All About Muppets

Carla Rudy is a puppeteer, voice actress, and writer who performed in the Henson Alternative's Puppet Up in June 2008. She has also been selected to participate in a Sesame Street puppet workshop at their headquarters that same year. If Carla participated for Sesame Workshop, then why hasn't she performed on the show itself? Rudy was probably more comfortable to perform in California than fly to New York where Sesame Street was taped. Outside of Puppet Up, she puppeteered in various other projects like Mack & Moxy, Oscar's Hotel, Team America: World Police, Stool Pigeon, and many more. She also puppeteered with the musician Beck's world tour, which made appearances on Saturday Night Live, MTV, and Jimmy Kimmel Live, all of which count as TV credits. Carla Rudy's stage credits include The Little Prince, Bear in the Big Blue House Live, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, and more. Her voice can be heard in three shows, Automation, Armed Forces Radio, and Nougat. Her websit...

Patrick Johnson is a puppeteer, illustrator, and puppet designer/builder who like his twin brother Sean Johnson has worked with Jim Henson's Creature Shop since 2005. Patrick and Sean were additional puppeteers in The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted and in the last episode of The Muppets in 2015. Both brothers were also puppeteers in the "Do It Anyway" music video featuring the five main Fraggles and when the Muppets made an appearance in a Warburtons commercial. It's very rare that there are twin puppeteers who perform in almost every project together. Patrick has also worked with his brother in Henson Alternative, designing, building, and performing puppets for Puppet Up, Late Night With Augie and Del, Stuffed and Unstrung, Alt/Reality, and many more. Johnson has also been in the Glow in the Dark Tour building the giant monster. Outside of Henson and the Muppets, Patrick has created the puppet company Swazzle with Sean Johnson. He puppeteered in the same amou...

Sean Johnson is a puppeteer, designer, puppet builder, and twin-brother of Patrick Johnson who has worked with Jim Henson's Creature Shop since 2005. Sean and Patrick were additional puppeteers in The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted. He is also credited as an additional puppeteer on the final episode of The Muppets. For his work with The Jim Henson Company, Sean has built and performed puppets in Puppet Up, Late Night Buffet with Augie and Del, Stuffed and Unstrung, and Alt/Reality, to name a few. I've read that Johnson also built puppets for a tour called Glow in the Dark Tour and some commercials for Air New Zealand. It seems all of that work with the Muppets and the Henson Company has prepared him for the puppetry world out there. Outside of his work with both Muppets and Henson, Sean Johnson and his brother have created the puppet company Swazzle. Swazzle has been known for creating puppets, costumes, and props for various shows, films, commercials, and web videos. Sean...

Tom Vandenberg is a Canadian puppeteer, puppet builder, and artistic director who worked with the Muppets during the mid-1980's. He mostly performed on Fraggle Rock as a couple minor/background characters and has also assisted on Sesame Street's Follow That Bird. Tom has been performing live and for the camera for many years on many productions, though it's unknown to me. Vandenberg performed on various Canadian TV shows and films occasionally, but his most well known project was making and performing many puppets for The Adventures of Snelgrove Snail. I read he is currently performing live puppet shows in schools, libraries, and events in Toronto through his own company called T.V. Puppetree. The company has done various children shows through classic songs, Aesop's Fables, and even original shows they made up. Tom Vandenberg even did a variety show called Tom's Amazing Cats which features many acts that people are fond of such as magic, live animals, and you gues...

Ceili Clemens is a puppet builder, puppeteer, and wrangler who was a part of the Muppet design and build team for Muppets Most Wanted. I don't know why she only did one Muppet film and not any of the other late ones. Ceili could have built or puppeteered in The Muppets (2011) or on other Muppet projects such as The Muppets Wizard of Oz. Clemens could have also done Sesame Street as either performing on the set or working in the Muppet Workshop as a builder. Sesame Street seemed like an appropriate show for her as she puppeteered in a spoof of Sesame Street on an episode of Chappelle's Show, one of the non-Muppet projects she worked on. She also built, wrangled, and performed puppets on Between the Lions, Blue's Room, and The Addams Family: A New Musical. If Ceili Clemens could work on a spoof of Sesame Street, then maybe she should work on the real Sesame Street show. Her puppet work could also keep her going with the Muppets since the characters are now designed and built...

