Posts

Elissa Jenkins

Image
Elissa Jenkins is an Australian puppeteer, performer, writer, and campaigner who is best known for her work at Larrikin Puppets alongside her husband Brett Hansen. She serves as co-puppeteer and human host for the company and together they performed and toured across Queensland and around the world. Elissa was trained to puppeteer by Muppet designer Michael Schupbach at The Puppet Kitchen as other Muppet and Sesame Street performers in New York. Jenkins also writes songs, poetry, puppet shows, scripts, and articles, even maintaining her website/blog since creating it in 2004. Working with Brett at Larrikin, she did numerous productions such as Yompers, some music videos, and Zietta and the Little Larrikins, just to name a few. In 2026, they even got to perform as part of a puppet program for the Make-Believe Magic: The Worlds of the Jim Henson Company exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery. Besides working with her husband, Elissa Jenkins also serves as an environment & human rig...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marianne Mettes

Image
Marianne Mettes is an Australian puppeteer, artist, singer-songwriter, and educator who has been working as a professional since her teenage years. She has travelled, trained, and worked around the world, not to mention was trained by master puppeteers and puppet builders. One of the companies Marianne worked with was Sesame Workshop, according to her website, as well as the National Museum of Australia and many theatres. In addition to doing puppet shows, workshops, and educational programs (Possum's Club), Mettes also created her own short films including Namahey and Woo Pee Woo. Apart from puppetry, she also does lots of artwork, mainly of furry four-legged animals, which I must say look very fascinating on her website. Lastly, she is a talented musician and singer-songwriter where she performs songs she wrote such as Chance to Breath, Time is Passing, Beschuit (Dutch cookie), and many others. Marianne Mettes is certainly one of the most talented Australian artists there is to t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leonie Wall

Image
Leonie Wall is a British actress, puppeteer, singer, and children's entertainer who performs live on stage and on television. Some of the live shows she did include Flat Earth, Treasure Island, and other shows by Panto. As for puppetry, Leonie's only known show is Dodge's Pup School as one of the many additional puppeteers, performing alongside Warrick Brownlow-Pike, Andy Heath, Katherine Smee, Rebecca Nagan, and Phil Fletcher, to name a few. Wall should have more credits listed online so people will know what other projects she acted, sang, or puppeteered on throughout her career. At least on Dodge's Pup School, she got to work with numerous puppeteers that did Henson and Creature Shop productions. She does have an Instagram account where she regularly posts her highlights and such, that's one way how people will get to know her more for what she does. Leonie Wall is probably considered a newcomer performer since she only started doing so a couple years ago, which ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Darren Pickering

Image
Darren Pickering is a Canadian art director, puppet builder and performer, prop master, and set decorator who is known for his work across Canada in many companies. He worked with Lenz Entertainment with the Grogs on shows such as Mr. Meaty, Nanalan, and Big & Small, as a puppeteer and art department guy doing sets and props. Darren also worked on The Doodlebops doing sets, props, and puppet wrangling. In life, Pickering got to work with other puppeteers such as Jason Hopley, Jamie Shannon, Ali J. Eisner, and Frank Meschkuleit, the latter two currently work on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. It's a shame he does not perform on any Henson Company projects shot in Canada, as he was probably too busy working with both Lenz Entertainment and Cookie Jar Entertainment. I personally think he would be perfect to work on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock since the sets and props are so intriguing, but the show hasn't done any new seasons as of now. At least Darren Pickering got to work...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cedwan Hooks

Image
Cedwan Hooks is a puppeteer, suit performer, voice actor, writer, and designer who worked on The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo in the workshop with other Muppet designers. Most of his puppet work was outside on various television shows, films, and stage shows. Some of the TV shows Cedwan did include Helpsters, Donkey Hodie, Moon and Me, and Albie's Elevator, to name a few. As for film work, Hooks did The Curse of Bridge Hollow and Buddy, the latter as a puppeteer, fabricator, and suit performer and coach. He also lent his voice to a few shows such as Elf on the Shelf for example. He even got to work at numerous theme parks such as The DreamWorks Experience, 20th Century Fox World, and Sharden Inc, as well as be in-suit for movie appearances. Other puppeteers Cedwan Hooks got to work with in his career include Christopher Hayes, Jimmica Collins, Tim Lagasse, Rachel Appelbaum, and more. All that training with the Jim Henson Company really paid off as he's now a professional when it...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brian T. Carson

Image
Brian T. Carson is a puppeteer, puppet builder, and suit performer who is best known for being a residence performer at the Museum of the Moving Image. He is also known for working with the puppet company Creatures Inspired and performing his own puppet creations (ex. Silly Willy) for events. I'll bet Brian felt honored when he was given the job of a puppeteer in residence at MOMI since it's literally located next to the Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street is taped. Carson met famous Muppet performers over the years and still does to this day, like Stacey Gordon, Brandon Smith, Sebastiano Ricci, and in the past, he even met Caroll Spinney when the latter was still alive. Outside of the MOMI, he got to perform Tigger for a while on the Off-Broadway show version of Winnie the Pooh. But it's not every day you get to see a resident puppeteer in a museum, I know because I saw him myself recently at one of the Jim Henson 90th birthday events. Anyway, Brian T. Carson has ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Avery Jones

Image
Avery Jones is a puppeteer and puppet builder who is best known for puppeteering Slappy the Dummy in the Goosebumps film series as well as voicing the character for appearances. On Sesame Street, he mostly served as an uncredited additional performer during the 46th season of the show. Avery is also best known for designing, building, and performing puppets and costumes for Big Heater Media, as well as writing, graphic designing, and editing. The puppets Jones made can be seen across the country, on television, and in theaters both community and regional, as well as on a podcast. Some of the other TV shows he worked on, besides Sesame Street, include The Mitchi & Vlad Show, Lonnie's Olympic Journey, and many other shows. As for theatre, he worked at Springer Opera House Arts Association, New Horizon Community Theatre, Aubern Area Community Theatre, and Lagrange Society for the Performing Arts. Avery Jones is probably one of the busiest people in show business considering all of...
Post a Comment
Read more