Karen Valleau

Karen Valleau is a Canadian puppeteer, puppet designer/builder, illustrator, and set designer who has mostly performed with Muppet projects filmed in Canada. Her work can be seen on Fraggle Rock and on The Jim Henson Hour. For Sesame Street, Karen has assisted in the first Sesame Street film Follow That Bird and played Chaos on its Canadian co-production, Sesame Park. Valleau has also assisted the Muppets in many specials such as The Christmas Toy and A Muppet Family Christmas. During her time with them, she got to work with Jim Henson and Frank Oz, as well as many others. Outside of Muppets, she mainly worked at Radical Sheep Productions with Robert Mills. Karen Valleau designed, built, and performed puppets on The Big Comfy Couch, Ruffus the Dog, and other shows produced by Radical Sheep, as well as illustrated and designed sets. She also puppeteered on Mr. Dressup, Bookmice, and Longhouse Tales. I have read online that she is also married to Robert Mills, which explains why they are paired together a lot. Karen's latest projects include Minivers, Toopati, and an episode of Let's Go Luna. Other puppeteers Valleau performed with include Nikki Tilroe, Nina Keogh, Fred Stinson, and Wende Welch, just to name a few. Let's just hope she'll continue to create and perform puppets for lots more productions in the future, and if not, then she's done a great job. Still it's strange how the Muppet Wiki put her in the Muppet Performer category when she hasn't done a lot of characters. Karen Valleau, you've done great with Henson and the Muppets, as well as Sesame Park. Keep up the terrific outside work and working alongside your friends. And always remember how hard at work you were at Radical Sheep Productions with your husband. Until then, great job Karen. You're a real artiste Valleau!