All About Muppets

Emma de Vries is an Australian puppeteer who performed in an episode of Farscape and on Bambaloo as Portia the Bird. The latter was enough to put her in the Muppet performer category on the Muppet Wiki. Emma could have also assisted on Me and My Monsters (another Henson Company show) but she was probably too busy to do so. Vries has been puppeteering since 1993 and her puppetry outside is way more popular for fans. Her outside projects include The Ferals, Bananas in Pyjamas, The Upside-Down Show, and Jay's Jungle, to name a few. Her best known character was Mixy from The Ferals, in fact, her character had her own program block which introduces Sesame Street and shows by Henson in Australia. It would appear that Emma de Vries really knows how to entertain children across Australia whether in their youth or their pre-teen area. She also worked with other puppeteers such as Mal Heap, Terry Ryan, David Collins, and Rosalyn Oades, to name a few. Nobody seems to know what happened to he...

Caroly Wilcox was a puppeteer and puppet designer/builder who has worked in the Muppet Workshop from 1969 to 1990. She started out as a puppeteer for various productions such as Sesame Street, The Great Santa Claus Switch, The Muppet Movie, and a few other projects. As a builder, Caroly designed and built puppets for many years on various projects such as The Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock, to name only a few. Wilcox has been viewed as the expert Muppet maker; and she trained many of the Muppet builders who've worked in the shop. She also had a variety of jobs within the Muppet Workshop like adding annotations to character sketches, noting how a puppet should be operated, and coordinating the parachute drop in The Great Muppet Caper. It appears that she really knows how to make puppets more life-like and how to coordinate the builders to make Muppet look real. For Sesame Street, Caroly Wilcox has served as the workshop supervisor for many seasons until her retirement in ...

Sally Preisig is a puppeteer, puppet designer/builder, and costume creator who only performed with the Muppets on The Muppets Christmas Carol. And she wasn't even performing a character for that project, she was only assisting. Sally could have worked on more projects with the Muppets when they were in the UK. Preisig could have assisted them with Muppet Treasure Island and Muppets Most Wanted and other Henson projects, but she was too busy outside. Outside of the Muppets, she's the founder of the puppet company Mimic Productions, which opened in 1988. Her company is specialized in puppets, puppeteering, character costumes, mascots, and props for various video and theatre use. Within the company, Sally Preisig built the Star Puppet for PBS Sprout's The Goodnight Show. Her numerous TV puppet credits include Tweenies, The Shiny Show, Playdays (as Peggy Patch), and Fun Song Factory, to name a few. She seems to be one of the busiest puppet company owners since lots of performe...

Bruce Connelly is an actor, puppeteer, and mime who is best known for performing Barkley on Sesame Street and its related productions since 1993. He has also done the Bozark puppet in Old Dogs, assisted with minor puppets, and did a slice of bread squeezing Wayne Brady. Bruce was selected by his friend Michelan Sisti to audition on Sesame Street since Michelan wanted to stay in Los Angeles. I have read that Connelly responded in an interview that he 'understood dogs' a strange reason which won him the role of Barkley. He also said that the people could teach him how to work a costume but nobody can teach someone how a dog's mind worked. He does have a strange way of answering a question on how he auditioned, then again I'll bet other have done so too. Outside of Sesame Street, Bruce Connelly has puppeteered on two other projects, an ABC Weekend Special and The Puzzle Place. Barkley stopped making new appearances after the 43rd season which meant the performer stopped a...

Michelan Sisti is a puppeteer, suit performer, and musician who performed many full-bodied suits in various Jim Henson Creature Shop productions. His height has given him some unusual roles, like the body of Michaelangelo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its sequel. Following those two films, he worked on the show Dinosaurs, where he did the body of Charlene Sinclair and other dinosaurs, the body and voice of Sid, and appearing as various cavepeople. How does Sisti voice his character from within the suit? He must be wearing a microphone or something. Michelan later puppeteered various roles for the Muppets like a hang glider in Things That Fly, some food in The Muppets, and assisted in many projects featuring the Muppets. In 1993, he was offered to work on Sesame Street as the role of Barkley. He chose to stay in Los Angeles but recommended his friend Bruce Connelly instead. He and Bruce both worked in a mime company called "ORKIDSTRA." Michelan Sisti would probably be...

