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Showing posts from October, 2024

Kim Snodgrass

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Kim Snodgrass is a puppeteer, voice actress, and puppet builder who has worked with Animax Designs for four years on projects like Trollies and Wish*a*Roo Park. She hasn't done any productions featuring Muppets, but she has worked with puppeteers who have, Chuck Fawcett, Eddie May, Jeff Conover, and John Kennedy. It's a shame Kim doesn't have a lot of information about herself online since she hasn't done much puppetry after 1995. However, Snodgrass does have a LinkedIn account that can be found online by looking up her full name, including her real last name Stacey. Though I wish she assisted the Muppets when she had the chance but then again, they haven't filmed anything in Tennessee. Perhaps if she still kept in touch with one of the puppeteers from Animax, either May or Conover, they would've told her all about them and the Henson Company. Kim Snodgrass is now a professional teacher/sub and homemaker for the Laramie County School District, according to her L

Bonnie Erickson

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Bonnie Erickson is a designer and builder for both puppets and costumes, best known for being part of the original team in the Muppet Workshop. She started working with Jim Henson's team as a costume designer for The Frog Prince, later became the head of the workshop and continued to be a part of the Muppets team for years. Bonnie is credited for designing and/or building numerous Muppets for many productions, such as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and others for The Muppet Show. Erickson has also made Sesame Street costumes for their appearances on Ice Follies in 1977, and even made two characters for two international co-productions of Sesame Street. Later in her Muppet career, she became the Creative Director of the Product Division of the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop). After being design consultant for Fraggle Rock, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, and The Christmas Toy, she left the Muppets do pursue her own career. Even though Bonnie Erickson doesn't wor

Andrea Gilletti

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Andrea Gilletti is a puppet designer and builder who has done freelance work within the Creature Shop since 2014 creating puppets, costumes, and props for numerous shows and events. Some of the projects she did include the 46th season of Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, Slumberkins, and Five Nights at Freddy's. Andrea also served as a utility puppeteer on Five Nights at Freddy's alongside various other performers like Brett O'Quinn, Sarah Sarang Oh, Artie Esposito, and Russ Walko. Gilletti is also a production assistant on outside productions such as The Electric Company (reboot) and many game shows like America's Got Talent and American Idol. She even has her own social media account known as Wax Moon, where she makes spooky props in the form of wreaths and other things involving Halloween. I hope things don't get too spooky for the Creature Shop because she appears to be a pro at it and the Creature Shop does tend to do eerie productions sometimes. O

Ivan Owen

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Ivan Owen was a British actor and puppeteer who was best known for creating and performing the well-known UK puppet Basil Brush. He performed Basil from his first appearance in the 1960s up until his death in 2000, which I must say shows that he's famous. Ivan met Basil's designer Peter Firman prior to his debut voicing the character, as well as doing the puppetry as well. Owen also voiced another famous TV puppet known as Fred Barker who was seen on a show called Five O'clock Club. After the first on-screen appearance of Basil in 1963, the character returned to star in his own television series between 1968 and the 1980s. It's a shame though that Basil Brush never guest appeared with the Muppets during their time in the UK, though the performer probably never heard of them. During the 1970s, Ivan Owen strangely remained anonymous, never giving interviews or allowing himself to be photographed, well except for only one known picture of himself above. The reason for his

Jeremiah Krage

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Jeremiah Krage is a British actor and suit performer who is best known for being Tinky Winky on the reboot of Teletubbies. He hasn't done any Muppet projects, but he has worked alongside many Muppet performers on some of his projects. Jeremiah is also known for performing Zack on ZingZillas which featured Josh Elwell, Nick Kellington, and Mark Jefferis, who all assisted the Muppets. Krage must've been lucky enough to be chosen to take on the role of Tinky Winky on Teletubbies when the show got rebooted. Unlike his predecessors Dave Thompson and Simon Shelton, he actually voiced the character from inside the suit which must have been difficult for him. He also performed with Rebecca Hyland, Rachelle Beinart, Victoria Jane, and Olly Taylor on the reboot, the latter worked on various Muppet and Creature Shop productions. In addition to suit performance, Jeremiah Krage acted on-screen for many films and television series, though he was mainly uncredited for the former. Some of the

