All About Muppets

Leila Ghaznavi is a puppeteer of American-Iranian descent who is the performer of Yasmine on Sesame Street starting with its 54th season. Before Sesame Street, she served as a swing performer for the Jim Henson Company special exhibit called X.Tink.shun, along with Jeff Cleve. Leila has a wide range in diverse acting methods other than puppetry, such as mask work, clown, aerial acrobatics, and acting itself. Ghaznavi must have been excited to have been cast as a new Sesame Street Muppet. Other than being a performer, she is also a playwright, where she made works on various topics like discrimination of homosexuals. Her piece known as Silken Veils, first premiered in the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was nominated for the Fringe First Award for best new work. Leila Ghaznavi also performed her works around the world such as various cities in America, Indonesia, and Norway. I wonder how she was chosen to be the performer of Yasmine. She probably attended a puppeteer training worksho...

Paul Hartis is a puppet designer/builder, supervisor, and puppeteer who worked with the Jim Henson Company from 1988-2010, exactly 14 years. He designed and or built over 150 puppets and supervised many projects such as TV series, commericials, and a movie. Paul was also an occasional puppeteer on Sesame Street in many segments and also puppeteered within The Song of the Cloud Forest and Free to Be... a Family. Hartis' project supervisor credits include The Secret Life of Toys, Mopatop's Shop, The Hoobs, and the television movie Kermit's Swamp Years. Working on Sesame Street has won him two Daytime Emmy Awards, though I wish it won him more, if he did more seasons. Some other builders that worked alongside him include Peter MacKennan, Barry Link, and Mark Zeszotek, all of which had served as occasional puppeteers as well. I'll bet Paul Hartis felt really proud of himself for being project supervisor meant he would be in charge of the workshop and the building of the pup...

Jason Murphy is a puppeteer, suit performer, and filmmaker who has performed background characters in Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic. He also was in-suit as a walk-around Bert for a mall tour of Play With Me Sesame by Noggin. I wonder why Jason did not perform in any Henson Company shows in Florida where he lives, for he could have done Big Bag or Animal Jam. I read that Murphy was also the puppeteer specialist for the Walt Disney World from 1997-2002. At Walt Disney World, he puppeteered puppet characters and trained performers for the Magic Kingdom shows & parades. As for his TV work, he puppeteered in Musical Expressions, The Imagination Factory, & Kaptain Techno's Kartooniverse. In addition to doing puppetry, Jason Murphy is also a filmmaker and was the director, producer, and VFX supervisor for many feature films. Films such as The Unbroken, Robo-Dog, Monsters At Large, & most recently, Space Pups. He has also directed numerous stage and tour productions, including ...

Alejandro Abaroa is a Mexican puppeteer, songwriter, and music arranger who played various anything characters known as Multimuppets and Multimonstruos on Plaza Sesamo. In addition to performing, he also served as the show's musical coordinator. Alejandro even arranged various traditional kid songs for the show and co-wrote many new pieces, all alongside his sister, Christina Abaroa. Abaroa appears to be another puppeteer who is also involved with the music department. Other puppeteers that created songs for many projects include Phil Baron, Fred Newman, John Kennedy, and Dan Redican. Outside of Plaza Sesamo, he served as a music producer for various Mexican productions such as La fea mas bella, Codigo F.A.M.A. 2a. edicion, and El diario de Daniela. People can look up Alejandro Abaroa on IMDb where his other credits mentioned come from. He is probably considered one of the best Mexican songwriters and music producers in Mexico. Other puppeteers on Plaza Sesamo he worked with includ...

Linda Spriggs is a diminutive actress and suit performer who only did one Creature Shop project, the film Labyrinth. On that film she was one of the goblin corps and was also credited as a mime double for Shari Weiser as Hoggle. Not a lot of information is known about Linda, other than Return of the Jedi where she performed one of the Ewoks. Spriggs also made an episodic appearance of TV series Comic Relief. Too bad there isn't a proper image of her either, the one above doesn't look like her. Some other performers she worked with that are her size include Warwick Davis, Tessa Crocket, Katie Purvis, and Jack Purvis, just to name a few. I wonder if Linda Spriggs had a lot of difficulty being a suit performer since she can hardly see out of each full-bodied costume she wears. Pity she hasn't done a lot of other projects outside of Lucasfilm, Ltd., the company that co-produced Labyrinth. Nobody seems to know what happened to her after her performance on Labyrinth. Nobody even ...

