Jennifer Barnhart | |
|---|---|
 Barnhart at UCONN in 1992 | |
| Born | March 11, 1972 Hamden, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Connecticut (BFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, puppeteer |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Notable work | Avenue Q , Law & Order: SVU , Johnny and the Sprites , Exposing the Order of the Serpentine |
Jennifer Barnhart (born March 11, 1972) is an American actress and puppeteer, with a portfolio of television and theatre performances. [1] [2]
Barnhart was born and grew up in Hamden, Connecticut. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting with a concentration in puppetry. [1] [3] [4]
In 1996, Barnhart began her puppeteer career performing on Once Upon a Tree performing Mara the Beaver and Mrs. Peeper the Owl. [5] She made her Broadway debut in 2003 and is a featured performer in the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q , in which she also appeared Off-Broadway. [6] [7] She was a regular puppeteer on the Nickelodeon series Oobi , playing Mrs. Johnson and various incidental characters. She also stars as Cleo on PBS's literacy education series, Between the Lions , and performed the puppetry for Kanga and Owl on Disney Channel's The Book of Pooh . [1] [2] She is a Sesame Street Muppet performer who took over the roles of Mama Bear in 2001 and Gladys the Cow in 2002. [1] [2]
Barnhart also worked as a puppeteer in Johnny and the Sprites , a Disney Channel children's show created by her Avenue Q co-star John Tartaglia. [2]
As of season 46 of Sesame Street , she performs the role of Zoe, following the retirement of Fran Brill in 2014.
She appeared on screen as a puppeteer in the "Web" episode of Law & Order: SVU in May 2006. [2] In regional theatre, she played the angel in Angels in America (Gallery Players), Olivia in Twelfth Night , and Cassie in Rumors (Connecticut Repertory Theatre). In 2011 she appeared as police officer Randy Osteen in Tracy Letts's new play "Superior Donuts" at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia. [8] In 2010, she portrayed Chicago Police Department detective Lorna Diamond in the Law & Order: SVU episode, "Behave". [2]
Fran Brill is an American retired actress and puppeteer, best known for her roles on Sesame Street, as well as playing Sally Hayes in the Hal Ashby film Being There (1979), Dana Mardukas in the Martin Brest film Midnight Run (1988) and Lily Marvin in the Frank Oz film What About Bob? (1991).
Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer, director and producer best known for puppeteering Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 to 2012. He also performed puppets for Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, Oobi, and various Muppet productions.
Avenue Q is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody of Sesame Street, but its content involves adult-oriented themes. It has been praised for its approach to themes of racism, homosexuality and internet pornography.
Richard S. Lyon is an American puppeteer, actor, and puppet designer and builder. He has worked for The Jim Henson Company as one of the operators of Big Bird. He appeared on Broadway originating the roles of Trekkie Monster, Nicky, the blue Bad Idea Bear, and other characters in the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q, a musical for which he designed and created all of the puppets. In the fall of 2005 he reprised his roles in the production of the show in Las Vegas for eight months before returning to the Broadway cast. Rick was a puppeteer on Sesame Street for 15 seasons, from 1987 to 2002. He also worked with Nickelodeon on the Stick Stickly project and on the Me + My Friends pilot. He was a lead puppeteer for the first season of Comedy Central's television program Crank Yankers. Rick has also appeared numerous times on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, for which he also provided the puppets he performed. Rick puppeteered a xenomorph chest burster in an "Alien" parody sketch with guest star Sigourney Weaver, and Yoda, Kermit the Frog, and Big Bird in satirical sketches, a pair of singing pants, and the Number Two. He also performed the Kukla, Fran, and Ollie-inspired puppets for the black and white throwback clip on the "15th Episode Anniversary Show" of At Home with Amy Sedaris.
Oobi is an American children's television series produced by Little Airplane Productions for the Noggin channel. The show's concept is based on a training method used by puppeteers, in which they use their hands and a pair of glass eyes instead of a full puppet. The main character is a bare hand puppet named Oobi. The first season was a series of two-minute shorts. For its second and third seasons, it became a long-form series, with episodes lasting 13 minutes each. The show originally aired from 2000 to February 11, 2005, with reruns continuing until March 18, 2013.
John Nicholas Tartaglia is an American puppeteer, actor, and singer.
Stephanie Ann D'Abruzzo is an American actress, puppeteer and singer. She has performed various Muppets in the TV program Sesame Street. She held starring roles on Oobi and The Book of Pooh.
Kerry Butler is an American actress and singer known primarily for her work in theater. She is best known for originating the roles of Barbara Maitland in Beetlejuice, Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, and Clio/Kira in Xanadu, the latter of which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, sometimes credited as Leslie Carrara, is an American actress and puppeteer. She is best known as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street, originating the character Abby Cadabby.
Pamela Arciero is an American puppeteer and voice-over artist. She has performed for Between the Lions and Sesame Street, playing Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend Grundgetta in the latter. In addition to performance work, she worked as a director on the Noggin preschool series Oobi, which featured both writers and performers of Sesame Street. She is also the Artistic Director of the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Ann Harada is an American actress and singer who was first known for the musical Avenue Q, in which she originated the role of Christmas Eve, the heavily accented Japanese therapist.
Noel MacNeal, sometimes credited as Edward Noel MacNeal, is an American puppeteer, actor, director, and writer best known as the performer of Bear on Bear in the Big Blue House. He also starred as Kako on Oobi, Leon MacNeal on The Puzzle Place and as Magellan on Eureeka's Castle. Since 2014, MacNeal has served as resident puppeteer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, portraying puppet characters such as Mr. Nutterbutter.
Peter Linz is an American puppeteer and voice actor. Known for his work with the Muppets, Linz's most prominent role is performing for the character Walter who was introduced in the 2011 feature film The Muppets. Since 1991, Linz has performed on Sesame Street, where he later took on the roles of Herry Monster and Ernie on Sesame Street in 2017. Linz recounts receiving the role of Walter as his favorite; "Apart from my wedding day and birth of my children, being cast as Walter was one of the greatest moments of my life. I was beyond happiness."
Alan Muraoka is a Japanese American actor and director who plays Alan, the current owner of Hooper's Store, on the television show Sesame Street since 1998. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBTQIA safe-space, community activist center, and educational bridge dedicated to honoring Bayard Rustin through their mission and good works.
Tim Lagasse is an American puppeteer, puppet designer, actor and director. He has worked on films and television programs for Sesame Workshop, Nickelodeon, Disney XD, and HBO. He is known for playing the title character on Noggin's Oobi, and Crash on Disney XD's Crash & Bernstein.
Tyler Bunch, also known as H.D. Quinn, is an American puppeteer, puppet designer, director, actor, and voice actor.
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in ancient Greece.
Courtney Rhodes Reed is an American actress, best known for originating the role of Princess Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway.
Heather C. Asch is an American puppeteer.
Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation is a 2021 musical based on the film franchise of the same name. The music and lyrics were written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman with a book by Jonathan Rockefeller. The production also borrows elements from the short stories of the same name.
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