Mark Alexander Todd

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Mark Alexander Todd is a British puppeteer, actor, writer, and director who has performed background characters on The Muppets Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. He hasn't done any Muppet or Creature Shop projects following production of MTI, but still he got to work with legendary performers for both films. Mark also puppeteered on TV for many commercials and shows such as Spitting Image, Ozmo, Noel's House Party, and Space Vets, to name a few. Todd also gave motion capture technology a shot in 1997 and has used that style on numerous BBC projects for a couple of years. Following doing puppetry, he phased out of puppets to focus on creating film and video media, becoming a professional at it since 2001. On his website, he states that he's a 'jack of all trades' as he produced, directed, written, and edited productions for years. Some of the projects Mark Alexander Todd wrote and directed include Bad Reception, In the Name of Charity, and four Hasbro featur

Brock Winkless

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Brock Winkless was a puppeteer and visual effects technician, best known for being the puppeteer of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise and the Crypt Keeper on Tales from the Crypt. A magazine stated that he understood lip-syncing of a puppet's mouth movements which gave him the skill to puppeteer his characters to vocal tracks. Brock frequently worked with director and make-up artist Kevin Yagher on many projects, such as the Child's Play series, the Crypt Keeper, and the film Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. Winkless also collaborated with other studios for make-up and visual effects throughout his career, including Animated FX Inc., owned by Norman Tempia. Other films he puppeteered in over the years have included Death Becomes Her, Man's Best Friend, Congo, The X-Files, and Dr. Dolittle 2. But no matter what films he does he'll always be known for being both Chucky and the Crypt Keeper since he's done both roles for years. Apart from doing puppetry, Brock Winkless

Margo Rose

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Margo Rose was a puppeteer and puppet designer who was known for designing many puppets for films and the show Howdy Doody with her husband Rufus Rose. Initially working with Tony Sarg Marionette Company, she later met her husband and together they founded Rufus Rose Marionettes. Margo was the head performer of The Howdy Doody Show and she designed and built the additional characters while Velma Wayne Dawson did the Howdy Doody character. In 1974, Rose and her husband got to meet Jim Henson himself for he visited their home and taught his style of puppetry. Some of the other projects the couple did with her husband include A Christmas Carol, The Blue Ferry, Treasure Island, and more. The couple also created and produced over 15 marionette productions as well as several films, projects, and commercials. It would appear that both Rufus & Margo Rose were very artistic when it came to doing marionette performances across the country since they done so well for the screen. This couple s

Jordan Canning

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Jordan Canning is a Canadian director, writer, and producer, who is both creative producer and director of several episodes of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. She also puppeteered the Little Rago character in the "This for That" musical number from the episode of the same name. Jordan must have been super excited to work on the reboot of the original Fraggle Rock as well as give puppetry a try. Canning must have had difficulty with puppetry though since someone had to train her and that number was probably short on puppeteers. Before Fraggle Rock, some of her projects include Space Riders: Division Earth, Schitt's Creek, Burden of Truth, and Saving Hope, to name a few. Basically, she's born to be in charge of putting films and television shows together. Jordan Canning is another one of those people to have done one-time puppetry for a Muppet/Henson-style show with another one being Sesame Street writer Annie Evans. Though she's a natural at directing and producing

Velma Wayne Dawson

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Velma Wayne Dawson was a puppet maker and puppeteer who was best known for her work on Howdy Doody Show creating the marionettes. However, she built only two classic marionettes from the start of the show in 1947 but continued to build them until the show ended in 1960. Velma also puppeteered the characters from above as evidenced by the above photo of her holding the marionette strings. Dawson is probably one of the first TV female puppeteers to work with marionettes, then again, I could be wrong about that. She should have worked for Sesame Street or the Muppets when she had the chance after the Howdy Doody Show ended. But she probably never heard of either production since both were created way after her career on Howdy Doody went off the air. Velma Wayne Dawson has been honored by her 50-year-long career in television and was an active benefactor to a college in Palm Desert. It's a shame that she never did any other projects besides Howdy Doody, unless you count being a technic

Dave Thompson

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Dave Thompson is a British actor, suit performer, comedian, and writer who is best known for being the 1st performer of Tinky Winky on Teletubbies (original). However, he only did the suit performance for the first season as Simon Shelton took over the role for the rest of the series. Dave also did not do the voice of Tinky Winky, Mark Heenehan actually voiced the character for the whole series while he and later Shelton did the body movements. Thompson has been paired with John Simmit, Nikky Smedley, Pui Fan Lee, and Mark Dean while doing Teletubbies, though it must have been hard to be in a costume with a special head on-location. Pity he never did a British project featuring Muppets, he would be great to be one of the full-bodied Muppet monsters. Besides Teletubbies, he has acted on-screen for a whole variety of television shows and feature films as well, though uncredited for the latter. Dave Thompson did Time Gentleman Please, TV Burp, and The Sketch Show for TV (also wrote for th

