All About Muppets

Michael Elizabeth Huston is a puppeteer who only performed for two seasons on Sesame Street. She was uncredited for Season 17 and received credit for Season 18. Michael mostly did minor characters for the show while one of them (Juliet) was recurring. I don't know why Huston did not stay on Sesame Street for long. She seemed like a nice woman and a funny performer, so I'd say that remaining on that show would have made her a well known puppeteer. And there is another thing, why hasn't she done any Muppet projects? Michael Elizabeth Huston could have worked with the legendary puppeteers, but instead she followed her own dreams of show business. Not only is she a puppeteer, but she is also a comedian. Outside of Sesame Street, she is one half of sketch comedy duo "The Babes in the Woods" with another comedian named Cynthia Babak. She was also a founding member of the comedy group known as Chucklehead. Who knew a puppeteer like Michael can be in popular comedy group...

Brian Herring is a British puppeteer and writer who performed in many Henson/Muppet projects. His notable one was Mopatop's Shop where he played Father Mouse and various others. Brian also took over the role of Hubba Hubba on The Hoobs while Mark Jefferis took over the role of Groove. Herring also did two projects involving Muppets, Muppet Treasure Island and a guest appearance on The X Factor. Did he assist on Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, or Animal during that appearance? I've read that he believed that The Muppets Christmas Carol is the best re-creation of the story because of how much heart there is, as well as the fact that because Jim Henson and Richard Hunt died, Statler and Waldorf have appeared as ghosts. Outside of the Muppets and Henson, Brian Herring has done various other productions involving his puppeteering work, starting with Spitting Image. Shows such as The Animal Magic Show (which he was also a writer), Wizadora, and What's Your News?, to name a few. He has ...

Spencer Lott is a puppeteer, director, and puppet creator who has worked on Sesame Street and their variety of projects since 2014. He assisted on select episodes of the 46th Season didn't receive credit until its 49th season. But Spencer's first on-screen credit for Sesame Street was seen in the special Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas as an assistant. Lott was soon given a speaking role, starting with the letter K in a Sesame Street in Communities video before receiving a further speaking role. In 2019, he got the role of Julia's big brother Samuel in autism-related projects and later on the show properly in its 51st season. His website says that he also did a cabbage named Kyle, but it doesn't say when. Spencer Lott has also assisted the Muppets and Fraggle Rock during their Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade appearances. Outside of Sesame Street, he puppeteered on Helpsters and did the Fred Rogers biopic called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Not only was h...

Fred "Garbo" Garver is a performer and juggler who is known for playing Barkley on Sesame Street, taking over the role from Brian Muehl. He also performed as a gorilla named after himself and did the hands of a large monster juggler named Dexter. It must have been very hard for Fred to do the juggling while Kevin Clash was above him performing Dexter's head. Garver seemed like a great man to go on all fours doing a full-bodied dog. In 1984, he also walked in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as a juggling Fraggle, as stated in a source on his Wiki page. It would seem that he is more into juggling than puppeteering since he left Sesame Street after its 24th season. Why aren't there other puppeteers who can juggle like Fred Garver can? Another thing, how come he's been credited by his stage name on the show instead of his real name? I have read that the name "Garbo" is only a stage name coming from an established clown act. Outside of Sesame Street, ...

Amanda Maddock is a puppeteer and puppet builder who performed on Sesame Street for a couple of seasons. The only character she got to perform was Mary from the kid nursery rhyme and song "Mary Had a Little Lamb", but other than that she was mostly an assistant puppeteer. Amanda has also assisted on the Sesame Street Christmas special Elmo's Christmas Countdown and even on Bear in the Big Blue House (as well as playing Lily). For the Muppets, Maddock builds puppets at Puppet Heap and has the job of servicing the main Muppet puppets. It's good that she is working with the Muppets and Sesame Street, but I think that she needs to do more puppeteering than building. I am saying that she should also perform the puppets she has or hasn't built maybe. Outside, Amanda Maddock has puppeteered on The Book of Pooh, Crank Yankers, and LazyTown, all of which she puppeteered her characters to someone else's voice. I've read that in 2006, she appeared in a puppet versio...