Lisa Sturz is a puppeteer, designer, and builder who's been a professional puppeteer for over 40 years in North Carolina. She served as an additional performer within Muppets from Space, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, and The Flintstones (as the Dictabird). I don't know Lisa has not assisted in other projects featuring the Muppets. Sturz also been an additional puppeteer on non-Muppet projects such as The Puzzle Place, Howard the Duck, BeeSting (which she also wrote, produced, and directed), Let's Go Shopping with Read-a-roo, and many more. Her most well known work is being involved in designing, building, and performing puppets with Red Herring Inc, a puppetry and costuming company in North Carolina. She was the founder of the company and was responsible for many tour shows, commercials, and feature films. Red Herring Inc was behind the puppets, costumes, and props for the many projects it produced with Lisa Sturz supervising. I read that Red Herring Inc even had c...

Rachel Leonard is a puppeteer whose only work with the Muppets was being an additional Muppet performer on Muppets Most Wanted. Why hasn't she assisted the Muppets on any other projects? She could have assisted in The Muppets Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, or Henson shows that are filmed in the UK. Rachel is another one of the many puppeteers to have only assisted the Muppets for one time. Leonard's work outside of Muppets is more vast. Her puppeteering career has started in 1984, when she performed at the Little Angel Theatre production of the classic tale The Fisherman and His Soul. Other than her work with Little Angel Theatre and Kneehigh Theatre, Rachel has also performed in the National Theatre production of War Horse in 2011, which won a Tony Award. She has also worked in several productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company. For film, Leonard was an animatronic performer on Seed of Chucky and Prometheus. But the biggest thing that she ever did was performing...

Marc Petrosino is a puppeteer, builder, and designer who has puppeteered for Sesame Street, as well as its Christmas special Elmo's Christmas Countdown. He also assisted the Muppets when they performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (in the final episode that is). Marc's influence was both Sesame Street and the Muppets which makes him another puppeteer to be influenced by watching them. Outside of the Muppets and Sesame Street, Petrosino did a few freelance projects; Blue's Room, Crank Yankers, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Other than that, he's best known for being co-founder of Monkey Boys Productions with Michael Latini, Scott Hitz, and Russell Tucker. Together, they designed, built, and performed puppets for various projects such as Little Shop of Horrors, Saturday Night Live, Planet Camp and more. I've read that Marc Petrosino also puppeteered in several shows by Basil Twist, such as The Long Christmas Ride Home, Master Peter's Puppet Show, Rit...

Andy Hayward is a puppeteer, voice actor, and puppet/costume builder who worked on projects for The Jim Henson Company and Sesame Workshop. His Muppet debut was in the home video Kids' Favorite Country Songs before doing other Sesame Street projects like Elmo's Christmas Countdown. Andy also performs various characters on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock such as the body of Pa Gorg, Wrench Doozer, Jamdolin (puppetry), and others. Hayward even worked within VEE Corporation's Costumes & Creatures Workshop, where he constructed and refurbished characters for many live shows. Outside of Henson and Sesame, he puppeteered within many former Disneyland attractions like Playhouse Disney Live and The Crayon Court (by Thomas Fountain). For series, films, and video shorts, he did Head of the Household, Chuck E. Cheese, Milo's Monster School, and many more. Andy Hayward has been a pretty active puppeteer since 1999 as he has done a lot of characters over the years. Other people ...