David Barclay is a puppeteer, animatronic supervisor, puppet builder, and filmmaker. He has several years of experience in Muppet and Henson projects. For the Muppets, David's most notable work was performing Sprocket for multiple international co-productions of Fraggle Rock. He has also assisted the Muppets for various films, TV specials, and two shows live. As for his work in the Creature Shop he's built and performed puppets for The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Storyteller, and various other productions. Barclay even supplied visual effects for a Sesame Street 4-D attraction. David Barclay is one heck of a guy to work with realistic puppets and animatronic characters. Outside of the Muppets and Henson, he has built and performed on various other projects. He mostly performed in films such as Little Shop of Horrors, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. David has even worked in two Star Wars movies. For The Empire Strikes Back, he was one of the builde...

Abby Hadfield is a stage actress and puppeteer who was one of the three women that auditioned to be a part of The Muppet Show. Unlike Richenda Carey (the woman who preceded her), Abby performed the characters in some of her segments while Richenda only voiced her character. She did about four Muppets for an episode of The Muppet Show, including Zelda Rose. She was another puppeteer who only performed with the Muppets only once. What's different between Hadfield and all the other one-time female puppeteers, is that she performed more than one character for a single episode. She lost the audition to Louise Gold who came after her, but I guess she didn't mind about losing the audition for somebody else. Before she auditioned for The Muppet Show, Abby Hadfield was an opera singer from 1963 to 1971 with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. I never knew there was a puppeteer who also sings in many different operas. Some of the operas she performed in includes Edith, The Pirates of ...

Rhonda Hansome is a stand up comic and actress whose only work with the Muppets was as Vazh in the first Land of Gortch segment on Saturday Night Live. She didn't have any experience in puppetry so she performed the part for only one time before Fran Brill took over. Rhonda may have no puppeteering experience, but that doesn't mean she couldn't learn. Hansome has been trained to puppeteer with the Muppets by Jim Henson and Frank Oz prior to taping that sketch. Like her, lots of puppeteers have no puppetry experience for the first time, so they have to be trained in order to become the puppeteers they are today. At least she got to keep herself active in film and television. Rhonda Hansome appeared in small roles for a number of films, such as Pretty Woman. During the 1980's, she performed stand-up at various comedy clubs and still does so today. I wish she would have done more with the Muppets, but I guess she was happier doing comedy than puppetry. Although, Rhonda so...

Annie Peterle is a puppeteer who has only performed in two Sesame Street projects. She was one of the additional puppeteers for The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, and performs on the show itself starting with the 39th Season. She only got to play one character for that show, a hatcheck girl for one episode. Why doesn't Annie perform other characters for Sesame Street? She seems to be another girl puppeteer who is very talented with kids. Peterle did do some puppetry outside of Sesame Street. She was a lead puppeteer for a movie called The Lady from Sockholm which features sock puppets in a film noir setting. She has also puppeteered on two shows, Count on It and Salsa. Annie Peterle is just another female puppeteer who hasn't done a lot of puppeteering. Recently she puppeteered on a short called Shadow Puppets and ever since then, it's unknown on where she is or what she's doing. I only hope that Annie would go back to working for Sesame Street and maybe perform m...

Brett O'Quinn is a puppeteer with the Walt Disney Company, who performed with the Muppets in a few productions. He performed Gonzo and the Snowths in a past Disney Cruise Lines show called Muppets Ahoy when Dave Goelz wasn't available. He also assisted the Muppets for the D23 Expo, a holiday special with Lady Gaga, and in Muppets Most Wanted. Brett was even a member of Puppet Up improv class and worked in two Muppet Workshops and one Sesame Street Workshop. Outside of the Muppets, O'Quinn has been a cast member at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks where he puppeteered in several different shows. Shows like The Legend of The Lion King, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Bear in the Big Blue House: Live on Stage, and many more. Other projects he worked on was an episode of The Simpsons, Zip-A-Gang, and Juno Baby. It looks like Brett is very lucky to be a Walt Disney performer for several different shows. But why doesn't he perform other Muppets like he did on...

Grant Baciocco is a puppeteer and producer who has hosted The Jim Henson Company Podcast. As a puppeteer, Grant performed in a 2004 pilot called America's Next Muppet playing a female character named Princess Sabrina. He is also a member of the Puppet Up troupe where he puppeteered and has filled in as host when Patrick Bristow wasn't available. In 2010, Grant served as both the announcer and the producer for something called Wilson & Ditch: Digging America and was one of the people who performed on Ketchup with the Hot Dogs. Recently, Baciocco served as an additional puppeteer for The Happytime Murders working with the legendary puppeteers like Bill Barretta. Outside of the Muppets and Henson, he has puppeteered on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Lost Nomads, and U2's music video version of Missed (and that's only to name a few). Why did Grant Baciocco only do one character when working with the Muppets? He could have performed thousands of other characters for th...