Forrest Harding

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Forrest Harding is a puppeteer, voice actor, producer, director, and writer who is perhaps best known for working on the PBS Kids Sprout block for years. He was the original puppeteer for Chica on The Sunny Side Up Show and later reprised her on The Chica Show. Forrest has also served as a producer for that show where he worked with everyone including the many Chica puppeteers. Harding also puppeteered various characters on The Sprout Sharing Show, working alongside Kelly Vrooman, Kevin Yamada, and Brendon Gawel. On Sunny Side Up, he got to appear with various guest stars from children shows, such as Barney, The Wiggles, and Sesame Street characters. In an interview, he said that meeting the Sesame Street performers was a dream come true because he worked with Kevin Clash, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and Caroll Spinney, the latter of which he assisted on Oscar the Grouch for a photo. Forrest Harding has also visited the set of Sesame Street itself along with the other people from Sunny Sid

Swee Lim

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Swee Lim is a British puppeteer who performed a Landstrider and UrNol on The Dark Crystal, paired with Hugh Spight and Robbie Barnett for the former. I wonder if he had any difficulty performing those two characters, for they both were performed in a hard way, one on stilts and the other in a hunchbacked position. Swee also performed on Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (as a Hoover) and Return to Oz, those were his only credits outside of Dark Crystal. Lim at least got to work under the direction of both Jim Henson and Frank Oz on that Creature Shop film which must have been pretty exciting for him. If only this person were to have done more productions by the Creature Shop like Labyrinth, then his resume would expand, and he would be recognized for his incredible puppetry methods. Though I'm sure it was pretty difficult for him to do those characters because Mystics had to be operated hunchbacked while a Landstrider was done with stilts. Hopefully someone will meet Swee Lim and maybe

Alexandra Posen

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Alexandra Posen is a puppeteer, mask maker, and artist who is known for her various works of art seen at Lynch Tham, Nycams, Bullet magazine, and various blogs. In the late 90s, she did performances in the world of puppetry and masks, as well as puppeteering on episodes of The Book of Pooh. Alexandra may not have done a Muppet/Henson project, but she has performed with various Muppet performers in 2002 while doing Book of Pooh. Posen is also the sister of fashion designer Zac Posen and has worked with him for nearly a decade as creative director to establish a global brand. She has done unique forms of art such as wax drawing series and fields, abstract paintings, and fabricated fashion clothes for many magazines and such. Fashion designing must run in the family in her case, since her brother is a famous fashion designer now and she does work with him. Alexandra Posen should consider working with the Muppets at some point in the future because I think she would be perfect, not only to

Mary Robinette Kowal

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Mary Robinette Kowal is a puppeteer, art director, translator, and author who has done some projects by Jim Henson Productions (Henson Company) though it's unknown what. In 2014, she attended a Sesame Street puppetry workshop, according to her website. Mary also worked on LazyTown as one of the few assistant puppeteers with one of the others being Raymond Carr. Kowal even had her own production company known as Other Hand Productions, though the information about the company is archived as of now. In addition to puppetry, she is also a well-known author who has made various novels and short fiction stories, both genres got her various awards. Some of her works include The Lady Astronaut of Mars, Kiss Me Twice, The Relentless Moon, and The Spare Man, to name a few. Mary Robinette Kowal should be proud to have made such popular novels and short fictions over the years, especially since her work on LazyTown helped her translate an Icelandic one. Her voice has also been heard on the po

Rebecca Hyland

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Rebecca Hyland is a British actress, suit performer, and choreographer who is best known for playing Upsy Daisy on In the Night Garden and Laa-Laa on Teletubbies (reboot). Both projects involved her to do the characters from within a costume, which must have been extremely difficult for her. Rebecca has not done a single Muppet or Henson project (yet), but she has worked with a couple performers who have, Olly Taylor and Nick Kellington. Hyland also worked with Andrew Davenport, Rachelle Beinart, Victoria Jane, and Jeremiah Krage on those two shows respectively. In addition to television, she also acted on-screen in several films, usually uncredited. Some of the films include It's Complicated, Soul Surfer, Zombie Spring Breakers, The Beguiled, and many others, though I personally think she should have been credited for doing those films, even if the roles she did were very minor. Rebecca Hyland has done a great job overall taking over the role of Laa-Laa from Nikky Smedley for she

