Lucky Yates

Lucky Yates is an actor, voice actor, and puppeteer whose only work with Sesame Street was on The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland as an additional Muppet performer. Yates was credited under his real name Matt Yates. I've read that during the shoot, he rented a house with Annie Peterle and Lisa Sturz, where they threw a party for the cast and crew members. Yates became interested in puppetry through his job working at the box office for the Center of Puppetry Arts in 1996. He was invited to audition for the following seasons of shows and was hired. It led him to puppeteer in shows like The Velveteen Rabbit and Alice in Wonderland, which was followed by puppeteering on local PBS shows in Atlanta. It led to Yates getting the job on Elmo in Grouchland, I don't know who met him. Besides puppetry, Lucky is known for his voice roles as Dr. Krieger and Crackers on Archer and as Xtacle on Frisky Dingo. He was also a recurring actor on the Food Network series Good Eats. It would appear that he started out working with kids before transitioning to adults. Lucky Yates seems to do more of voice acting than puppeteering, because his voice is heard more often than his puppetry. If his puppet interest is real, than why hasn't he puppeteered in any shows recently? Maybe Yates lost interest with puppetry as the years went by. Lucky is also another puppeteer to have a nickname, because his real name is Matt Yates and the Muppet performers seemed to know that. I think he should perform with either the Muppets or Henson Alternative on a project. Since he's good at working with both children and adults, at least that's how it was with Elmo in Grouchland. I've also read that he both performed and wrote something called The American Shame. It was probably a live-action short. Whatever it is, Yates probably did a good job at putting it together for the director and producer. Lucky Yates, you've got a cool nickname and you're incredible at acting, voice acting, and puppeteering for television and film. I hope you keep acting and maybe someday decide to work with the Muppets on a project. You did a great job working in a Sesame Street film, so working with the Muppets would probably be an even bigger accomplishment. Get back into puppeteering and maybe someday you'll meet someone who performs the Muppets and give you a job. Anything happens if you do your best Lucky Yates!