Ed Christie is a puppet designer/builder and puppeteer who worked with Sesame Street and Henson Associates since he had an internship back in 1978. In the early 1980's, Ed served as a performer for both the Muppets and Sesame Street. He performed a few characters on Sesame Street while he was an additional performer for The Muppet Show, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and two Sesame Street videos. Christie has spent years of learning Muppet design techniques and building classic characters before he was promoted to Muppet Supervisor in charge on Sesame Street. Christie later got another promotion to becoming Vice President/NY Muppet Workshop Supervisor, a very big promotion. He must have been the luckiest designer and builder to receive the job of being a supervisor. But in 2004, he left Henson and got contracted by Sesame Workshop where he's currently designing characters for the normal Sesame Street and Sesame Street International. All around the world, he has designed the Mup...

Rollie Krewson is a puppet builder and puppeteer who's known for working in the Muppet Workshop building puppets for The Muppets, Sesame Street, and other Henson Company shows. Since arriving in the mid-1970s, she contributed to almost every Henson project. Rollie also performed small roles in the 1970s and 1980s on The Muppet Show (and its 2nd pilot), a Sesame Street episode, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. Krewson has been awarded 7 Emmy Awards based on her work on Sesame Street as well as being nominated for other Henson productions. Outside of the Muppets, Henson, and Sesame Street, she built puppets for Blue's Room and projects by Spiffy Pictures, like Jack's Big Music Show and Donkey Hodie. It's amazing how one puppet builder can contribute to a lot of projects both in and out. In addition to Sesame Street and The Muppets, Rollie Krewson did numerous Henson Company projects such as Fraggle Rock, The Animal Show, Big Bag, and The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, to ...

Lisa Waltz is an actress whose only Muppet work was on the pilot of Puppetman where she acted as puppeteer Holly. She also performed two dragon characters on that show, and like Fred Newman, that was the only project that she puppeteered on. After that pilot, Lisa has mostly been an on-screen actress for various films and television shows. Waltz's television shows include My So-Called Life, Can't Hurry Love, The Agency, and more. As for film, she acted in Starry Night, The Odd Couple II, Pet Semetary II, and Brighton Beach Memoirs, just to name a few. But how come she never performed any puppets again because I thought she did well performing Muppet characters on Puppetman. Lisa Waltz seemed to be more interested in acting since she's done it more often than puppeteering. But at least she got to work alongside Richard Hunt on Puppetman back in 1987. She's still acting on many television series today as seen on Fear of the Walking Dead: Flight 462, For the People, and S...

Peggy Etra is an actress and puppeteer who mostly worked with Henson Alternative as a member of the Puppet Up troupe. She also performed a panelist for No You Shut Up and has served as an additional puppeteer for The Happytime Murders and Earth to Ned. Peggy's only known Muppet work was being the puppeteer of Camilla the Chicken for a commercial promoting Facebook Portal. Etra seemed to be a talented young woman and puppeteering for Puppet Up has her experienced with audiences. Hence, she should have worked with the Muppets when they did their show at the Hollywood Bowl and the O2 Arena. She has also worked in a series of shorts called Ketchup with the Hot Dogs, featuring Hot Dogs from the Puppet Up shows. Outside of Henson Alternative, Peggy Etra has acted in a number of TV shows and feature films. She puppeteered on Kidding, Adam Ruins Everything, and The Barbarian and the Troll, while the others had her do some acting on camera instead of under a puppet. I think that she is eit...

Andy Stone is a puppeteer and suit performer who's been performing with the Muppets and Sesame Street on several productions. For the Muppets, he has been an additional puppeteer in Muppets from Space, Kermit's Swamp Years, and The Muppets (2011). Andy also assisted on Sesame Street projects such as The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, CinderElmo, and Elmo's Christmas Countdown. Stone has even puppeteered in a 4-D film and movie policy ad in the same franchise. He seems to be a pro at working with both Sesame Street and the Muppets, but he's only done puppetry with them and has not received a character. The only time he did perform a character for the Henson Company was on Animal Jam (as DJ 3), paired with John Kennedy and John Tartaglia. Outside, of Animal Jam and Muppet-style productions, Andy Stone doesn't have a lot of info about himself, but should. His outside puppetry put him in Super Duper Supermarket Day and Johnny and the Sprites. I've read online th...

