All About Muppets

Eric Thomsen is a puppeteer and blogger who is known for creating and running The Puppet Hideaway, a site where his puppet character express positives of life. Even though he never did a Muppet/Henson project, he has included a quote from Jim Henson himself on his website bio. Eric started out working for children's media at a FOX TV station where he created a puppet character named Foxford for the Fox Kids Club show. Thomsen then continued to work at Fox Kids with the Power Rangers franchise before moving on to developing toys and games at Sony Pictures. Some of the toy teams he did include Spider-Man, Smurfs, Ghostbusters, and Pokemon. Following his career in making toys and games, he gained his inspiration to pursue his dream of creating his own puppet program. Eric Thomsen, has put a lot of effort and persistence when it came to accomplishing his dream. His belief of everyone having a happy place through the ups and downs of life was how The Puppet Hideaway was made. He also do

Cas Willing is a British designer and puppeteer who has worked on several early Creature Shop projects as mostly a designer but occasional puppeteer. She designed creatures on The Dark Crystal, Dreamchild (also cable control puppeteer), Labyrinth, and The Storyteller. For Dreamchild, Cas also performed with numerous others with the cable controls like Sadie Corre, Melissa Whitmire, Mike Quinn, and William Todd-Jones, to name a few. It's currently unknown what happened to Willing after The Storyteller series ended. She doesn't even have a self portrait of herself, as the picture above placed her in the back left of the other fellow Henson designers. Her only known outside project was on Return to Oz as one of the fabric designers of the mechanical characters, at least that's what IMDb says. Despite that, Cas Willing still got to work under the direction of Jim Henson when in the shop and even helped make puppets for the series Brian Henson was on. If she's still alive to

Asmund Huser is a Norwegian puppeteer and producer who is known for performing Bjarne Betjent on the Norwegian co-production of Sesame Street, Sesam Stasjon. On that show he performed with Hanne Dahle, Christine Stoesen, and Geir Borresen, all of which had their own character. Asmund also did the role of Bjarne for the Sesame Street Stays Up Late special, with Kevin Clash dubbing the character for that appearance. Huser has been known for being one of the most prolific puppeteers in Norway having performed characters on numerous shows. Shows like Christmas in Shoemaker's Street (as Tofflus), 3-4-5 (as Smitt and Smule), and Portveien 2 (as Raffen and others). In addition to television, he has also produced and performed in many stage puppet shows. Norwegians were right to say that Asmund Huser is a prolific puppeteer since he's done so many productions over the years. His only non-puppet role to date was on an award-winning children TV series called Uhu as a ghost named Napoleon

Malcolm Dixon was a British actor and suit performer who performed in two Creature Shops films; The Dark Crystal (additional performer) and Labyrinth (goblin corps). He must have been excited to work under the direction of Jim Henson for both films, with Frank Oz for the former. Malcolm's film resume began with Time Bandits where he played Strutter with Kenny Baker and Jack Purvis. Dixon also did two Star Wars films, A New Hope (a Jawa) and Return of the Jedi (an Ewok), which must have been exciting to do the original trilogy. Some of his other film credits placed him on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Flash Gordon, and Willow, to name a few. He was also one of those lucky actors to perform in music videos featuring legendary singers, in his case Duran Duran. Malcolm Dixon must have been awestruck to work alongside rock legends for not one but two music videos, one shot in 1985 and the other shot in 1989. His last known film was A Witch's Way of Love as Merlin and after

Richard Bradshaw is an Australian puppeteer who is well known for his shadow puppets and also writes for them. He made a guest appearance on an episode of The Muppet Show performing skits involving three different animals on objects. Richard also starred on an episode of a series by Jim Henson called The World of Puppetry where he interacted with Henson. Bradshaw also used his shadow puppets for animations and stories on an Australian educational show called Play School for most of the run. He is one of the two guest puppeteers on The Muppet Show along with Bruce Schwartz. He must have felt so awestruck when Jim Henson made an episode about him back in the 1980s and he got to show off some clips of his performances. I read that in 2005, Richard Bradshaw was commissioned to write a theatre show called The Storyteller's Shadow: a Celebration of Hans Christian Andersen which toured around the world. In later years, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to puppetry a

Pui Fan Lee is a British actress, television presenter, and suit performer who is by known by children as Po on the original Teletubbies. She is also known for presenting a preschool series by CBeebies called Show Me Show Me, with an actor named Chris Jarvis. Pui must have had some difficulties as Po since she voiced her from within the costume, plus it was mainly taped on-location. Lee worked alongside Nikky Smedley, Simon Shelton, and John Simmit as the Teletubbies while puppeteers included Robin Stevens and Mark Dean, with Andrew Davenport as the showrunner. She was also one of the many first presenters on CBeebies while others include Jarvis and puppeteer Sue Monroe. Her other acting credits placed her in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, EastEnders, and The Nevers (her most recent). It's a real shame that with all of her credits, Pui Fan Lee never appeared with a Sesame Street character while presenting CBeebies. She should have when Elmo and Cookie Monster appeared from The

