All About Muppets

John Simmit is a British actor, stand-up comedian, and suit performer who is best known for being the original performer of Dipsy on Teletubbies from 1997-2001. He worked alongside Nikky Smedley, Pui Fan Lee, Dave Thompson, and Simon Shelton who portrayed the other Teletubbies. John also worked with puppeteer Mark Dean who was the original Noo-Noo as well as Robin Stevens and Andrew Davenport who were crew members. Simmit probably had a hard time moving around in that heavy costume because he could only see out through the mouth and each Teletubby costume has mechanisms in the arms that control the eyes and mouths. In addition to being on that show, he also acted out of suit on many television shows such as The Real McCoy, The Gadget Show, and The Big Fat Quiz of the '90s. As well as acting, he does comedy, mostly producing through Upfront Comedy. For 25 years, John Simmit has put together comedy shows into UK theatres nationwide, as well as two major shows within two states in the...

Bill Traetta is a puppeteer and costumer who did the former for television and the latter for feature films in the science fiction genre. He puppeteered on McDonaldland, Jingle All the Way, and The Mr. Potato Head Show, as well as being assistant puppet master for the latter. Bill worked with many puppeteers such as Terry Castillo, Mark Bryan Wilson, and Tony Urbano, as well as voice actress Debra Wilson. Traetta has not done any puppetry projects since Mr. Potato Head ended after only one season. As for his costuming credits, he did many films such as Man of Steel, Star Trek Into Darkness, Ghost of Mars, and even Obi-Wan Kenobi, though the latter was a mini-series. It's a shame there's no image of the person himself, but he did get interviewed in a YouTube video which shows his face perfectly. Even though Bill Traetta never worked on any Henson Company or Muppet projects, he still worked with several Muppet performers on some of the shows mentioned above. I hope he managed to ...

Dave Privett is a puppeteer, puppet designer/builder, writer, and set designer who is best known for his work on the Baby Einstein video series. He is also the founder of the puppet company PlaySoup alongside his wife June Privett. In addition to Baby Einstein, Dave was also a puppeteer and builder at Animax Designs, mostly performing on the Trollies video series and playing Snowbird the Penguin. Privett also worked with a few Henson people at Animax such as Jeff Conover, Eddie May, and Chuck Fawcett, as well as Kim Snodgrass and Steve Pennington too. He may not have done any Henson or Sesame Street projects, but he still worked on videos suitable for babies and children. Upon turning over PlaySoup to the new owners, Kristofer and Amanda Sommerfeld, he now works for DMPCreative and sold his puppet creations online. Other non-Baby Einstein production Dave Privett and his wife did was the Christian video series Baby Faith and the sign-language video series Baby Signs, two series made for...

Frank Cesario is a puppeteer, puppet builder, costume designer, and voice actor who is best known for doing all of those skills on Donkey Hodie. He is also known for his work on the web series DillonGale and on the live show adaptation of Winnie the Pooh. In addition to puppeteering on Donkey Hodie and DillonGale, Frank also puppeteered on a project called Monkey's Magic Merry Go Round. Cesario seems to be very busy with Spiffy Pictures, working with David Rudman and other Muppet performers such as Haley Jenkins, Frankie Cordero, and Stephanie D'Abruzzo, to name a few. With DillonGale, he built and performed puppets with Ryan Dillon and Mark Gale, two other Muppet performers on Sesame Street. In addition, he even built and wrangled many puppets for productions by Duolingo, Ronald McDonald House, and many others. With all of those projects Frank Cesario did over the years, maybe someday he'll get a job on Sesame Street building, wrangling, and/or performing puppets. He even ...

Indushree Raveendra is an Indian ventriloquist, impressionist, and experimentalist who is known for her appearances on Indian television. She was a contestant on India's Got Talent and Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega and appeared as a guest on That's My Job. Indushree also performed 68 live shows on Zee Kannada with one of her puppet characters named Dinku as well as her other character Grandpa. In 2010, Raveendra even got to perform an act with a 10-feet tall puppet named Mahishasura at the festival of Dussehra. It's a shame that with all of those shows she appeared on, she never really puppeteered on the Indian co-production of Sesame Street, Gali Gali Sim Sim. She could've performed with numerous other Indian puppeteers such as Ghazel Javed, Sangya Ojha, and Babita Kurdiya Rachoya. Indushree Raveendra probably wasn't old enough to do a show like that when it first began, though she could've joined the show when she got her master's degree. On a posi...

Cynthia Von Orthal is a puppeteer, puppet designer, and actress who is best known for running her own company called VonOrthal Puppets. A podcast interview stated that she also puppeteered on Curious Buddies, working alongside Frankie Cordero and David Rudman. Cynthia performed in numerous theaters in Chicago such as Victory Gardens, The Goodman Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. When Orthal founded her company, she's been creating and performing puppets for children and adults since then. She also designs and builds large scale puppets for many companies like Redmoon, The Joffrey Ballet, CityLit Theater, and Lifeline Theatre Company. Her company also toured extensively across South and Central America from Bolivia to Machu Picchu to Guatemala, doing many shows. Cynthia Von Orthal has also acted on-screen for some television shows and films such as Roseanne, Chicago P.D., Alternate Universe: A Rescue Mission, and Diagnosis Trauma. It's a shame that she hasn't worked ...