David Maida is a puppeteer, suit performer, and dancer whose only work with the Henson Company was playing Bozark on Animal Jam. David's performance combined pantomime with choreographed dance moves. I don't know why he never worked with the Muppets on any projects. He should have done one of the full-bodied Muppet monsters or did a dance character. There isn't a lot of information about Maida, probably because nobody knows a lot about him. David could have done more projects with the Henson Company, a lot of their projects have puppets or costumes he can perform. Outside of Animal Jam, he has been a former player at Walt Disney World, maybe performing in a lot of stage shows as either hand puppets or body costumes. For television, he has performed on The Dooley and Pals Show as the costume role of Dooley and puppeteering Cosmos (I think). He also performed on a kids show called Gina D Kids Club performing in a body costume and puppeteering two characters for separate segm...

Sarah Sarang Oh is a puppeteer and stand-up comic who started working with the Henson Company on Splash and Bubbles, assisted on Earth to Ned, and performed with Puppet Up. She started assisting the Muppets in 2021 with Muppets Haunted Mansion and later in The Muppets Mayhem. Sarah also served as one of the puppeteers for Christmas Caroling Coach. Oh has done a few projects outside of Muppets such as Toy Geeks: Behind the Counter, Crank Yankers, and The Barbarian and the Troll. She even did a Henson Company music video entitled Coldplay: Biutyful as a background puppeteer with Jordan Brownlee, Catrina Quintanilla, and Jack Venturo. She seems to have done an equal amount of projects with both the Muppets and the Henson Company all at separate times. Sarah Sarang Oh also performed with Nicolette Santino, Alex Villa, Brandon Smith, and others. She must have been pretty excited to assist the main Muppet performers on those three projects, one of them with their voice dubs. Let's just ...

Melissa Roja is an actress, puppeteer, and comedienne who's been a member of the Puppet Up troupe in 2014. I wonder why Puppet Up was the only Henson project she performed in. Melissa could have performed with the Muppets or on Sesame Street. But I guess Roja is more comfortable with Puppet Up because she gets to travel the world with a troupe while the Muppets are just a group. Outside of her performance on Puppet Up, she also was a member of the Between the Lions Road Show. If she's good with kids then she must work with Sesame Street on a project. All of her other television work was just on-screen acting, as seen on The Jamie Foxx Show, Strip Mall, and Suddenly Susan, just to name a few. Melissa's comedienne credit came from being a member of The Groundlings where she was known as an improv performer and instructor. I guess that's why Roja performed with Puppet Up because she has experience with improv. I still wish that Melissa Roja would work with the Muppets o...

Nicolette Santino is an actress, puppeteer, and writer who has worked with the Muppets a couple of times. She received credit as a "Supporting Muppet Performer" on Muppets Haunted Mansion, where she also played a tomato alongside Bill Barretta. Nicolette later puppeteered on the Christmas Caroling Coach and assisted the Muppets on The Muppets Mayhem. Santino did some Henson Company stuff such as The Happytime Murders, Earth to Ned, and Puppet Up at Knott's Scary Farm. Outside of the Muppets and Henson, she has also puppeteered in various programs, such as Tsum Tsum Kingdom, Funny or Die, Do-Si-Do, Crank Yankers, and The Barbarian and the Troll. All of her other roles have done on-screen acting for a couple of shorts such as Fullmoon Lies (which she also wrote), The Bride from Outer Space, and #Lucky. I've read that Nicolette Santino also worked with the band Coldplay where she puppeteered Angel Moon, who debuted in Biutyful. She was trained by many workshops, includi...

Stephen Brathwaite is a Canadian puppeteer, artist, and writer who performed for Sesame Street for a few times. He served as an additional puppeteer on Follow That Bird and he has also served as a guest puppeteer on Sesame Park. Apart from that, Stephen also puppeteered on episodes of the Creature Shop series Brats of the Lost Nebula (though credited for one). I wonder why Brathwaite did not assist the Muppets on any projects filmed in Canada. He was probably too busy performing on other projects to do so. Outside of Sesame Park and Follow That Bird, Stephen Brathwaite is the brother of puppeteer and builder Noreen Young and he performed with her on the series Under the Umbrella Tree (as Jacob Bluejay and others) and on Wacky Palms. He also puppeteered on Groundling Marsh, Bookmice, Bride of Chucky, and Freaky Stories, just to name a few. Besides puppetry, Stephen is a prominent glass artist who has designed and built numerous structures for exhibition, sale, and even government proje...

