All About Muppets

Donna Kimball is a puppeteer, writer, and voice actress who worked with The Jim Henson Company and the Muppets several times. Her work with Henson was shown on various shows like Pajanimals, Sid the Science Kid, and Splash & Bubbles. Donna's work can also be seen with Henson Alternative, performing on Puppet Up, Neil's Puppet Dreams, and The Happytime Murders. Since 2012, Kimball replaced Kathryn Mullen as Mokey Fraggle starting with a music video. She also performed her for a Puppets for Puppetry event in 2016, and the Fraggle Rock: Rock On! shorts. For Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, not only did she do Mokey, but she also took on the roles of Cotterpin Doozer and Storyteller Fraggle. Recently, Donna Kimball assisted the Muppets on The Muppets Mayhem, while her Henson shows lately were Earth to Ned, Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time, and Slumberkins. Her outside work can be seen on Greg the Bunny, Jellybean Jungle, and Crank Yankers, just to name a few. She even worked with...

Tim Lagasse is a puppeteer, puppet designer/builder, and director who is known for performing on various stations for many years. He worked as an additional performer for the Muppets on A Muppet Christmas, The Muppets (2015) and live at the Hollywood Bowl and O2 Arena. For Sesame Street, Tim only worked on that show occasionally, like on The Not-Too-Late-Show with Elmo. Lagasse got to do characters on Bear in the Big Blue House, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and on The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell. Other puppeteers he performed with over the years have included Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, James Godwin, Peter Linz, and Heather Asch. He also makes puppets at Hairy Edge Productions with Martin P. Robinson, which is pretty impressive I must say. Tim Lagasse had more prominent roles on non-Henson shows, possibly over 30, starting with Allegra's Window. His best known shows have included Between the Lions, Oobi, and Crash & Bernstein, while others include Blue's Room...

Bob Payne is a puppeteer and a puppet creator who was an old college friend of Jim Henson and his wife Jane Henson. His first work with the Muppets was puppeteering on Sam and Friends. It was like an entire decade ago that Bob performed with Henson. His work was late seen on The Muppet Show and on Sesame Street, creating and occasionally performing puppets. On Sesame Street, Payne was the first Telly Monster and other characters for two seasons. For the Muppets, Bob served as a guest puppeteer for The Muppet Show and assisted in the first two films, The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper. His last known puppetry work was in the Creature Shop film, The Dark Crystal as one of the Skeksis (lip-syncing to John Baddeley's voice). His last puppet building work was on Fraggle Rock. I have no idea what happened to him after that, but I hope he's okay. And I especially hope that he heard about Jim Henson's death. Bob Payne is like the first puppeteer to ever work with him. H...

Michael Earl was a puppeteer, puppet creator, voice actor, singer/songwriter, and a writer who worked on several Muppet and non-Muppet productions. His most notable work was on Sesame Street as the second Mr. Snuffleupagus, the first Forgetful Jones, and various other characters. I read that Michael's favorite character to perform on Sesame Street was Slimey. Earl had also worked with the Muppets as an additional puppeteer on The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together, to name a few. His Henson Company work was shown on The Dark Crystal, Little Muppet Monsters and two episodes of Dinosaurs. He even coached many TV and film puppeteers over the years such as Camille Bonora, James Murray, Betsy Baytos, and more. Outside of Sesame Street and the Muppets, Michael Earl has performed on various projects like Funnybones, The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth, Men in Black II, and Bil Baird's Marionettes, to name a few. As well as ...

Jennifer Barnhart is a puppeteer, actress, and director who has performed on Sesame Street since she joined in Season 32. She is also one of those left-handed puppeteers like Louise Gold, Megan Piphus, and Billy Barkhurst, to name a few. Jennifer did various characters before inheriting the roles of Mama Bear, Gladys the Cow, and Granny Bird over the years. Barnhart has also taken over the role of Zoe since the 46th season, after Fran Brill retired. She also recorded vocals for many songs, appeared on-screen as Charlie's mother, and directed material related to the series. She even performed on Bear in the Big Blue House in Season 4 and also assisted the Muppets on the last episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Outside of Sesame Street and Bear, Jennifer Barnhart started her puppetry career on Once Upon a Tree, and later did her best known project, Between the Lions (as a puppeteer and voice actress). She also did Johnny and the Sprites, Oobi, and The Book of Pooh, to name a fe...

