All About Muppets

Melissa King is an Australian puppeteer, actress, voice actress, and director who guest puppeteered on Farscape alongside other Australian puppeteers. She is known for performing with various theatres over the years in her career like Riverina Theatre Co, Belvoir St. Joining Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Blue Cow Theatre, and lots more. Melissa did more than a dozen shows both nationally and internationally which got her nominated in the best actor category for her role in The Riddle of Washpool Gully. King also got to puppeteer with kid band The Wiggles in The Wiggles Movie and series one, alongside others such as Edward Rooke, Gavin Sainsbury, Sheryl Talmage, and Larissa Deak. Her on-screen acting credits have included Deadloch, The Gloaming, Fallen Angels, and Rose Haven, to name a few. It's a shame she only did one production with the Henson Company because they hardly do a lot of productions in Australia, but Muppet performers have visited Australia lots of times for appearances. S...

Thomas Roos is a Danish puppeteer who performs Elmo on the Danish co-production of Sesame Street, Sesamgade, which premiered in 2009. He auditioned for the role in July 2009 and was trained by Kevin Clash himself in Copenhagen. Thomas was paired with Peter Norgaard and Martin Sælan who served as his assistants, while the latter performed moving letters for select episodes. Roos must have felt thrilled to be trained by the legendary performer of Sesame Street's Elmo, Clash was a puppet captain. Outside of doing Elmo on Sesamgade, he puppeteered on Radio Karen, the Crank Yankers inspired show, and he performed Øvst on Ramajetterne on DR (Danish Radio). It's a shame Sesamgade only had Elmo on the series, there's always room for a bunch of performers with their own Muppet characters. Thomas Roos still got to do so much more outside of the show as seen on his website. He performed for people of all ages but his page on Muppet Wiki should be updated so everyone who isn't Dani...

Gavin Sainsbury is an Australian puppeteer, prop master, and mechanist who puppeteered on a couple of Henson Company projects such as Bambaloo, Farscape, and the stage show Pan. He got to work with several performers on the former two such as Fiona Gentle, Mat McCoy, Roslyn Oades, Sean Masterson and more. It's a good thing Gavin has a resume and work account, so anybody who wants to know about him, can look up online and read his projects. Some of the outside projects Sainsbury puppeteered on include The Wiggles, Raggs, New MacDonald's Farm, When Good Ghouls Go Bad, and most notably, the Walking with Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular. In addition to puppetry, he also provided standby props for Hi-5 and was a machinist and stage manager for numerous live shows. His endorses have included Paul McGinnis and Graeme Haddon who directed him on some of the projects listed. Gavin Sainsbury seems to be highly skilled at both regular puppets as well as animatronic puppets which earned him the ...

Ellis Lalonde is a Canadian puppeteer, puppet builder, musician, and improviser who serves as one of the additional puppeteers on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. He must have felt very thrilled to be part of the team of Fraggle Rock performers, most notably Dave Goelz and Karen Prell. Ellis also met new puppeteers who also gained experience like Ali DeRegt, Geneviève Paré, and Brendan James Boyd, to name a few. Lalonde should do more Henson productions in the future, if the company ever makes new projects in Canada that is. Outside, he has built and performed puppets for various children's shows at Loose Moose Theatre for eight years, trained at the National Puppetry Conference, and even performed in many late-night cabarets for Calgary Animated Objects Society. That's pretty impressive for someone who is new at Henson Company to do. In addition to performing, Ellis Lalonde was also a musician for Goblin: MacBeth back in 2022 at The Shakespeare Company which also has more info ...

Walid Badr is an Egyptian puppeteer who performs the full-bodied Nimnim on Alam Simsim, an Egypt co-production of Sesame Street. He has been doing the character since 1999, after spending 10 days on the US set and several weeks of training with Martin P. Robinson. Walid was paired with Dina Al-Saleh and Wael Awad as the characters they did were the only Muppets on the production. Badr appeared out of his costume during a 2015 appearance on the show Sahibet Al-Saada, which is so far the only known appearance of the puppeteers of Alam Simsim. Outside, he founded Wel Ya Wel Puppets in 2004 and is also a member of the World Association of Puppeteers. But it's a shame that this information was only found recently, there could've been more interesting history about this performer's career. Walid Badr is probably working with other international puppeteers at the World Association of Puppeteers, but it is unknown which performers are also members, at the moment. There should'v...