James Rankin is a Canadian puppeteer, voice actor, and puppet designer/builder who has done one of each on two projects by Henson and the Creature Shop. He supplied the voice of Frisky on Dog City, which contains puppetry and animation. James also did both voices and puppetry for Brats of the Lost Nebula, which had Bill Barretta. But why doesn't Rankin ever assist the Muppets when they were in Canada? He could have assisted the performers in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie or The Muppets Wizard of Oz, but he was probably too busy with voice acting. As a puppeteer, he puppeteered in numerous non-Henson productions, such as Groundling Marsh, The Noddy Shop, The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon, Freaky Stories, and more. As a voice actor, James Rankin can be heard in various animated series like Franklin, Elliot Moose, Camp Lakebottom, The NeverEnding Story, and more. If he can work in all of those projects, than he needs to work with the Muppets on a project. Does he lik...

Michael Oosterom is an improv actor, puppeteer, and puppet builder who has mostly performed in a variety of Henson Alternative projects. He performed as a member of Puppet Up - Uncensored and Stuffed and Unstrung improv troupe for many years. Michael also performed in Alt/Reality, Hot Dog TV, Simian Undercover Detective Squad, and No You Shut Up. For the Muppets, Oosterom served as an additional puppeteer for The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, and The Muppets Mayhem. He also worked on related Muppet appearances and video shorts. It would appear that he is more familiar with performing puppets for adults rather than for everybody (including kids). Outside Michael Oosterom's puppetry is limited to a few projects with puppets made by the Creature Shop but not affiliated. He did Pidge for an episode of Pushing Daisies and did Spanky face/voice in an episode of The Middleman. He has also served as production supervisor/puppeteer for the puppet sequences within the Jason Segel film Forge...

Cheryl Henson is the President of the Jim Henson Foundation, is a member of the Board of Directors for The Jim Henson Company, and the second child of Jim and Jane Henson. Cheryl started building puppets on The Muppet Show and The Dark Crystal when she was only a teenager. In two interviews, she states that she built singing food and lobsters for two Muppet Show skits. Henson continued to be involved in Muppet productions after she graduated from Yale. She also puppeteered for the Muppets a couple of times. She assisted in episode 513 of The Muppet Show, in 3 Muppet TV specials, and in the Creature Shop film Labyrinth (which she also built puppets). Cheryl later became involved with The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, The Storyteller, and Mother Goose Stories. I never knew Jim and Jane Henson both raised such entertained and artistic kids. She must be proud of herself by all of the work she has done for her father. Soon Cheryl's work extended outside of puppet building; she has served...

Daisy Beattie is a British puppeteer, puppet builder, and the sister of Susan Beattie. I'm not sure if she is Susan's sister but I'm just guessing. Daisy has worked as an additional performer on Muppets Most Wanted and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. I don't why she hasn't assisted on other projects by either the Muppets or Henson. She could have assisted on Mopatop's Shop, The Hoobs, or any other Henson project that was filmed in the United Kingdom. Beattie should've also worked in the Creature Shop because she can build puppets as well. Outside of Henson and the Muppets, she has worked as a puppeteer and puppet maker for various theatrical, film, and television projects. She puppeteered on 2 films of Star Wars, The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story. As for her theatre work, Daisy worked with a company called Gyre & Gimble. She made puppets for The Four Seasons: A Re-imaging, The Grinning Man, and Running Wild, all of those shows by Gyre ...

