All About Muppets

Geoff Redknap is a puppeteer and makeup artist who has performed in two Muppet TV movies, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and The Muppets Wizard of Oz. It's a shame he only performed background characters, but then again he probably didn't feel like he was perfect enough. Geoff has also did three Creature Shop projects; Cats & Dogs, Snow Dogs, and Turkey Hollow. Redknap is shown to be very experienced in doing films that have special effects. Outside of the Muppets and Creature Shop, his film puppetry work includes Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Scary Movie, The Santa Clause 2, and many more. His only known TV work was on Stargate SG-1 puppeteering Asgard. Puppeteers that got to work with Geoff Redknap have included Jeny Cassidy, James Rowley, and Jason Hopley, just to name a few. I read that he also works as a prosthetic or special-effects makeup artist, as can be seen on The Stand (2020) and the Deadpool movies. There are a bunch of other things he's g...

Eugenio Bartilotti is a Mexican puppeteer and actor who was the third performer of Abelardo Montoya from 1995-2004 on Plaza Sesamo. He has also performed Abelardo on his guest appearance on Sesame Street where he interacted with Caroll Spinney, Carmen Osbahr, and Martin P. Robinson. Eugenio must have been really excited to guest star on the Sesame Street itself. Bartilotti has done lots of on-screen acting outside of Plaza Sesamo, mostly on telenovelas (soap operas). His most notable one was being a regular on Yo amo a Juan Querendon as Enrique Bueno, while others are Rosalinda and Agujetas de color de rosa. While working on Plaza Sesamo, he got to perform with other Mexican puppeteers such as Odin Dupeyron and Rocio Lara. I don't know why Eugenio Bartilotti left the show after 2004 since he was doing such a great job as a large green parrot. He was probably more interested in performing on screen than doing puppetry since he does the former more than the latter. After leaving, he ...

Sean Masterson is an Australian puppeteer and creative director who has worked in various Creature Shop projects, most notably Farscape. On Farscape he was part of the teams for Pilot (taking over as lead later on) and Rygel and also performed and voiced Rovhu's pilot in an episode. Sean later went on to puppeteer Louisa on the Henson non-Muppet puppet series, Five Minutes More. Masterson should have voiced the character he puppeteered instead of letting Gillie Robic dub him over later on. As for the Creature Shop series Me and My Monsters, he served as secondary puppeteer to Haggis for the first six episodes before taking over as Norman's lead puppeteer for the rest of the series. This shows that he worked alongside other Henson performers such as John Eccleston, Roslyn Oades, Graeme Haddon, and many more. Outside of the Creature Shop, Sean Masterson has performed on several projects like Feral TV, Toybox, Babe: Pig in the Big City, and Teddies. He should have also worked on T...

Danielle Baker is an Australian actress and puppeteer who only puppeteered on The Ferals, taking over as Kylie from Kelly Wallwork in the 2nd season. I don't know why she only puppeteered for one show and not in any other projects, especially ones by the Henson Company. At least Danielle worked with 4 other puppeteers that have, mainly David Collins, Emma de Vries, Mal Heap, and Terry Ryan. I'd say Baker has what it takes to work in projects either with Sesame Street or Henson. Besides than working on The Ferals, she has mainly been an actress for television and film. Some of the projects she worked on include Lap Dancer, Good Guys Bad Guys, and Murder Call, just to name a few No one knows what happened to Danielle Baker after 2000; in fact, I'm not even sure the picture above is who she looks like in real life. If she's still acting in both television and film, that proves that she is still being busy. I only hope that she'll give puppetry another chance in her fre...

Kelly Wallwork is an Australian artist and puppeteer who only puppeteered on the first season of The Ferals as Kylie. She hasn't worked with the Muppets or Sesame Street at all, but she has worked with puppeteers that have worked with the Henson Company. Kelly worked alongside David Collins, Emma de Vries, Mal Heap, and Terry Ryan before she was replaced by Danielle Baker. Wallwork has worked within the art department doing freelance work in shows and films. She did art for both Happy Feet & Happy Feet Two, Pearlie, Heidi, and many more. She also works at Lennox Street Studios, an art studio where many forms of art are created. Personally, I believe Kelly Wallwork should have done animated shows by the Henson Company or at least animated segments for Sesame Street. It's a shame she didn't do a lot of puppetry before going into arts, than she would have done more characters other than Kylie of The Ferals. Her recent project was on three episodes of Jellystone as a backgr...