Lindsey "Z" Briggs is a puppeteer and puppet builder who has served as Foundation Manager for the Jim Henson Foundation. She did get a chance to perform on Sesame Street in some videos dealing with foster care as a monster foster mother named Dalia. Lindsey also performs Foley in The Sesame Street Podcast with Foley & Friends. Briggs needs to have more experience with Sesame Street, the Muppets, and other shows by the Henson Company. After all, she manages the foundation so she should have a chance to work with Henson Company and Sesame Street more. Outside of Sesame Street and the Jim Henson Foundation, she does have a more major role in life as one of the people who works with the WonderSpark Puppets company. Lindsey Briggs built and performed puppets for various kid shows produced by that company such as SeeMore's Playhouse. Her puppetry was also seen on shows such as Monica's Mixing Bowl, Sheira and Loli's Dittydoodle Works, and Helpsters, to name a few. ...

Judy Sladky is a puppeteer, suit performer, and former champion ice skater/dancer. She is known for her work on Sesame Street as the occasional character, Alice Snuffleupagus. Judy operated both the eyes and mouth of Alice inside the suit and also voiced her. It must have been really hard for Sladky to both operate and voice her character at time. She has also worked on some Holiday on Ice shows, where she performed/skated as Ernie. It's amazing that one of the puppeteers who have performed on Sesame Street is an ice skating/dancing champion, or at least was a champion on ice. Despite her ice talents, Alice Snuffleupagus was the only Muppet she has performed. Outside of Sesame Street, she has played many costumed character roles whether it's on ice or within parades. Her most major role was portraying Snoopy in several ice skating events. Judy also performed Snoopy in a parade scene for a 1996 movie called Jingle All the Way. Other than that she made personal appearances, out ...

Olly Taylor is a British puppeteer who has performed on various Henson projects that were filmed in the United Kingdom. He also performed various Muppets for the film Muppets Most Wanted, mostly performing Thog, a Baby, and cover for Sweetums. Olly also served as an additional puppeteer for That Puppet Game Show, a family friendly show by Henson Alternative. Taylor was given a principal role for the second season of Pajanimals taking over Victor Yerrid's characters. He was also one of the main puppeteers for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance operating various species to actor's voices. Outside he has done various projects for both television and film. For television, Olly Taylor did the reboot of Teletubbies (alternating with Victoria Jane as Noo Noo), The Roly Mo Show, and Bear Behaving Badly, to name a few. For film, he mostly performed in three Star Wars films, two of which are episodes while one is a story about Han Solo. Not only that, but he even performed in various c...

Daniel Seagren is a puppeteer, trained dancer, and puppet designer/builder who has worked with Jim Henson from 1968 to the early 1970s. He performed many background characters for various Muppet specials such as The Frog Prince, The Muppet Musicians of Bremen, and The Great Santa Claus Switch (as various). Daniel has also performed on Sesame Street in Season 1 in which he did various assisting and minor roles, doubling, and filling in for Big Bird when Caroll Spinney was out sick. Seagren has also performed Big Bird on a guest appearance of The Ed Sullivan Show and stood in as him for cast photos. In 1972, he left the Muppets after he did The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. He soon performed the pantomime role of Spider-Man on the first version of The Electric Company, the first live-action depiction of the character. After that, Daniel Seagren became a puppet designer and builder, making the puppets for various shows such as The Adventures of Slim Goodbody in Nutri-City, Miss Peach of Ke...

Paul McGinnis is a puppeteer, filmmaker, songwriter, and husband of Haley Jenkins. Since 2001, he has puppeteered on Sesame Street and on various Muppet and Henson projects. Though he was more of an assistant/background performer rather than a main performer. Paul's notable Sesame Street character is Clem, Karli's foster dad, in a series of outreach videos on foster care. McGinnis has also done several minor characters on Sesame Street too. For Sesame Street, he performed in many videos/DVDs, guest television appearances, and even video games. As for the Muppets, he has performed in feature films, viral videos, guest appearances, and performances live on stage. Not only did Paul McGinnis perform with the Muppets and Sesame Street, but he also did loads of puppetry work in the outside world. His puppetry can be seen on Crank Yankers, The Book of Pooh, Greg the Bunny, It's a Big Big World, and several other productions. He had also made a YouTube video about a robot butler t...

