Edward Rooke

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 difficulty being the mascots since it's hard to see inside. I'm sure those Wiggle performers had training before it was time to put the mascot costume on. Personally, I think Edward should have done Farscape since he would have been great to play creatures seen in many episodes. Rooke should have also given puppetry another chance if he ever did do Farscape, which he didn't. Wherever he is now, I hope he remembers how much fun he had with The Wiggles, as well as playing classic Hanna-Barbera character for a live appearance. More info about that will come someday. Edward Rooke, you're a terrific dancer and not so bad at puppeteering for one year. I hope you're still doing well today, though maybe resting. Come out of hiding someday and reveal yourself. You're dog-gone good Edward. Fantastic footwork Rooke!