Chuck Fawcett

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Chuck Fawcett is a puppet builder, puppeteer, director, producer, and founder of the puppet workshop in Tennessee known as Animax Designs. Before founding the company in 1989, his career started out as a freelancer working with Kermit Love on international co-productions of Sesame Street with his notable co-production being Sesamstraat in the Netherlands. Chuck built puppets on that show from 1987-1994 including Pino, Ieniemienie, and Tommie, all were mostly through his company. Fawcett was also the builder for Bad Andy on a Domino's Pizza ad campaign in 2000 which didn't last very long, only a few commercials. Animax Designs did work for other international Sesame projects too like Sesam Stasjon, Rechov Sumsum, Sesamstrasse, and many more. As for his puppetry skills, he also trained puppeteers for co-productions around the world from Spain to France to China. Since 2001, Chuck Fawcett works on the actual Sesame Street characters for Sesame Place and other theme parks like Busc

James Wojtal

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James Wojtal is a puppet designer, builder, and performer who has worked within the Henson Company from 1998-2002 and then returning in 2016. His projects included Bear in the Big Blue House, Animal Jam, Mopatop's Shop, and international co-productions of Sesame Street. Outside, James has designed, built, and performed puppets on various productions over the years for both screen and stage. Wojtal did Avenue Q, ImaginOcean, and Wicked for stage while TV credits include Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, CollegeHumor skits, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Other puppet designers & builders he has worked with include Paul Hartis, Rollie Krewson, Ed Christie, Heather Asch, and more. What in the world could have made him want to leave Henson for a while after 2002? Since 2016, James Wojtal has returned to the Henson Company and has been in the workshop for projects such as The Happytime Murders, Sesame Street (since 2018), and Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Season 1). I wo

Kevin Yamada

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Kevin Yamada is an actor and puppeteer who is most well known for being one of the original hosts on the PBS Kids Sprout block (now Universal Kids). He originally hosted The Sunny Side Up Show while paired with Chica, while Forrest Harding and Brendon Gawel alternated with the puppetry. Kevin also performed Ricky, one of the puppet hosts on The Sprout Sharing Show, working with Gawel, Harding, and Kelly Vrooman. While on Sunny Side Up, Yamada interacted with characters (and performers) from Sesame Street whenever they made guest appearances. I saw in an interview that he even visited the set of Sesame Street itself one time, which must have been exciting for him. Apart from Sprout, he acted in several films and TV series over the years since 2004. Some of the films Kevin Yamada did include Old Dogs, The Winter Butterfly, How to Be Single, and Press Play, to name a few. As for television, he did Street Fighter: The Later Years, Hawaii Five-0, and guest appearances on various other shows

Rachelle Beinart

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Rachelle Beinart is a British actress, suit performer, and stunt person who is well known for performing stunts for many films. Her suit performance credits placed her on ZingZillas (as Drum) and the reboot of Teletubbies (as Po) while the rest of her roles involved on-screen acting. Rachelle may not have done any Muppet projects, but she has performed with Muppet puppeteers, such as Josh Elwell, Olly Taylor, William Banyard, and Nick Kellington. For acting credits, Beinart mostly did uncredited roles in films such as Below Her Mouth, Fences, Game of Thrones, and Before I Fall, to name a few. She did receive credit for doing stunts on numerous films and series however, such as The Irregulars, The Batman, The Marvels, Cats, and more. It's amazing how a stunt performer can work well for both adults and children too. Other performers that worked with Rachelle Beinart on Teletubbies (besides Nick Kellington) have included Rebecca Hyland, Jeremiah Krage, and Victoria Jane. She still doe

Dorothy James

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Dorothy James is a puppeteer, educator, and artist who is more of a theatre performer than a TV person since she never did a Muppet project. She puppeteered for various productions like Basil Twist, Radio City, BBC, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and some streaming services. Some of the shows Dorothy did include Moon and Me, Snow Child, Patriot, Bill's 44th, and tons more theatre shows. Although James never worked with actual Muppet performers, she has met a few Henson ones on Moon and Me, mostly Raymond Carr and Robin Stevens, not the others. As creator, she used tabletop, shadow, rod, and paper cut puppetry techniques to create otherworldly narratives to express the characters. Maybe someday she will be trained to do Muppet-style puppetry, those companies could always use some more puppeteers to help out when needed. Of course, it could be hard for Dorothy James because that technique requires a puppeteer to look at a monitor while performing the character. In addition to puppets, she

