Noel MacNeal

Noel MacNeal is a puppeteer, writer, and director who is best known for performing the title character on Bear in the Big Blue House. He also performed various characters on Sesame Street, including many Snuffleupaguses such as Sally Snuffleupagus. I've read that the very first Muppet that Noel performed was a cashier in a Sesame Street sketch. For the Muppets, MacNeal has mainly performed within Little Muppet Monsters, Muppet Meeting Films, and A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa (where he played Sweetums). Outside of Sesame Street and Bear, he performed on a variety of shows such as Eureeka's Castle, The Puzzle Place, and Oobi, his best known ones. Other puppet credits include Blue's Room, The Book of Pooh, and Between the Lions (replacing Anthony Asbury). Noel MacNeal also contributed scripts for The Magic School Bus and Cyberchase, as well as two shows mentioned above. I have read that he got to puppeteer Big Bird several times such as a scene in Follow That Bird and for numerous Macy's Thanksgiving parades. His latest Muppet work was puppeteering Sweetums to Matt Vogel's pre-recorded vocals when the Muppets performed at the Hollywood Bowl and O2 Arena. Noel is still doing Sesame Street today as both a performer and director, and he also reprised the role of Bear (in live-hand puppet form) for appearances. MacNeal must have really enjoyed performing, writing, and directing on Bear in the Big Blue House along with Peter Linz, Vicki Kenderes-Eibner, and Tyler Bunch. I hope he'll continue performing Bear for new content videos. Not to mention, continue directing and performing on Sesame Street. Noel MacNeal, you've done a great job puppeteering for TV and you still are doing so today. Bear in the Big Blue House was definitely your best show. Be very proud to become one of the directors on Sesame Street. Awesome job Noel. "You smell this good all the time" MacNeal!