All About Muppets

Boitumelo Betty Maretele is a South African actress and puppeteer who is best known for performing the character Zuzu on the South African co-production of Sesame Street, Takalani Sesame. She's also credited for additional song translation on the show. Boitumelo guest starred on two episodes of Sesame Street for its 48th season performing Zuzu. Maretele is one of the few people to play an international character on Sesame Street without the voice being dubbed over by someone else. She also performed on Panwapa as the voice of Athena the Owl while Fran Brill puppeteered. There is one thing I don't understand, if she's credited as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street and Takalani Sesame, then why did she only supply her voice on Panwapa. Boitumelo Betty Maretele, along with Nigel Plaskitt were the only people to voice act on that project while others puppeteered their characters. I read that she and her character also appeared on an international Sesame Street special called E...

Patrick Holmes is a puppeteer who has mainly performed in various Sesame Workshop projects. For work on Sesame Street, he has assisted on specials and outreach projects such as Elmo's Christmas Countdown, Here For You, and Learning is Everywhere (to name a few). Patrick has even performed with them on one of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades, though I don't know which one. Outside of Sesame Street, he's only performed on three other projects and that was SeeMore's Playhouse, It's a Big Big World (serving as a puppet wrangler), and Pigeon-Holed as Pidge. I saw a photo showing Holmes assisting Ryan Dillon on a character at the Garden State Film Festival in the early days. He got a chance to work along with Muppet performers and puppeteers like Lindsey "Z" Briggs, Eric Wright, James Godwin, and Andy Hayward (just to name a few). I wonder what ever happened to Patrick after 2007 since that's the only year he worked on Sesame Street with the Muppet pe...

Eric Wright is a puppeteer and puppet designer/builder who served as an uncredited assistant Muppet performer on the 46th season of Sesame Street. I don't know why he didn't receive credit for assisting on the series. I think that Eric deserves another chance to work on Sesame Street and get the credit he deserves. Wright is also the founder/leader of The Puppet Kitchen, a puppet workshop that's designed to design, build, and perform puppets for screen, stage, and live activations. His company has done many projects such as Little Shop of Horrors (on Broadway), Brainchild, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Loren the Robot Butler, just to name a few. He had the chance to work alongside many puppeteers such as Peter Linz, Paul McGinnis, Lindsey Briggs, and more. Eric Wright has a made a puppet lion to be performed inside a zoo, something no other Muppet performer has often filmed a production at. I just wish that he would return to Sesame Street to be an additional puppeteer a...

Glenngo King is a puppeteer whose only work with the Muppets was in The Muppets Take Manhattan, in which he was an additional performer. I don't know why he hasn't performed in any other projects with the Muppets after that one film. Glenngo could have also worked on Sesame Street since he's from New York and that's where Sesame Street was filmed since the beginning. Outside of that film, King has worked as a principal puppeteer with the Brewery Troupe, a NY puppet troupe founded by Brad Brewer. Personally, I think he should have assisted Brewer in a Muppet video Neat Stuff To Know & To Do. I've read that in the Brewery Troupe, Glenngo performed a character named Fast Eddie in a quartet of singing birds known as "the Crowtations." It looks like King is another puppeteer who is currently unknown by many people just like David Maida and Patricia Lewis. His only other film work was in the non-Henson film Key Exchange and I am not sure if there was puppetr...

Jamie Donmoyer is a puppeteer, writer, and puppet builder who worked as an assistant performer on the Sesame Street special Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas. She also assisted Sesame Street in their appearance in the 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Jamie even puppeteered on Bear in the Big Blue House: Live on Stage back in the 2000's. I wish Donmoyer would perform on Sesame Street itself though for I saw a picture of her posing with Caroll Spinney in 1996. Outside of Sesame Street, she has puppeteered on many other shows such as Pahappahooey Island, Johnny and the Sprites, and The Chica Show (to name a few). She had the chance to work alongside many Muppet performers such as Tracie Mick, John Tartaglia, Heather Asch, and more. Jamie Donmoyer has been also a producing director for a touring puppet company called MicheLee Puppets, making shows. She even built puppets which can be seen in productions like Boone, Magic Curtain, REP, and Freedom Highs, as well as an academy....

Adrian Rose is a puppeteer and puppet builder who hasn't performed with the Muppets but has done a short by the Henson Company called Tall Poppy. For that short she got to work under the supervision of Brian Henson who produced and directed. Adrian also got to work with several Muppet performers for that one short like Paul McGinnis, Nicolette Santino, Elizabeth Hara, and Kevin Clash. Outside, Rose has been building, wrangling, and performing puppets of many types since she started in 2006. One of the performances include various short films produced by Heather Henson and her company Handmade Dreams. Other shows and films she's worked on include Crank Yankers (reboot), Mr. Neighbor's House, and Captain Underpants, just to name a few. Adrian Rose had the honor to puppeteer with Bob Baker Marionette Theater as one of her first jobs in L.A., California. She also built puppets with many studios such as Screen Novelties, Stoopid Buddy Studios, and even her own freelance work. Ot...

Caitlin O'Reilly is a Canadian puppet designer/builder and puppeteer who is another person that should have worked with the Muppets or Sesame Street. She has worked in many different puppet workshops such as Radical Sheep Shop and L'Atlier Des Griffons, to name a few. Caitlin built puppets for Big & Small (in which she also puppeteered), Radical Sheep projects, and It's a Big Big World, just to name a few. In addition to building puppets for television and web/commercial, O'Reilly has also puppeteered on many Canadian TV shows such as Mr. Meaty, Wilbur, Apollo's Pad, and Wildwoods. She's a total expert on creating different size characters from small finger puppets, to common hand puppets, to full bodied costumes. This is why she would be perfect to work with the Muppets. Caitlin O'Reilly could make the kinds of puppets the Muppet performers have never used before. She also should have worked with the Muppets or Sesame Street whenever either of them were...

Faz Fazakas was a special effects designer and puppeteer who worked in many Muppet productions. Faz began puppetry during the 1950s with Bil Baird and his marionettes. Not to mention 1960s off-Broadway puppet shows, like Winnie the Pooh (as the title character). He first worked as a puppeteer for Jim Henson in the early 1970s on two of the three Tales from Muppetland specials. However Fazakas' primary talents came from devising mechanical devices to make the puppets gain expression and allowing more range of movement. Since then, Faz was the head of the electro mechanical department in the Muppet Workshop. I think that the best work he's done was on Fraggle Rock. Because he created radio controlled mechanisms that were used as faces of full-bodied characters. He also made cable control systems that allowed the use of controlling tiny characters (e.g. Doozers). It's amazing how Faz Fazakas was able to make devices that can operate puppets of different sizes while making them...

Bruce Schwartz is a puppeteer and sculptor who is known for doing his bunraku puppetry. He made two guest appearances on The Muppet Show, performing his own puppet segments within the second and fifth season. Bruce has also served as an additional puppeteer on The Muppet Movie, probably his only time in performing Muppet-type puppets. Schwartz was even the focus puppeteer in one of Jim Henson's specials, The World of Puppetry. I don't know why he doesn't cover himself when doing bunraku puppetry as most people who do that kind of puppetry cover themselves completely. Outside of The Muppet Show, he did extensive stage performances throughout the 1980's, using his bunraku style to present Elizabethan-style dramas like She Moved Through the Fair. Bruce also performed with hand puppets in the Portable Puppet Show productions as The Rat of Huge Proportions. What ever happened to Schwartz after the 1980's? It's not like he just disappeared from the world and remained ...