All About Muppets

Paula Everett is a British puppeteer who is another performer to be unknown to the public due to lack of information. She only puppeteered in a Playdays video as Peggy Patch, maybe due to Sally Preisig (her regular performer) being unavailable. Paula worked alongside Colleen Daley and Ellie Darvill for the video, though it's unknown if she ever did more productions, as of now. Maybe Everett served as one of the additional puppeteers on the Playdays series but was uncredited, there should be proof. Nobody ever bothers to find out about mysterious puppeteers and what they've done over the years or if they ever did more than one project. The world also doesn't know what she looks like, for the picture above might not be the right person being mentioned here. I hope Paula Everett is still around and remembers doing the Playdays video years ago, it was temporarily on YouTube before being taken down. Maybe someday she'll get interviewed on a show or something, otherwise she w...

Michelle Zamora is a puppeteer and puppet builder who hasn't really done any Muppet productions but has worked with several Muppet performers. She is perhaps best known for performing Waffles on the Netflix show Waffles + Mochi, where she worked with Russ Walko and Andy Hayward. Michelle also did A Black Lady Sketch Show, Garfunkel and Oates, and Let's Be Real. For the latter, Zamora worked with a whole bunch of Muppet performers such as Colleen Smith, Grant Baciocco, Sarah Sarang Oh, and Artie Esposito. She also met many celebrities throughout her life on some of the shows mentioned above and also made puppets for some shorts and The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway. Besides doing freelance work, she is also CEO and Creative Director of a company known as Viva La Puppet, LLC. At Viva La Puppet, LLC, Michelle Zamora contributed to Zedd + Katy Perry's 365 video, lead the TRUTH puppet campaign (a 2019 Super Bowl commercial), and co-directed the Restless Leg puppet video, to na...

Jennifer Himes is a puppeteer, puppet builder, sculptor, graphic designer, and illustrator who hasn't done Sesame Street but has however did a Sesame puppeteer workshop in 2018. She was under supervision by four performers of Sesame Street; Matt Vogel, Martin P. Robinson, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, and Peter Linz. Apart from the workshop, Jennifer also did Jane Henson's Nativity Story where she designed and sculpted the puppets in the style of the original show. Outside, Himes puppeteered for many companies like Michelee Puppets and Universal Studios while shows include Pete and Penelope, Puppets Skits and Chicks, Nigel, and Dragonfire. Besides building and performing puppets, she's also artistic when doing poster art, character murals, props, backgrounds, and more. She is also another one of those puppeteers to be illustrators like Gene Barretta, Wayne White, and Wendy Froud, to name a few. Jennifer Himes is considered to be one of the most artistic performers in the US sinc...

Spencer Wilding is a Welsh actor, suit performer, and stunt performer who is specialized in the latter two roles. His only known work with the Creature Shop was in the film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where he played a Vogon soldier. At least Spencer got to work with various Muppet performers for that film such as Sarah Wright, Andy Heath, Lynn Robertson Bruce, and Warwick Davis, to name a few. Apart from that film, Wilding is more well-known for doing prosthetics and suits for many feature films beginning with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Some of his film credits include The Wolfman (stunt double for werewolf), Wrath of the Titans (minotaur), Guardians of the Galaxy (alien guard), and Victor Frankenstein (Prometheus). He also did various roles on two TV series, Doctor Who and Game of Thrones, as well as be one of the two performers of Darth Vader in Rogue One. It must have been very exciting for Spencer Wilding to co-perform Vader of the Star Wars franchise, ...

Bob Flanagan was a puppet builder and puppeteer who worked in the Muppet Workshop in the 1980s, building minor characters for productions. He helped create puppets for Fraggle Rock, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Sesame Street (two seasons and Follow That Bird), and Little Muppet Monsters. Bob also performed in one Muppet Meeting Films as an office worker, his only instance of doing puppetry, at least I think it was. After filming The Song of the Cloud Forest in 1989, Flanagan left the workshop to branch out in the world with different companies. He started out designing and building C.J. for the show Eric's World before operating his own company known as Den Design Studio. The company has supplied puppets, costumes, and specialty props for Saturday Night Live and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, not to mention the original Crank Yankers. In addition to working on TV, Bob Flanagan worked extensively on stage productions such as the puppets and props for the Broadway production of W...