Annie Evans

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Annie Evans is a writer and the wife of Muppet performer Martin P. Robinson who was best known for being on the Sesame Street writing staff from 1995-2016. On the show, she wrote episodes, song lyrics, videos, and segments (and co-developed the Elmo's World and Elmo the Musical segments). Annie also wrote on The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (1 episode with Will Ryan), Big Bag, and Panwapa, and she was also story editor for several International Sesame Street co-productions. Evans isn't a puppeteer, though she did assist her husband in performing Telly Monster in a web video, as well as voice Telly's mother. I wonder if she assisted Telly during 2020 when everything was shot from her home. Outside of Sesame Street, she scripted episodes of Gullah Gullah Island, Oswald, Out of the Box, and Jojo's Circus which were all considered great shows. Annie Evans not only scripted for television, but she also wrote for theatre too like Ghost Stories and several monologues. She even

Brendon Gawel

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Brendon Gawel is a puppeteer, actor, and director who is best known for performing on the PBS Kids Sprout (now Universal Kids) block for years. He performed Curtis E. Owl on The Sprout Sharing Show and was one of the puppeteers for Chica on The Sunny Side Up Show (alternating with Forrest Harding and others). On Sprout, Brendon got to perform alongside some Sesame Street performers when their characters have made occasional guest appearances. Other performers Gawel worked with include Kelly Vrooman, Kevin Yamada, and Forrest Harding, all on The Sprout Sharing Show. I'll bet he felt proud to entertain little children for many years as a puppeteer on Sprout. Outside of Sprout, he serves as director for the Philadelphia Children's Theatre and founded Ombelico Mask Ensemble, he's been working at the latter since founding it of course. Other companies Brendon Gawel worked at, besides the one above, include Mum Puppettheatre, Walking Fish Theatre, and Clowns Without Borders, to n

Joe Kovacs

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Joe Kovacs is a puppeteer, actor, and puppet builder who is known for building puppets at the Henson Company since 2016. Most of the projects he did involve Sesame Street, such as the show itself, one of their specials, and the UK co-production The Furchester Hotel. Joe also did the Henson Alternative film The Happytime Murders, his only film work so far. In 1998 and 1999, Kovacs played the title character of Bear in the Big Blue House for promotional appearances, eventually playing him in the Bear in the Big Blue House Live show to Noel MacNeal's pre-recorded vocal track. Most of the other puppeteers he worked with were stage show performers, with the exception of Doel Martinez, one of the puppeteers for the show called Gina D Kids Club. Outside of the Henson Company, he serves as the performer of Madame, a character originally created by the late Wayland Flowers, for many appearances. Joe Kovacs seems to be doing so well keeping a legendary puppet character alive. Yet I wonder ho

Steven Widerman

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Steven Widerman is a puppeteer, composer, and producer who has contributed to the numerous fields of entertainment, education, and more for over 60 years. That is pretty impressive for a puppeteer to work for that many years. Over the years, Steven has designed and built more than 400 puppets throughout his career as well as numerous original projects and pieces, all with assistance of course. Widerman has mostly been in the theater but has also performed many films, commercials, and TV shows too, such as The Book of Pooh and Bear in the Big Blue House. His website states that he studied with the legendary Bil Baird before founding his own company called The Puppet Company in 1977. The company mostly did marionettes but also did hand puppets too, I think from one photo. I wonder if Steven Widerman felt excited to assist on Bear, even though he was uncredited. His website states that he is well known by the public as the voice of Al E. Gator and master marionette performer Rocket the Ro

Norman Tempia

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Norman Tempia is a puppet builder and performer who worked in the Muppet Workshop for 10 years on projects such as Fraggle Rock and various Muppet specials. Some of the specials he did have included The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, The Christmas Toy, and episodes of The Jim Henson Hour. Norman also worked in the Muppet Workshop for feature films The Muppets Take Manhattan and Follow That Bird, building Hoots the Owl for the latter. Tempia left the workshop after 1990 to follow his own career both building and performing. He worked on numerous live-action films, building or puppeteering animal or monster effects like the Beethoven films, Alien 3, Anchorman, and Ed. Lots of those projects were done through his own company called Animated FX Inc. (with co-owner Dave Nelson). Norman Tempia is probably more interested in providing puppets and animal effects through his company since everything was made so well. The company also designed, built, and revised characters for Greg the Bunny (FOX ve