Tracie Mick is a puppeteer who is known for working for Sesame Workshop. She only performed one minor character on Sesame Street for one season. She played a character named Tina who was only seen in one episode. Tracie has also puppeteered on Elmo's Christmas Countdown, two Sesame Street outreach videos, and on Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic. But how come Tracie Mick only provides the puppetry on that show? I feel like she could do a whole lot more characters than just one. Also for several years, Mick has puppeteered on the Sesame Street Float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when the main performers weren't available. Though her outside puppetry was shown even less than from Sesame Workshop. In fact, she only puppeteered a character named Renfield in a short puppet film called Hanker (which Heather Henson was the executive producer). She also puppeteered on a show that nobody knows about, Pahappahooey Island. Tracie shouldn't just stick to puppeteering and n...

Kathleen Kim is a puppeteer and producer who performs Ji-Young and Elena (Julia's mom), on Sesame Street. She attended a Sesame Workshop puppeteer workshop in 2014 and was hired the next year to be an assistant for Sesame Street, where she worked on since. Kathleen's first character was a yawning cat in a Season 48 episode. Kim got her Elena character in 2019 where she performed her in many resource videos. That same year she performed a Sheinelle Jones AM on a Today appearance honoring Sesame Street's 50th anniversary. Her other puppetry credits include Helpsters, All Hallow's Eve (a musical play by Martin P. Robinson), and on a biopic focusing on Mr. Fred Rogers known as A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Kathleen Kim must have been excited to be selected to perform Ji-Young who was first seen in the special See Us Coming Together, where she also served as consulting producer. Her recent outside work was on an episode of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens as a cloaked f...

Haley Jenkins is a puppeteer and the wife of puppeteer, Paul McGinnis. She has performed various characters on Sesame Street (well it was more of background/assistant puppeteering). But Haley did get a few speaking roles within Sesame Street. In a series of outreach videos, Jenkins performed a monster in foster care called Karli before performing her on the show proper in Season 51. She also did the US version of an Afghan Muppet named Zari. She has performed on Sesame Street since 2014, but got her on-screen credit starting in Season 49. Haley Jenkins has also been lead performer of Marvie on Sesame Studios, an original YouTube channel run by Sesame Workshop. She even performed with the Muppets on a musical finale one time. It was on the last episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, she operated Fozzie's right hand during the Muppets performance of "The Weight". Outside of Sesame Street, Haley puppeteered on live shows and guest appearances on talk shows such as Last We...

Mak Wilson is a puppeteer, mime, and filmmaker who has performed on various of Creature Shop and Muppet productions. I don't know if it's true, but his first work was within The Dark Crystal. For Mak's work with the Muppets, he performed on Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets Most Wanted, and on the 1993 Royal Variety Performance. The rest of Wilson's puppetry work is seen on numerous shows by the Henson Company such as Mother Goose Stories, The Animal Show, Mopatop's Shop, and The Ghost of Faffner Hall, to name a few. As for Creature Shop, he did Dinosaurs, The Storyteller, Construction Site (as director and co-producer too), two TMNT films, and more. Now why isn't he doing a lot of directing in the other Henson Company shows? Mak Wilson would have shown the other performers what an excellent filmmaker he is. He even performed on the Sesame Street UK co-production, The Furchester Hotel as Harvey P. Dull and various guest characters during season one. Outside of th...

Artie Esposito is a puppeteer, illustrator, puppet builder, and sculptor. For The Muppet Studio, he has served as the understudy performer for Kermit the Frog. Artie has surprisingly performed in numerous projects for Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, and The Muppets Studio. Esposito mostly played Kermit three times when Steve Whitmire was unavailable. As for Sesame Street, he performed background characters in a Christmas special and puppeteered the characters in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In addition to puppeteering, he has also built puppets for Jim Henson's Creature Shop and worked with Henson Alternative with the Stuffed and Unstrung troupe, on No You Shut Up, and on The Happytime Murders. If Artie Esposito has served as Kermit's understudy, than how come he didn't get the role when Steve Whitmire got fired? Not to mention that he needs more Muppet speaking roles. His outside puppetry and building work was mostly seen in live shows and adult televisi...

Rickey Boyd is a puppeteer, animator, and writer who worked on several productions involving both the Muppets and Sesame Street. Perhaps his most earliest credit with The Jim Henson Company was in a Play-Along Video that was called Sing-Along, Dance-Along, Do-Along. Rickey continued to work with the Muppets on The Jim Henson Hour, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, Muppet*Vision 3D, and The Muppets Wizard of Oz. Boyd has also performed in various Creature Shop projects, such as the TMNT films and on the last two seasons of Dinosaurs. But his most notable character roles was on Big Bag (as Bag and Argyle) and Animal Jam (as Waffle the Cow-Monkey), both taped in Florida. As for his work on Sesame Street, he did many characters on the series itself and in home videos, most notably Sesame Beginnings series as Cookie Monster's Grandma. Apart from puppetry, Rickey Boyd serves as the creative director for Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio. In a relationship with Kevin Clash, he was able to...