Billy Barkhurst is a puppeteer whose only known Muppet character was being the third performer of Ernie on Sesame Street. In 2009, he started voicing Ernie for various live stage shows. Billy later took over as Ernie from Steve Whitmire in 2014 both puppeteering and voicing him. Barkhurst is also left-handed, which makes his Ernie different from Ernie's other performers. He has only been an additional puppeteer for a couple of times on Sesame Street. And there's another thing, he needs to perform with the Muppets as well because even though he's known for performing Ernie, more characters will make him more famous than he ever was. The last I've heard of Billy Barkhurst was after Season 48, when he left Sesame Street and Ernie was handed over to Peter Linz a year earlier. Outside of Sesame Street, I've read that he has done more characters than I think he did. He performed hand puppets, marionettes, and animatronics for various projects, including the ever popular ...

Marcus Clarke is a puppeteer, actor, and writer who's been nominated for editing his script work. He worked on several Henson projects such as The Storyteller, Monster Maker (a special from The Jim Henson Hour) and on the Edinburgh performance of Puppet Up. As for the Muppets, he puppeteered with them on three feature films taped in London, those are The Muppets Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, and Muppets Most Wanted. In 1998, Clarke performed Bag in the UK version of the show Big Bag. Marcus is also the husband of puppeteer Helena Smee, who together made the puppet company Hands Up Puppets. Together they built and performed puppets for over fifty children's TV series, like A House Like That, Patch and Friends, and SMarteenies (just to name a few). Marcus is probably on of the luckiest puppeteers to have a company that made tons of shows. Recently, Clarke has assisted the main puppeteers for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, along with his wife being coordinated...

Shari Weiser is a midget suit performer who has performed once with the Muppets, Sesame Street, and the Creature Shop. For the Muppets, she did the full-body shots of the Unemployed Bear for the special Free to Be... a Family while Kevin Clash did the puppet shots. For Sesame Street, Weiser got to perform with them in the film Follow That Bird performing Marie Dodo of the Dodo family. But perhaps Shari's best known work was doing the body of Hoggle for Labyrinth while the face/voice was provided by Brian Henson. I wonder if Shari Weiser has had any difficulty breathing from within the suits, because it can get pretty hot in there. Her only outside work was being a suit performer for a movie called Babes in Toyland probably as a doll in close up shots. I believe Shari's last work with the Muppets was on a Christmas special called Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree. I don't know what has happened to Weiser since, but I'll bet she is feeling relieved from being a suit pe...

Lesa Gillespie is a Northern-Irish actress and puppeteer who did two international co-productions of Sesame Street, Sesame Tree and The Furchester Hotel. For Sesame Tree, she played the main character Hilda while she gained more characters when working on The Furchester Hotel. Lesa has not only did the shared role of Isabel but she had the chance to perform various guests. Gillespie was also assistant puppeteer on Pajanimals and additional performer on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. She should have assisted with the Muppets on Muppets Most Wanted since it was shot in the UK. She worked with Sesame Street and Henson Company, why not do a Muppet project in Ireland, London, or anywhere in Europe. Outside of Sesame Street and Henson, Lesa Gillespie has puppeteered on many other projects like Big City Park, Big and Small, and Strange Hill High. As for her acting credit, she's been an actress on various theatre shows (like Yerma and Oklahoma!) and short films like The Deal. Some o...

Colleen Smith is a puppeteer, actress, and comedian who worked on several Jim Henson Company projects. As for the Muppets, she was an uncredited puppeteer on The Muppets and but later received credit for assisting on Muppets Haunted Mansion. Colleen's Creature Shop work included Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge and doing Rose and Bella on a short series called The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell. Smith is more into adult puppeteering with Henson Alternative, according to my knowledge. She worked on Puppet Up, That Puppet Game Show, No You Shut Up, and The Happytime Murders. Outside of puppetry, she has done various acting credits on numerous television programs, such as How I Met Your Mother, King of the Hill, and on The Office with other actors. Colleen Smith should work on some more projects with the Muppets because if she could do Henson Alternative so well, than she must do Muppet work as well as others. I also didn't know this, but I've read that she ...