Lynn Robertson Bruce is a British puppeteer, suit performer, and dancer who has performed on various Creature Shop and Muppet projects. Her most notable role was in-suit on Buddy as the juvenile version of the title character. Lynn also puppeteered in Lost in Space and assisted on The Hoobs, Muppets Most Wanted, and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Robertson Bruce even performed in the 1998-1999 stage run of Dr. Dolittle as both puppeteer and suit performer for Pushmepullyu and others. Though I wish she would have done more projects featuring Muppets, besides that one film. She could have been an assistant performer in either The Muppets Christmas Carol or Muppet Treasure Island but what she does is her choice. Outside of the Creature Shop and Muppets, Lynn Robertson Bruce puppeteered on Seed of Chucky, Bits and Bobs, and Sooty, to name a few. She was also a motion capture performer on a television series called Headcases and in the 2013 animated version of Tarzan. Her page on the...

Graham Fletcher is a suit performer and dancer who has formally danced with the Royal Ballet (at the Royal Opera House). He often performed full-bodied dance characters on The Muppet Show. Graham was well-suited for those parts and lent a dancer's sensibility and grace to his roles, which means that he did a great job at performing these roles. Fletcher's most notable character was Fletcher Bird, who was named after him and made periodic appearances during the third and fourth seasons. He also did special dance characters whom appeared only once. He did the Giant Spider in episode 311 and also the Ballerina Pig in episode 213 (perhaps his first work on The Muppet Show). I believe that Graham has also did one of the Mutations in episode 318 since he was credited. Outside of the Muppets, he's done other costumed roles such as the 1971 film Tales of Beatrix Potter, as multiple characters. Years later, Fletcher worked with Brian Henson and others on the giant Audrey II in th...

Neil Sterenberg is a British puppeteer and puppet designer/builder who has been one of the additional Muppet performers on Muppets Most Wanted. He also performed on The Furchester Hotel as various hotel guests and replacing Mak Wilson as Harvey P. Dull for the second season. As for his work within the Creature Shop, Neil been one of the main puppeteers on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. On the show, Sterenberg puppeteered Rian and others as well as voicing one of his characters. Outside of Muppets and The Furchester Hotel, he has designs, builds, and performs various puppets for various television programs. He performed on Nuzzle and Scratch (as Nuzzle), The Fimbles (as Roly Mo and Bessie), St. Bears Doll Hospital (as Nurse Penny), and in CBeebies promos and interstitials (as various characters), to name a few. For film, Neil Sterenberg has puppeteered in two Star Wars films, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. He has also built puppets for various shows, even for celebrity appe...

Bryant Young is a puppeteer, dancer, and choreographer who performed on Sesame Street as the rear end of Mr. Snuffleupagus since 1979. He also played Barkley occasionally, done right-hand assisting, puppeteered minor characters, and did various on-screen cameos. As a choreographer, Bryant worked on dances for both the show itself and the Sesame floats Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. For almost every Sesame Street project, Young has always done the back end of Mr. Snuffleupagus while Martin P. Robinson did the front and voice. Outside of Sesame Street, he also puppeteered on The Puzzle Place and The Book of Pooh. He must be well planned ahead for whenever he is inside the Snuffleupagus or when he's operating background characters. I read that Bryant Young received an Emmy nomination for his role in a Dance in America series with the NYC Ballet. In the mid 1980s, he also represented the US in an International Ballet Festival in Seoul, Korea. It seems that while working on Sesame...

Judy Preece is a British puppeteer who has worked on a number of British-filmed Muppet & Henson projects. Judy mostly worked in the Muppet and Henson films and one TV special. She puppeteered in The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, Labyrinth (as Goblins), and The Muppets Christmas Carol. But how come she never assisted the Muppets on Muppet Treasure Island or any other Muppet/Henson project filmed in the UK? Preece probably feels like she's not good enough to work on several projects that include either Henson or the Muppets. Outside of the Muppets and Henson, Judy Preece did lots of shows featuring puppetry. She puppeteered on Fun Factory, Spitting Image, Terrahawks, and The Pig Attraction, and that's only a few. As for her film work, Judy only assisted in the Frank Oz film, Little Shop of Horrors. It must have been pretty complicated to operate Audrey II for that movie. I feel like she's another one of those puppeteers who hasn't done enough in their life. Preece look...