All About Muppets

Axel Rathgeber is a German puppeteer and puppet builder who only performed in one Muppet project and one Henson Company project. He has mainly puppeteered on The Secret Life of Toys where he and two other German puppeteers were selected out of 40. Axel said that it was a dream come true working along with Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and Jerry Nelson for 6 months. Rathgeber has also worked as a supporting puppeteer on Muppet Treasure Island, but he was uncredited for doing so. He made friends with the other two German puppeteers that made it onto The Secret Life of Toys, Jurgen Tombers and Marcus Hubner. He should have been credited on Muppet Treasure Island, because that was perhaps the only time in which he assisted the Muppets. Outside of those two projects, Axel Rathgeber puppeteered on the German version of Spitting Image and also designed and built the puppets. I've read that he was influenced at an early stage by Sesame Street and The Muppet Show broadcasted on German TV. Axel...

Sherry Amott is a puppet designer and builder who has provided her expertise to the Henson Company during the 70's and 80's. The only time she puppeteered was in the film Labyrinth assisting Dave Goelz and Robert Mills on the third Firey. Sherry was among the many Muppet designers and builders for The Muppet Show and The Muppet Movie. Amott also worked at the Creature Shop on various characters for The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth (the film mentioned earlier) and Dreamchild. She has even worked on Sesame Street, creating Barkley and designing outfits for a famous Sesame Street CD. Outside of her work with the Henson Company, her biggest project was being Head of Fabrication for Audrey II in the Frank Oz film Little Shop of Horrors. I've read that after that film she married a British filmmaker who is named John Tippey and has a son named Jake. Later, Sherry Amott worked for Horizon Productions where she was a producer, and later, Creative Director. As for her freelance work, one...

Ghazal Javed is an Indian puppeteer, producer, and director who is best known for performing Chamki on the Indian co-production of Sesame Street, Gali Gali Sim Sim. I've read that she has been working in the field of puppetry since 2006 with the show being her very first television role. Ghazal was awarded for her work as Chamki in some episodes. Javed is also a trained Odissi dancer and an assistant director in Mumbai. But performing Chamki was perhaps her big break into television and is still operating her today. Her character has guest starred for two episodes on Sesame Street during the 48th season. How did Ghazal Javed learned to speak English when she performed Chamki on Sesame Street? Maybe she went to class once arriving in New York or received lessons from Martin P. Robinson when he gave her puppetry training. Outside of Gali Gali Sim Sim, Ghazal co-produced and directed Funda Matlab Piddu Bola for TV Today Network. That was probably the only project Javed served as a dir...

Kenny Miele is a puppeteer and puppet builder who is another guy that hasn't worked with the Muppets at all. Though he did work with two people who worked with the Muppets and that was Peter Baird and Olga Felgemacher. Kenny should have assisted the Muppets in The Muppets Take Manhattan during the wedding finale since there were over 50 puppets. Miele's main work as a puppeteer is being a member of Flexitoon. He and Peter did the puppetry of Grace for the Jukebox Band on Shining Time Station. He also assisted on KIDS-TV which is a show also made by Flexitoon. Kenny Miele also got to work with Disney's own Jonathan Freeman who is also a Flexitoon member and did many human characters on Sesame English. I'm guessing he was happier performing marionettes than Muppets since he didn't do any projects featuring them, though he did do Muppet-style puppets, sort of. He also worked within the Flexitoon Workshop on Shining Time Station, building the wooden rigging components o...

Peter Baird was a puppeteer, writer, and the son of legendary puppeteer Bil Baird who has only worked with the Muppets once. He served as an additional Muppet performer on The Muppets Take Manhattan, though he was uncredited for the film. After production of the film, Peter was one of the performers for Mount Rushmore in a few unaired segments for 60 Minutes. Baird could have done way more Muppet projects when he was still alive. But I guess he would rather do what he would rather perform which was with Flexitoon and other freelance work. Outside of Muppets, he has puppeteered on various other projects. Peter Baird's most notable show was on Shining Time Station where he performed with Olga Felgemacher, Jonathan Freeman, Kenny Miele, and Craig Marin as the Jukebox Band. I think he also assisted on KIDS-TV (another show by Flexitoon), but was uncredited. His other work was mainly in films such as Howard the Duck, Howling III, and Red Pepper, to name a few. I still think Peter should...

Ronnie LeDrew is a Canadian-born British puppeteer who worked on several UK-based Muppet and Henson productions. His first film with the company was on Labyrinth where he played one of the goblins. Ronnie was later an additional Muppet performer for the films The Muppets Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island and even a CD-ROM. LeDrew is probably more well-known for his work outside of the Muppets in the television area. He has performed in various theatre and television shows, but he's perhaps best known for playing Zippy on Rainbow since the early 1970s. His other television credits have included Jay's World, The Sooty Show, Late Night lineup, and Utterly Brilliant, to name a few. As for theatre productions, Ronnie LeDrew has performed on Ala-al-din, Through Wooden Eyes, Angelo, Hans the Bell Ringer, and more. I've read that Little Angel Theatre is where he trained and later became a teacher there. He also did teach at Central School of Speech and also founded The Lon...

Sarah-Jane Honeywell is an English presenter, singer, dancer, and acrobat who only puppeteered once for the Henson Company. She served as one of the additional puppeteers for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Sarah is another one of those people who has only performed within one Henson Company show. Otherwise, Honeywell has been well known for working on the CBeebies channel. She has also voiced a character on ZingZillas where she worked alongside Nick Kellington, Josh Elwell and Mark Jefferis. She's also acted in many films such as The Best Years, Warrioress, and Five Pillars. But still, Sarah should have done other puppetry, mainly in more Henson Company projects. Honeywell should have also assisted on Muppets Most Wanted and The Furchester Hotel as both productions star Muppet performers and are sort of related. She's also one of those puppeteers who can sing and dance like Betsy Baytos, Nancy O'Meara, and Aurorah Allain. What's unique about her is that she is pro...