Sheryl Talmage is an Australian puppeteer and puppet designer/builder whose only known puppet work was with The Wiggles from 1997-1998. She worked at Balooga Puppets alongside Graeme Haddon during that time and designed, built, and performed puppets for The Wiggles feature film. Sheryl was also credited as puppet maintenance during Series 1 of The Wiggles. Talmage should have performed on Henson Company projects filmed in Australia, like Bambaloo, Farscape, or Me and My Monsters. In addition to Haddon, other puppeteers she worked with include Mat McCoy, Edward Rooke, and some more. She made and performed puppets very well at Balooga Puppets so she would have been perfect to do Henson Company projects, in or out of the workshop. I only wish I knew what Sheryl Talmage is doing now, because the photo above is her, but it's unknown where or when it was taken. At least she worked with two Wiggles puppeteers who also puppeteered on Farscape. Personally, I think she could be even better w...

Nancy Davoust was a French puppeteer and a former member of the Magenia Company mime troupe who worked on the French co-production of Fraggle Rock. She assisted David Barclay in puppeteering Croquette, the French version of Sprocket in the early seasons. Nancy also worked with Mike Quinn, Geoff Felix, and Jean-Pierre Dutour, the latter puppeteering Gobo and Uncle Traveling Matt. Davoust should have also done French co-productions of Sesame Street when she had the chance because they involve puppeteers who speak her language. Outside, she also taught mime and acting in Dieppe and Angers based on her experience with the Magenia Company mime troupe. It's too bad the internet does not have an actual image of her, the image above doesn't look like the puppeteer. Nancy Davoust must have done more projects involving puppetry, but Muppet Wiki doesn't mention anything else about her as of now. At least she worked with a few Muppet performers during her time on the French version of ...

Edward Rooke is an Australian dancer and puppeteer who is known for working with The Wiggles from 1997-2000. During those years he mainly played the mascot Wags the Dog and he also puppeteered on two Wiggles projects in 1997, their feature film and a Christmas video. Other puppeteers Edward has worked with include Graeme Haddon, Mat McCoy, and Sheryl Talmage, to name a few. It's a shame Rooke never done any Henson Company projects filmed in Australia, most notably Farscape featuring the performers he worked with. A few pictures on Getty Images shows that he also portrayed Yogi Bear in Entertainment Wonderland, but it's unknown when. It's currently unknown whatever happened to him after 2000 when he left The Wiggles, but the picture above shows him in recent years. Edward Rooke should be proud to have made millions of children happy during his Wiggle years, not to mention wear a dog costume very well. Though I wonder if he, as well as the other mascot performers had difficul...

Gavin Robins is an Australian director and suit performer who worked on Farscape as both a movement coach and a suit performer for a couple episodes. I don't know why he only worked on 1 Creature Shop project because he would have been great working on some other Henson projects filmed in Australia as either a suit performer or director. Gavin's other work includes being choreographer for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Opening Ceremony and being aerial and movement director for King Kong (2018 Broadway production). Robins also directed some films such as the Dreamworks film How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Prime Mover (featuring Farscape actor Ben Mendelsohn). His website shows that he also directed various events and theater shows all across Australia as far as the eye can see. During his time on Farscape, he got to work with John Eccleston, Graeme Haddon, and Mat McCoy, to name a few of the puppeteers that operated several creatures. Gavin Robins must be very proud to have directed al...

David Bulbeck is a British puppeteer and actor who puppeteered one of the Goblins in Labyrinth and was also an additional performer on The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, The Muppets Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. I'll bet he felt excited to work alongside singer David Bowie. David's outside puppet work includes the film version of Little Shop of Horrors and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. From 1980-1983, Bulbeck acted on multiple episodes of Doctor Who playing various creatures such as Lazar, Foamasi, and Castrovalvan. His other film credits were mostly uncredited roles such as 2 Harry Potter films, Alice in Wonderland, and Skyfall. It's a pity he never gets credited in most film productions that had him in it, not to mention those film roles were all minor. I'd say Doctor Who is something David Bulbeck is most well known for since he played creatures for four years. Still, he did great performing with the Muppets on three projects, as well as doing Labyrinth by the Cr...