Chelo Vivares is a Spanish actress, puppeteer, and voice actress who performed Espinete on the Spanish co-production of Sesame Street, Barrio Sesamo. It's too bad Barrio Sesamo got cancelled in 1987, then she would have continued the role of Espinete until she decided to stop. Chelo has also dubbed several Henson Company projects in Castilian Spanish, most notably Baby Sinclair in Dinosaurios. Vivares has reprised Espinete in a theatre version of Barrio Sesamo in the late 1980s. Outside of the show, she has mainly done the dubbing field of voice acting, dubbing child roles or young male actors seen in many Spanish version shows. Her dubbing can be heard on The Simpsons, South Park, Sailor Moon, and so much more. It's a shame Chelo Vivares worked with only two puppeteers, Alfonso Vallejo and Emma Cohen, the latter working outside in a Spanish feature. It would appear that she dubbed Spanish shows more than voicing original ones. Additional live-action dubbing have included the H...

Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers) was an actor and ordained Presbyterian minister who was best known for being the star of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Although he is not usually regarded as a puppeteer, he performed almost all of the puppet characters on his show, such as King Friday and X the Owl. Fred appeared on the 12th season finale of Sesame Street and Big Bird made two appearances on his show from within the same year. Rogers has also served as author, composer of all the operas, and executive producer of his show, in which case was worth the hard work. Other than Caroll Spinney, he met some other puppeteers as well, mainly Brad Brewer and Glenngo King who both did some projects with the Muppets. In a Twitter reflection posted by Frank Oz, Jim Henson also met him and liked him. But sadly after his retirement from the series, Fred Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003. Some Sesame Street characters performed a medley of songs from his show in a dedication tribute that same yea...

Ray Henry is a puppeteer, builder, and art director who is yet another puppeteer that hasn't done Sesame Street but should have. He is best known for working on Barney & Friends from 1990-1997, building the sets and puppets, puppeteering, and being costume shop supervisor. Ray has worked alongside Jess Nelson and Charles Bailey as Leapfrog Productions, which was responsible the original sets, props, and puppets before 3/Design Studio took over. Henry should have shown off his talents to Sesame Street, by then he would have learned a few things from the Muppet performers and builders. The last time he did Barney was in 1997, right when Brice Armstrong, Todd Duffey, and Earl Fisher took over the puppetry work. I've read on IMDb that he was last seen on-screen as a fisherman in a film called Mr. What. It's a mystery on what Ray Henry was doing between 1997 and 2015. Pity that there's another puppeteer who has became hidden to the public after a specific year. If he wor...

Jess Nelson is a puppeteer, production designer, sculptor, and muralist who performed various puppets on Barney & Friends as well as be the original production designer. He was also production designer for other television and film productions by Lyrick Studios. Jess should have used both his artistic and puppetry skills on Sesame Street, since both shows had great sets and artwork. Nelson also worked on two movies entitled After the Rain and Scrooge and Marley. He has even worked in the puppet studio, Leapfrog Productions, responsible for the original sets, props, and puppets on Barney & Friends. He worked alongside Ray Henry and Charles Bailey, the former also being a puppeteer. After Leapfrog Productions shutdown, Jess Nelson became more recognized as a photo-real muralist and multi medium sculptor with his own studio in D/FW. His artwork was featured in several national and international newspapers, magazines, and coffee table books. I still believe he should have worked on...

Warwick Davis is a midget actor and suit performer who has done several Creature Shop roles over the years. He worked on Labyrinth, Gulliver's Travels, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as various creatures and androids. Outside of the Creature Shop, Warwick is perhaps best known for being Wicket the Ewok in the Star Wars franchise (one film and two spinoffs). Other productions Davis did include Willow (the title character), Ray, the Leprechaun series (the title character), and the Harry Potter series (Professor Flitwick). He also served as a stand-in for Yoda in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace while Frank Oz did the puppet in close-up shots. I've read that Warwick Davis appeared with Elmo when he visited in 2010, all of which was made into an online video. Some of the other Labyrinth performers in which he performed with include Katie Purvis, Tessa Crockett, and Linda Spriggs, to name a few. I've read on IMDb that he has also made a TV mini series and a short docu...