the Big Blue House: Surprise Party live show in 2003. Some of the other shows Pickworth puppeteered on include Fun Song Factory, Bad Penny, Roly Mo Live Show, and Litter Things Matter. As a voice actress, her voice can be heard on numerous television and radio shows like Numtums, Love Monster, My Friend Maisy, and many other promos, commercials, and Audible book series. She seems to be so versatile when it comes to creating characters out of her voice. Jane Pickworth also did visual arts for shows like Tweenies, MacDonald's Farm, Doodle Do, and Supertato as either floor manager, art director, or a designer. In addition to performing on t...

Dilpreet Kaur Walia is a British puppeteer and writer for children's TV, both live-action and animated. She served as one of the "puppeteer interns" during the second season of The Furchester Hotel, with Emily Morus-Jones and Lewis McCabe. Dilpreet was also an additional puppeteer on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which shows she does shows for families too. Walia also had a puppet caricature of herself on an episode of The Furchester Hotel, portrayed by one of the Anything Muppets. Apart from those two series, she mostly wrote for children's television like on Millie and Lou, Circle Square, Hey Duggee, and Peppa Pig, to name a few. I wonder why she didn't do any other production with puppetry, as that would help give her more experience to add to her resume. Dilpreet Kaur Walia still did a fine job on Furchester Hotel and Dark Crystal nonetheless, but I hope in the future she'll puppeteer again. She has written for puppetry on Dodge's Pup School, ac...

Susan Solomon is an actress, suit performer, writer, and singer-songwriter who mostly did minor roles on television and film. She also performed the full-bodied Auntie Bumble on The Huggabug Club for the first two seasons, working alongside Ilysia J. Pierce and Bret Shefter. I wonder how Susan managed to voice Auntie Bumble from inside the costume made by the company KCL Productions. Solomon usually had minor roles on screen as seen in Fastlane, Married... with Children, and Raising the Bar, but recurring roles on the show Cory and the Wongnotes. According to her IMDb bio, she traveled across America to do different roles in show business such as portraying Sophie Tucker in Bubbling Brown Sugar on Broadway, following a role in Let My People Come. She later got a gig in Saturday Night Fever before moving to CA to become a recording star then traveling to the Middle East to perform at Inter-Continental Hotel. As well as performing on stage and screen, Susan Solomon also wrote her own one...