Ali DeRegt is a Canadian puppeteer, devisor, and clown who served as one of the additional puppeteers on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. She must have felt so excited to be chosen to assist on the reboot of the legendary Henson Company production. Other performers Ali worked with include Brendan James Boyd, Reese Scott, Jennifer Bain, and Genevieve Pare, to name a few. Outside of Fraggle Rock, DeRegt is the co-founder of a devised theatre company called HOT TRASH! Theatre, where they focus on DIY aesthetics, physical storytelling, and general nonsense. Some of her collaborations include Verb Theatre, Lunchbox Theatre, Mudfoot Theatre, and The Green Fools, all theaters based in Calgary. Besides doing puppetry, she also lent her voice to the anime series World Trigger (the English dubbed version) and did props for the mini-series Summer Monster. Ali DeRegt seems to do so much more than puppeteer, but it all depends on the project she gets called for and what the producers decide. In addi...

Sabrina Kalman is an actress, dancer, puppeteer, singer, and teacher who was one of the puppeteers on the Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Live show. She was trained to puppeteer by Jennifer Barnhart at the Rick Lyon Puppets which led to the former performing on Avenue Q. Sabrina must have been excited to be chosen to puppeteer on a stage-show version of the iconic Fraggle Rock reboot series. Kalman was paired with both Genevieve Flati and Thomas Whitcomb in the concert as they performed stage puppet versions of the Doozers and Marjory the Trash Heap. Apart from puppetry, she acted in regional theatre, educational theatre, and one dance show over the years in her career. Some of the shows she did include Newsies, Footloose, La Cage Aux Folles, and even the classic The Nutcracker. It seems Sabrina Kalman has not only performed in this country but around the world as well, but when she's not performing, she serves as a full-time teaching artist as well as a director/choreographer for s...

John Criswell is a machinist and the current animatronic supervisor for Jim Henson's Creature Shop, being there since 1991. One of his first major projects was Dinosaurs as a machinist for animatronics and puppets (and he was even interviewed in the behind-the-scenes featurette). Later projects John did include Cats & Dogs, The Country Bears, Turkey Hollow, and The Happytime Murders. In addition to animatronics, Criswell also puppeteered on Where the Wild Things Are and Casa de Mi Padre, where the former was based on the famous book. He even got the chance to work with the Muppets on The Muppets Wizard of Oz and Henson Company on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. I wonder how this guy became the current animatronic supervisor, probably because of his time studying his predecessors when joining. Before joining the Creature Shop, John Criswell did mechanical and make-up effects for various films such as Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Spaced Invaders, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, and Cr...

David Strassman is a ventriloquist, actor, stand-up comedian, and voice actor who is best known for his ventriloquism acts around the world. His two well-known characters are Chuck Wood and Ted E. Bear while his others include Sid Beaverman, Kevin, Grandpa Fred, and more. David started out in comedy clubs and later appeared in the horror film Humanoids from the Deep (with his Chuck Wood). Initially, Strassman operated his character like a regular ventriloquist dummy, but in 1986, he added on remote controls to his puppet using many technologies. Since then, he has done many performances around the world in festivals, children's hospitals, and television appearances. He also had his own TV talk show called Strassman where his character Chuck Wood interviewed celebrities. It's a shame David Strassman only appeared in one feature film, because his comedic talents would be perfect for comedy films, but he's probably more comfortable with TV. It's amazing how he's able t...

Mark Hunter is a British designer and puppeteer who worked for the Creature Shop from 1995-2005, an exact decade. He served as an animatronic designer for Lost in Space, Farscape, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In addition to working with animatronics, Mark also helped puppeteer the Gryphon in the 1999 film version of Alice in Wonderland. But it's a pity that Hunter was uncredited for that performance, because he got to work alongside several Creature Shop performers like Nigel Plaskitt, Kiran Shah, Sue Dacre, and Victoria Willing, to name a few. Outside of the Creature Shop, he worked on numerous films over the years like puppeteering on Seed of Chucky and doing animatronic effects for others like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He seems to be another expert at animatronics since he's been a designer and/or technician of them for several years. According to The Telegraph website...