Myra Fried is a Canadian actress, puppeteer, writer, and producer who provided the face and voice of Ma Gorg during season one of Fraggle Rock before Cheryl Wagner took over. She also assisted Jerry Nelson on Marjory the Trash Heap, maybe because that Muppet character was very heavy for a person to operate. Why didn't Myra perform more characters on Fraggle Rock like the other performers? After the 1st season, Fried only served as an additional puppeteer from seasons 2-4 before leaving the series altogether. She was also one of the additional performers on the first Sesame Street film, Follow That Bird, with fellow Fraggle Rock performers. After Follow That Bird finished production, she just left the Muppets. It appears that Myra Fried was another one of those puppeteers to perform with Jim Henson for a short period of time (3 years). Outside of puppetry, she mostly did various projects providing her acting and writing skills. She provided her voice on a Star Wars animated series ...

Julie Westwood is a British puppeteer and actress, who worked in both the UK and the US throughout her career. She performed Tula on The Hoobs and did various characters on The Furchester Hotel, both for the whole series. If only Julie did more Henson projects, then she could meet Muppet performers who perform the legendary characters. Though technically Westwood did perform with Sesame Street performers on The Furchester Hotel, mostly Ryan Dillon and David Rudman. Outside of Henson and The Furchester Hotel, she has performed on various other kid shows that she is more well known for doing. Her most notable outside work was on LazyTown, performing Bessie Busybody and doing the puppetry for Pixel on some episodes. Julie Westwood has also lent her voice for It's a Big Big World, performed on Dear Mr. Barker, and puppeteered on The Basil Brush Show. She also acted in certain episodes of Cracker, The Bill, and Emmerdale, her only three live-action, non-puppet shows. She even worked on...

Stacey Gordon is a puppeteer and puppet builder from Arizona who is best known for performing Julia on Sesame Street. She was chosen to perform an autistic Muppet because an interview says that her son has autism since he was seven. Leslie Carrara-Rudolph once met Stacey at a puppetry event, so Carrara put her in contact with the producers during preparations for Julia's illustration to become puppet. After Gordon did some auditions through videos and in person, she got the job. She must have been excited for her dream to work on Sesame Street come true. Since the 47th season, she has performed Julia for many episodes since. Outside of Sesame Street, Stacey Gordon is founder of online site called Puppet Pie where she creates and performs custom puppets and performed in many live shows. When joining Sesame Street, she co-credited Carrara and Pam Arciero with the hire. She must be the only puppeteer to have experience with handling autism, at least, so far. Stacey is also one of the...

Don Austen is a British puppeteer who worked with puppets on both technology and regularly. He has performed in several Muppet and Henson projects filmed in the UK. Don's most notable work with the Muppets was being the suit performer of both The Ghost of Christmas Present and Yet to Come in The Muppets Christmas Carol. Austen also served as one of the many additional UK performers in Muppets Most Wanted. His most notable performance for Henson was on The Hoobs as Iver, who is probably his best known character. As for the Creature Shop, he puppeteered on Labyrinth, The Witches, and The Bear, the former as one of the mice. Don Austen also played Haggis on Me and My Monsters in which he flew to Australia where production was filmed. Outside of Henson and Muppets, he has performed on various other projects, TV ones like Wizadora, The Roly Mo Show, and The Basil Brush Show, to name only a few of them. Film work has placed him on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, some Star Wars films, and Juras...

Rick Lyon is a puppeteer and a puppet creator who has performed on Sesame Street from Seasons 20-33 and has performed on many Henson Company projects from 1987-2002. He did many characters during his time on Sesame Street and was also one of the CG puppeteers for Elmo's World. As for the Muppets, Rick performed on the Muppet Meeting Films, The Jim Henson Hour, and The Muppets at Walt Disney World, to name a few. Lyon also did Bear in the Big Blue House and two Creature Shop films (including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II). Outside of Sesame Street and the Muppets, he has been a more major puppeteer with his own set of characters. It all came from his time with Henson & got inspired to branch out more. Rick Lyon puppeteered on shows like Crank Yankers, The Book of Pooh, Between the Lions, and Binyah Binyah, to name a few. Perhaps his most famous project was performing on Broadway show, Avenue Q, as various characters and puppet designer/builder. Lyon's Puppets is the name ...

