All About Muppets

Phil Woodfine is a puppeteer who served as additional puppeteer for two Muppet films, The Muppets Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. He has also assisted the main puppeteers on the Creature Shop-effects film entitled The Adventures of Pinocchio. I don't know what nationality Phil is because he performed in the UK and Australia. It would appear to me that Woodfine is more familiar in the UK than he is elsewhere. He got to work alongside puppeteers such as William Todd-Jones, Bruce Lanoil, and Mak Wilson, just to name a few. Outside of the Muppets, Phil Woodfine has worked under Neal Scanlan's company on Babe: Pig in the City, 102 Dalmatians, and Kangaroo Jack. He has also worked in the post-Disney Star Wars films puppeteering in The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Solo. Seems to me that he's more into creatures than with puppets since he has only worked alongside the Muppets on two feature films. I've read that Phil was also credited as creature effects coordinato...

Brad Elliott is a prop master who worked on and off with the Muppet Workshop starting with Muppets Tonight. He worked with the Muppets in Muppets from Space, The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, and The Muppets (2011). Brad was also puppet prop master in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, perhaps the only project in which he worked with Sesame Street. Elliott has also served as an additional Muppet performer in episode 205 of Muppets Tonight. The main performers were probably low of assistants in that episode so they must have trained him to perform a Muppet during filming. Outside, Brad Elliott has handled props for Greg the Bunny and Team America: World Police. Other than puppets, he worked on three productions; Arrested Development, The Closer, and the film The Adventures of Tintin. Seems to me that he is another workshop person to be trained to perform a Muppet on one project, others have included Mary Brehmer and Matthew Brooks. Personally, I think Brad did a great job being backgrou...

Mark Gale is a puppeteer and voice actor who worked in various Henson projects, most notably Sesame Street, Kermit's Swamp Years, and Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic. He has also puppeteered Oscar the Grouch on the Sesame Street float in the 2016 and 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Mark even assisted the main performers for the Respect Brings Us Together campaign (for the Game of Thrones Spot). I think Gale has what it takes to be a Muppet performer like all the people he's worked with over the years, he just needs to show it. He should be proud of himself to work with Sesame Street and one Muppet movie over the years of his performance. A graduate of the University of Connecticut's Puppet Arts Program, Mark Gale did a variety of projects outside of Sesame Street, most notably co-producing The DillonGale Idiots videos with Ryan Dillon. His other works include Between the Lions, SeeMore's Playhouse, and a project by Martin P. Robinson called Pigeon-Holed, which al...

Doug Legacy is a puppeteer, musician, and one of the founding members of the Zydeco Party Band. His only work with the Muppets was on Muppets Tonight where he puppeteered background characters and his band was featured as the house band for the show. I've read the Doug also did the whistling for the theme song. Personally, I think that Legacy and his band gave the Muppets a little zydeco feeling since that was the only project so far when the Muppets had that kind of music. Outside of Muppets Tonight, the Zydeco Party Band won an Emmy for The Late Mr. Pete Show as the house band. Doug Legacy is probably the only puppeteer I know who does zydeco music. His band also provided music for shows such as Gilmore Girls, How I Met Your Mother, & The Bucket List. Outside of the Zydeco Party Band, he plays a pirate at Disneyland performing sea shanties on both accordion and penny whistles (whatever penny whistles are). At least Doug got to work alongside Muppet performers such as Steve Wh...

Alan Semok was a ventriloquist, puppeteer, puppet builder, and pianist who is yet another person who hasn't worked or even guest starred with the Muppets or Sesame Street. He was perhaps best known for being a freelance ventriloquist performing characters for many shows and puppeteering with Flexitoon during the 90's. Alan got to work alongside Olga Felgemacher, Craig Marin, and Jonathan Freeman on KIDS-TV and Shining Time Station. On the latter, Semok mainly assisted Peter Baird in puppeteering Grace for the first season before replacing Wayne White as Tex while Kenny Miele took over assisting Baird. He has also acted on-screen in many films such as Savage Faith, The Dummy, and A Stand Up Guy, to name a few. Though I wonder if he's scared of heights since he never did marionettes while at Flexitoon. Personally, I think that Alan Semok would have been great performing or guest starring with the Muppets or Sesame Street since they had many ventriloquists guest star. He has a...

Timothy D. Rose is a puppeteer and puppet designer who worked in a variety of Muppet and Henson projects, most notably puppeteering SkekShod on The Dark Crystal. He also served as an additional performer on The Muppets Christmas Carol and worked in a music video by ABBA entitled The Last Video, featuring puppeteers such as Phil Eason, Richard Coombs, and Mark Jefferis. Timothy has also been a designer for several productions such as The Great Muppet Caper, Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, and Muppets Most Wanted. I wonder if Rose is more interested in science-fiction than fantasy. Outside, he is best known for puppeteering Admiral Ackbar for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, later reprising the role years later for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Some of his other works include Howard the Duck, Becky and Barnaby Bear, and Spitting Image, to name a few. Timothy D. Rose was last seen as a creature & droid puppeteer for the spin-off film Solo: A Star Wars Story. He was recently heard in interviews on gue...

Kanja Chen is a Canadian puppeteer, puppet builder, and animator who recently performed on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, as Pogey, Ferguson Merggle, and others. He also made an onscreen cameo in the 10th episode in the Traveling Matt postcard. I've read that Kanja has trained with Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company as a part of their diversity initiatives. Chen even served as an animator for Lopii Productions in two animated Sesame Street segments. He must have felt so proud to become a Muppet performer on Fraggle Rock alongside others such as Kira Hall, Frank Meschkuleit, and Andy Hayward. He's also proven himself to be a natural when it comes to entertaining families. Kanja Chen should also show the Henson Company his animating talents, just in case they ever decide to produce an animated show. Outside of Fraggle Rock, he formed his own company called Chensational Puppets which designs, builds, and performs puppets for many projects. Some of his own puppetry credits...

Kira Hall is a Canadian puppeteer, voice actor, and writer who performed on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock as Brio, Melody Merggle, and others. They must have been really excited to become a Muppet performer like their many co-workers such as Frank Meschkuleit. Kira has trained in The Jim Henson Company's Puppeteer Training Initiative Workshop in 2021, under Donna Kimball, Colleen Smith, and others that probably took place before filming commenced. Outside, Hall puppeteered on many screen and stage productions over the years. Their major ones include CBC Kids Studio K (as Cottonball), Canada Crew (as Bebe), and Gary's Magic Fort (as Snuggles), to name a few. As for stage, they did Avenue Q, as part of the first Canadian cast, and the title character on The Little Prince: Reimagined, a real breaking point in stardom. Like Ali J. Eisner, Kira Hall is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, which makes them the second puppeteer to be non-binary. It is amazing that they are conside...

Jennifer Bain is a puppeteer, graphic designer, and voice actress who served as an additional performer on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. She is probably one of the many new Canadian puppeteers to ever work in a project produced by the Henson Company. Jennifer must have been very excited to work on a reboot of the classic Fraggle Rock alongside other Muppet performers. Outside of Fraggle Rock, Bain worked as a graphic designer on the Detour and Wynonna Earp. As a voice actress, she has voice acted at Blue Water Studios in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, which I guess was where she was recruited by the producers of Fraggle Rock. She in addition to regular animation, she also did anime shows. Some of the anime shows Jennifer Bain has been heard on have included Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Dragon Ball GT, and D.I.C.E.. Some other puppeteers who have also worked on anime were mainly James Murray, Brice Armstrong, and Kaori Takeda, at least so far. I wonder what other kinds of shows she's perfo...