Toby Olie

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 the Walt Disney Theatrical. He is still designing, directing, and teaching puppetry for many organizations today, he even co-founded an online resource called Puppetry in Motion. The online resource is created to inspire and nurture a passion for puppetry to those who have discovered that art form, no matter the area they are in. Toby has entertained people all over the world with the puppets he makes, performs, and directs within the productions. Perhaps Olie could influence other puppeteers to be like him such as Amanda Glass or Susan Beattie, you never know. In the meantime, he's going to keep on working with puppets in the theatre including ones that are upcoming as stated on his website. Let's just hope some performer from the Muppets will inform him of them. Toby Olie, you've done wonderful working on all of those theatre productions around the world and you still are. Keep up the great work so that you will go down in history. And who knows, maybe you'll be a role model for any kids in the audience. Until then, always keep yourself busy Toby. You sure are one of the British puppet masters Olie!