John Kennedy (that's John E. Kennedy not John F. Kennedy) is a puppeteer, author, songwriter, and puppet builder. He has performed on various Muppet projects since the early 1990's. John's best known work was seen on The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, where he performed various characters, wrote songs, and served as the puppet captain during its second season. For the Muppets, Kennedy performed Dr. Teeth from 1991-2003 before Bill Barretta took over and also a bunch of minor characters as seen on Kermit's Swamp Years. He also puppeteered two of Frank Oz's characters in Muppets from Space to Oz's voice. As for Sesame Street, he did various minor characters since 1994 and took over the role of The Amazing Mumford since 2018. John Kennedy's other Muppet work can be seen on Henson shows like Telling Stories with Tommie dePaola, Animal Jam, and Pajanimals (shorts version). As for Creature Shop, he did Dinosaurs and Brats of the Lost Nebula. Outside he puppeteered...

Betsy Baytos is dancer, puppeteer, and choreographer who is known for performing on The Muppet Show during its last season. In a couple of episodes during the last season, she performed various minor characters and assisted the main characters. Betsy did a pig and Timmy Monster in one episode and some pigs, a cow, and a singing fish in another episode. But her most notable Muppet character was Betsy Bird. Betsy Bird was created to showcase Baytos' dancing. Baytos has provided the voice, dancing, and choreography during her dance segments (Jim Henson puppeteered her head). After her work with the Muppets, she started to work as an animator for Disney Studios. Betsy's great dancing combined with her animation background has brought her to do some animation choreography. For several animated features, she has staged live-action dancers. Is it difficult for animators to put live-action dancing into animated projects? Betsy has still worked with dance and puppets, like once she h...

Alice Tweedie is an artist, puppeteer, and actress who only performed on one Muppet project within the 1st season of Saturday Night Live. It was on The Land of Gortch as Queen Peuta which she did for over a year. After that, Alice has left the Muppets to pursue her own career. Tweedie later went on to perform on Captain Kangaroo as a puppeteer, actress, and singer for the "Slim Goodbody" segments. Some of her other puppetry credits include Wizzle Falls pilot and The Kid-A-Littles. She even puppeteered with Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop across America, as well as taping many children's videos. Alice Tweedie has also acted within many theatres across New York City as well as countless dinner-theatres across the south. Over the years of her life, she developed a passion for connecting with nature such as caring for animals, growing things, and being outdoors. Nature must have been her inspiration to become an artist for she has made illustrations of pets, bugs, flowers, and peo...

Melissa Creighton is a puppeteer, puppet builder, and the senior production manager of Jim Henson's Creature Shop who is known for working on Sesame Street since its 38th season. But she hasn't really performed a lot of characters on Sesame Street though, she's mostly been in the workshop. The only character Melissa performed was Chester's Mom in a Sesame Street outreach video known as Here For You. Although Creighton didn't perform a lot on Sesame Street, she did perform various characters for Henson Alternative's Stuffed and Unstrung. But apart from that, she spent most of her time within the Creature Shop building puppets. As production manager, she has the job to oversee all aspects of puppet production, on a timeline of different sized projects, while interfacing with clients and fabricators, as stated in her biography. Outside of Sesame Street and the Creature Shop, Melissa Creighton was part of the core team that developed and launched Puppet Heap (the c...

Peter Friedman is a puppeteer and Broadway actor who only worked on The Muppet Show. During the first and third seasons of The Muppet Show, he performed various minor roles and right-handing the main performers. But Peter's notable character on the show was as a Seven-foot-tall Talking Carrot who sang an opera with guest star Gilda Radner. I've read that Friedman also did a brief stint for seasons 8 and 9 on Sesame Street. He performed the back end of Mr. Snuffleupagus and did occasional minor characters. After that, he stopped puppeteering to pursue his acting career. I didn't know this, but I've read that Peter Friedman performed on Broadway before and after his Muppet work. He understudied and played supporting roles in various 70's productions like The Visit and Don Juan (neither of which I ever heard of). Later in the years, he has played leading roles in the show Ragtime (1998) and revival of Twelve Angry Men (2004), and I never seen nor heard of any of these...