Kim Christianson

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Kim Christianson is a puppeteer, actress, and voice actress who doesn't have a lot of information about herself but should. As a child, she voiced Roo on the Welcome to Pooh Corner series and Christopher Robin on a couple of Winnie the Pooh specials. Growing up, Kim later puppeteered on Adventures in Wonderland and The Puzzle Place, also appearing on-screen for an episode on the former. It seems to me that Christianson is the most familiar with the Disney productions, though she never did perform on a single Muppet production. However, she has worked with numerous Muppet performers on the shows she puppeteered on, including John Lovelady, Drew Massey, Terri Hardin, and Jim Martin, to name a few. Nobody seems to be aware what kind of person she is since the internet shows different people of the same name and not one of them shows her at work. Hopefully in the future, Kim Christianson will be interviewed for her career and the world will know more about her. You never know if or whe

Cat Rock

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Cat Rock is a puppeteer, filmmaker, artist, and puppet builder who has numerous projects in all of those fields, though she hasn't done any Muppet projects. However, she performed on the Coldplay Biutyful UK Tour which featured puppets made by the Henson Company with performers. Cat also met one of the puppeteers who have worked with the Muppets, Grant Baciocco, via his puppet podcast. Rock has performed internationally for years, working with numerous companies and industry professionals like Trigger Stuff and The Paper Cinema. She is also a founding member of the puppet film company known as House of Funny Noises where she creates puppetry films and weird media. As puppeteer, she worked on numerous live performances and screen media like Unlucky, Count Duckula Live, and Where Did the Bats Go, to name a few. As puppet builder, Cat Rock made puppets for several projects like Five Children and It, Dungeons and Dragons (2023 film), Climate Carnival, and at her company, which she also

Barbara Pollitt

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Barbara Pollitt is a puppeteer, artist, and puppet designer who is well known for working in the theatre industry for many years. Some of the theatre productions she worked on included Juan Darien (as Juan), Angels in America, Jelly's Last Jam, and The Tempest. Barbara also puppeteered on some episodes of The Book of Pooh which featured several Muppet performers. Pollitt must have felt excited to assist the main performers on that TV show, though the performing conditions were extremely hard. She could've worked with the Muppet performers on Muppet/Henson projects when she had the chance, but she was probably more interested in theatre. She is considered as a puppet master when it comes to theatre but what if she's done that for television too (besides assisting on The Book of Pooh that is)? Barbara Pollitt is another one of those puppeteers to also do mask design, along with Trish Leeper and Bob Flanagan of course. She's also the curator of the Sari Dienes Foundation,

Andy Holmes

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Andy Holmes is a puppeteer, writer, author, and illustrator who is best known for being the creator and performer of Gerbert. He was trained to puppeteer by Kermit Love who designed and built the puppet and also worked with other performers, including Nikki Tilroe. For the series Gerbert, Andy not only did the title character, but he also created the show and wrote all the episodes. Holmes' website says that he also performed lead roles in other children's video programs, though it's unknown which ones. Apart from puppetry, he is an incredible author since he's written (and often illustrated) over fifty books, it's something he should be proud of. Since Gerbert's creation in 1976, he has been used to help children and adults as well as entertain them, like in a pediatric program. It would appear that Andy Holmes not only knows how to keep children entertained, but he also finds ways to keep them healthy. Not every puppeteer has ever gone into medical areas. Like

James Silson

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James Silson is a puppeteer and director who is known for originating the roles of Howard Snake, Jiffy, and George Rabbit in the stage show production of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. He was also co-director of The Muppets Present... Great Moments in American History, a Walt Disney World live show from 2016-2020. Before those productions, James served as one of the puppeteers for Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic with other performers such as Andy Stone, Galen Fott, Mark Gale, and Tracie Mick. I'll bet Silson felt excited to work with Sesame Street characters for that production (even though he mostly assisted the main performers). Outside, he has served as puppet master with Disney Live Entertainment, acting as choreographer and internal consultant for live puppetry shows. What he does is sort of similar to the work Jeff Conover does for Disney. One of the projects James Silson worked on for Disney was the Walt Disney World musical version of Finding Nemo. IMDb states that he