Don Austen

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 Jurassic World Domination. I wonder if Don liked doing either puppetry in a regular style or in a technical style. And did Austen have any difficulty performing Iver in on-location segments of The Hoobs? Other puppeteers he worked with include John Eccleston, Heath McIvor, Rob Tygner, and Sean Masterson, to name a few. His latest Creature Shop project was on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance as one of the many additional puppeteers. Don Austen, you were wonderful on The Hoobs and you've done great assisting the Muppets on their many projects. I hope you'll keep puppeteering in the UK and maybe in Australia again someday. I hope things weren't too complicated for you over the years of your performance. Until then, excellent performance Don. You're never too fussy Austen!