Toby Olie is a British puppeteer, puppet designer, and director who is best known for doing numerous theatre productions with numerous companies. Some of the live shows he did include The Wolves in the Walls, Animal Farm, Don Quixote, Goodnight Mister Tom, and many more. Toby has also puppeteered on a few television series, most notably Mongrels as one of the additional puppeteers. Olie got to meet some of the Muppet performers throughout his career whether on TV or stage like Warrick Brownlow-Pike, Iestyn Evans, Sarah Wright, and Daisy Beattie, to name a few. He mostly made the puppets for the shows mentioned above, but his well known shows include War Horse (as co-developer and performer), The Elephantom (as co-director), and Spirited Away. It's a pity he never performed on any Muppet or Creature Shop production whenever they were filming in the UK. Some of the companies Toby Olie worked at include Little Angel Theatre, Gyre & Gimble (co-founder), Royal Opera House, and even ...

Carol Sterling is a puppeteer, arts educator, and teaching artist whose been an advocate of arts education for over 50 years. She also does educational puppetry helping teachers and students, and integrating the art of puppetry for kids from grades Pre-K to 12. The way Carol does puppetry is sort of similar to the performers of Sesame Street, only she teaches puppetry to people of all ages. Also the puppets Sterling makes are also made of simple materials rather than fabric used for Muppets with mechanisms for lots of them. As someone who does education, she conducted puppet workshops all around the world from India to Uganda to the US. Other puppeteers have been teachers like her include Ruth Danziger, Brad Williams, Michael Yuro, and Sally McCormack, to name a few. Besides puppetry, Carol Sterling does teaching arts in many schools as well as being Director of Educations in many areas. I'll bet students of all ages appreciate being educated by her since she is an advocate for art...

Mindy Escobar-Leanse is a puppeteer, actress, and voice actress who has performed for the theatre, like with The Puppet Shakespeare Players. She hasn't really done any Muppet projects but has worked with lots of Muppet performers like Tyler Bunch, Martin P. Robinson, and James Godwin. Mindy is also one of the storytellers for a company known as Cobbler's Gulch. Escobar-Leanse did puppetry on numerous theatre productions such as Carnival of the Animals, Dinosaur Train Live!, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, and more. She must have worked with some other puppeteers who have worked on projects with the Muppets, apart from the ones mentioned above. In addition to puppetry, she also acted on several shows like Sweep, A Ribbon About a Bomb, and Species Human, to name a few. Apart from working in the theatre (either actress or puppeteer), Mindy Escobar-Leanse also recorded her voice for audiobooks since beginning in 2020. She is still voice acting by recording for books, podcasts, an...

Amanda Glass is a British puppeteer and costume maker who puppeteered on season 1 of Sooty (2011) as well as part of the third season. She also puppeteered on the Sooty video Sooty: The Big Day Out as well as making many of the puppets' costumes on the series. Besides doing Sooty, Amanda was also an additional puppeteer on Mongrels for three episodes. I personally think Glass should have puppeteered on a project by either the Muppets or the Henson Company (mostly in the Creature Shop). It's currently unknown what the performer looks like since the picture above either has her on camera or under one of the puppets. On both Sooty and Mongrels, other puppeteers she performed with include Iestyn Evans, Yvonne Stone, Simon Buckley, and Toby Olie, to name a few. Maybe someday Amanda Glass will have her chance to meet one of the Muppet performers in the UK or maybe she will learn about the Henson Company online. Nobody really knows whatever happened to her after 2018 when she did seas...

Duke Cullen is a special effects designer, makeup artist, and performer who has been working with the Creature Shop since the late 1990s. He was a puppet cosmetic technician for Cats & Dogs, The Country Bears, and Snow Dogs as well as a puppet wrangler for Turkey Hollow. Duke has also been credited as a finisher for three films; George of the Jungle (also puppeteered), Dr. Dolittle, and Jack Frost. Cullen even designed the characters for the show Brats of the Lost Nebula which was his only Henson project for television. Outside of the Creature Shop, he has often performed in gorilla suits and is also one of the members of a Planet of the Apes re-enactment group called Apemania. Otherwise, he has mostly done special makeup effects for many films such as Murder in the First (with Bill Barretta in the cast), Inland Empire, Shoot 'Em Up, and Chillerama, to name a few. Other performers Duke Cullen worked with include Pons Maar, Michelan Sisti, Rob Tygner, and Leif Tilden, to name a ...