Nikky Smedley is a British actress, dancer, choreographer, and suit performer who is best known for doing the body and voice of Laa-Laa on the original Teletubbies. She is also a regular within Ragdoll Productions being a choreographer for Boohbah, In the Night Garden, and even the Teletubbies reboot (though not perform). Nikky hasn't really appeared in any project featuring Sesame Street characters but should have when Elmo and Cookie Monster starred on The Furchester Hotel. Smedley was paired with John Simmit, Pui Fan Lee, and Simon Shelton since they all performed the main characters. Despite that she hasn't worked with any actual puppeteers except for Robin Stevens, Mark Dean, and Andrew Davenport, though the latter ran the original. It must have been pretty difficult for her to perform Laa-Laa on the show since it was on-location and she wore a full-bodied suit. And how did Nikky Smedley even voice the character when she was inside the costume? All the actors must have rec

Kristi Ann Holt is a Canadian puppeteer, puppet/toy builder, artist, and designer who served as one of the wranglers and additional puppeteers on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. She also served as puppet wrangler for the Henson Company series Opie's Home, with Jordan Lockhart as the title character. I'll bet Kristi was very excited to work on the revival of the classic Fraggle Rock since both versions were filmed in Canada where she lives. Outside, Holt built and wrangled puppets for several shows such as Tallboyz, Miss Persona, Piper's Pony Tales, and more. As for puppetry, she performed on The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy and on The Legend of Rasputin short. On Fraggle Rock, some of the other puppeteers she worked with include Reese Scott, Brendan James Boyd, Russ Walko, and more. I read online that Jamie Shannon of The Grogs collaborated with Kristi Ann Holt for commercial work, but it's unknown which commercials they did together. Apart from that collaboration,

Jim Parker is a Canadian singer, songwriter, producer, and puppeteer who is best known for doing many forms of entertainment since 1976. His most notable (and only) project featuring puppetry was on Mr. Dressup as the character Alex who replaced Judith Lawrence. Jim's website states that he also played both Casey and Finnegan for a stage show version of the show in 1983 with Ernie Coombs. Parker got to work with other puppeteers on the TV series such as Nina Keogh, Bob Dermer, Karen Valleau, Jani Lauzon, and Ruth Danziger. Despite not doing a single Muppet or Henson project, most of the people he worked with have done those types of projects. Apart from puppetry, he mostly writers and performs songs all across Canada making albums such as Around the World and From Away. Jim Parker would have done more with Ernie Coombs if the latter hasn't died so suddenly in 2001 which cost some plans for more of his tours. Over the years he alternated in performing solo and in bands like The

Hus Levant is or was a British puppeteer and actor who only did one Creature Shop project which was The Dark Crystal. On that film he played the Mystic Scribe as well as a Garthim that entered a Podling gathering, according to an interview by Toby Philpott. I don't know why Hus didn't work on any other projects by the Creature Shop. Levant could have done Labyrinth, The Witches, or other films where the company provided special-effects. At least he worked with other performers who did some Mystics such as Hugh Spight, Robbie Barnett, and Simon Williamson. Outside of The Dark Crystal, he acted in many Shakespeare productions by the National Theater like the 1986-1987 production of King Lear. In addition to doing National Theater, Hus Levant also appeared in BBC productions of Henry VI (all 3 parts) and Richard III. Other than Shakespeare, he played a miner named Edwin Green in the Doctor Who story entitled "The Mark of the Rani." Nobody seems to know what happened to h

Rob Gardner is a puppeteer, puppet builder, and puppet wrangler who worked on numerous Muppet and Henson productions over the years. After he first met Kermit Love at a puppet festival, the former got to work on Sesame Street for 4 years as puppet wrangler and production assistant. Rob has even served as a "valet" for Big Bird, helping take care of the costume, helping Caroll Spinney get in and out, and occasionally standing in as the bird for still photos. Later in the 1990s, Gardner received credit as both a puppet designer and builder in the Muppet Workshop on several projects. The projects were mostly on The Secret Life of Toys, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and Bear in the Big Blue House. Outside of Muppet and Henson, he served as a puppeteer and puppet wrangler for countless projects featuring Muppet crew (puppeteers/designers/etc.). Rob Gardner worked on Eureeka's Castle, Between the Lions, MATHmatazz, The Puzzle Place videos, and Blue's Room, to name a few