Alison Mork is a puppeteer who has worked on various Muppet and Henson productions. It was mainly during the 1990s and 2000s. Alison did perform characters on Sesame Street from Season 23-25 and in some of the Muppet Meeting Films. Mork was also one of the additional performers for The Muppets, Bear in the Big Blue House, CityKids, and other Henson shows. She seems to have a more principle role for Henson Alternative as seen in Puppet Up and Alt/Reality. It seemed she spent some time on Sesame Street when they were low on female puppeteers. Outside of Henson & Muppets, Alison Mork began her TV puppet career on Pee-Wee's Playhouse as many characters. She later performed on The Puzzle Place (in Season 1) and was supporting puppeteer on Greg the Bunny, Crank Yankers, and The Mr. Potato Head Show. Other puppeteers she worked with include Kevin Carlson, Wayne White, Noel MacNeal, and Carmen Osbahr, to name a few. It appears that Alison is pretty good with both kids and adults which...

Cheryl Blaylock is a puppeteer, puppet creator, and costume designer who worked on Sesame Street during the early 1980's. She designed and built various Muppets for Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and other Henson productions. Cheryl also puppeteered on Sesame Street and Muppets but uncredited for the former while credited for the latter. It wasn't fair for Blaylock to never have credit puppeteering on Sesame Street itself, and instead on home videos. Outside of Sesame Street and the Muppets, she puppeteered on many shows like Eureeka's Castle (also wrote), The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth, Binyah Binyah, and Blue's Room while doing additional puppetry on Between the Lions and Oobi. To be honest, when she is puppeteering her characters, they almost all sound the same, like she can only do one voice. I didn't know this, but I read that Cheryl Blaylock made a documentary written, produced, and directed by her. There is a lot of things about puppeteers that nobody kno...

Tyler Bunch is a puppeteer, voice actor, and songwriter who is best known for Sesame Street and Bear in the Big Blue House. He started out as a background puppeteer for Sesame Street before returning in the mid 2000's as a regular. Tyler's main character on the show was inheriting the role of Elmo's dad, Louie who was originally performed by Bill Barretta. Bunch also performed other characters such as Ricardo (until 2022 when Andrew A. Cano took over the role). I might have thought he became a star from Sesame Street, but it turns out that his "big break" actually came with Bear in the Big Blue House, where he starred as Treelo, Pop, Doc Hogg, and others. He also co-wrote several rap songs on the show (with Peter Lurye and Tony Fennell) which were mostly performed by Pip & Pop. Tyler Bunch even worked with the Muppets numerous times like in A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa, The Muppets (2015), and several movies such as Muppets Most Wanted. His outside wo...

Drew Massey is a puppeteer, voice actor, and filmmaker who performed with the Muppets and Henson Company since the early 1990's. He first started out as an additional puppeteer for Dinosaurs, Muppet Classic Theater, and Muppets Tonight before getting starring roles. Drew also assisted Sesame Street on the special Elmopalooza and The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo (season 2 music videos). But Massey's most major Muppet production was performing Statler and others on the Muppet online series, From the Balcony. His other known work was mainly on Henson Alternative projects such as No You Shut Up and The Happytime Murders. Outside of the Muppets and Henson Company, he performed on many other projects, often collaborating with Victor Yerrid. Drew Massey's  outside projects began on The Puzzle Place before leading up to Cousin Skeeter, Greg the Bunny, Crank Yankers, Mutt & Stuff, and more. Other puppeteers he worked with, in addition to Yerrid, include Allan Trautman, Colleen S...

Victor Yerrid is puppeteer, voice actor, and director who is known in the Muppet world as Waldorf and other characters in the online series From the Balcony. He didn't start puppeteering with the Muppets, he started out in the Muppet Workshop on Muppet from Space, assisting Ed Christie. Victor also did many Henson shows such as Bear in the Big Blue House, Pajanimals, and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, to name a few. Yerrid has mainly done Henson Alternative productions like Puppet Up, No You Shut Up, and the film The Happytime Murders. Outside of the Muppets & Henson, he puppeteered on various TV and online videos, teaming up with Drew Massey. His puppetry placed him on Greg the Bunny, The Book of Pooh, Crank Yankers, and Mutt & Stuff, to name a few. Victor Yerrid also voice acted on many projects such as Robot Chicken, MAD, Drawn Together, and several video games. On YouTube, I saw a channel in which he performed in videos and also wrote, produced, and directed them...