 |
Mak Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 September 1957 Consett, County Durham, England |
| Other names | Mac Wilson Malcolm Wilson |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1973-present |
Mak Wilson (born 3 September 1957) is a now retired English puppeteer, writer, CG animation director, and mocap artist. [1] He is also known as Mac Wilson and Malcolm Wilson.
Wilson was born in Consett, England, but grew up in nearby Stanley, County Durham. He began his professional career in 1973 at the age of 15, but his screen physical performer and puppeteering work started in 1981 with The Dark Crystal . Wilson had previously toured on stage where he often did mime, mask and puppeteering.
From 1990 he became head puppeteer and creative advisor for the London Jim Henson's Creature Shop, but when it closed down in 2005 Mak Wilson began freelancing and worked extensively with the BBC. [2] He was forced to retire in 2014 after his longstanding M.E./C.F.S. became too severe for him to continue. He now spends his time writing on the subjects of King Arthur and the ‘Dark Ages’ in general.
Frank Oz is an American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theater.
Louise Gold is an English puppeteer, actress and singer. Her long career has included puppetry on television and roles in musical theatre in the West End, as well as other television, film and voice roles.
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.
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.
Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers. It is most commonly used in filmmaking and television production but has also been used in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre.
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.
William Todd-Jones is a Welsh puppeteer, puppet designer, performer, director, movement consultant and writer for film, television and theatre in the UK and abroad.
Michael Earl was an American puppeteer. A four-time Emmy Award-winner whose credits include Mr. Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street (1978–1981) and Dr. Ticktock in Ticktock Minutes, a musical series of PSA's on PBS he also co-created, scripted and wrote lyrics for that garnered 11 Southern Regional Emmys, a 1998 National Emmy for Best Public Service Announcements, a Gabriel Award, two Parents' Choice Awards and numerous other honors. Earl performed the original Shrek character in a motion-capture development test film for DreamWorks and puppeteered lead characters in Paramount Pictures' Team America: World Police.
Karen Leigh Prell is an American puppeteer and animator. She is the performer of Red Fraggle in Fraggle Rock.
Nigel Plaskitt is an English actor, puppeteer, producer, and stage and television director.
Bruce Lanoil is an American puppeteer and voice actor who works for The Jim Henson Company and for The Walt Disney Company. He frequently works with puppeteer David Alan Barclay.
Victor Yerrid is an American actor and puppeteer for the Jim Henson Company and has performed Muppet characters in many films, television commercials and television shows. He is best known in the Muppet World for his work on the online series Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony, in which he performed Waldorf along with an assortment of other characters.
Richard Coombs is a British puppeteer who has worked extensively on television shows, feature films, commercials, and music videos. From 1987 to 1988, he worked on the ITV Saturday morning children's show, Get Fresh, where he operated the puppet Gilbert the Alien, alongside fellow puppeteer John Eccleston, with the character's voice performed by Phil Cornwell.
Toby Philpott is an English puppeteer best known for his work in motion picture animatronics during the 1980s in such films as The Dark Crystal and Return of the Jedi. Born into a family of entertainers, Philpott dropped out of school and traveled the world during the 1960s, squatting in various locations and surviving off money he earned from his work as a street performer, which included juggling, fire eating, magic shows, clowning and acrobatics. He began his film career after Jim Henson personally selected Philpott to work on the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal, in which he worked side-by-side with Henson.
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.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based in Hollywood, California, United States.
Allan Trautman is an American puppeteer, best known for his work with The Jim Henson Company.
David Alan Barclay is a British puppeteer who had worked on some projects of The Jim Henson Company. He has been at the cutting edge of animatronic puppetry since 1979. Barclay, who hails from London, is a Master Puppeteer, Animatronic Designer and Supervisor, a CG key frame Animator, and Director and Producer of animatronic and animation projects for film and television.
James Murray is an American actor, puppeteer, voice actor, writer, producer, director, and singer.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is an American fantasy television series produced, made and owned by The Jim Henson Company. It is a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal that explores the world of Thra created for the original film. It follows the story of three Gelflings: Rian, Deet, and Brea, as they journey together on a quest to unite the Gelfling clans to rise against the tyrannical Skeksis and save their planet Thra from a destructive blight known as the Darkening. The series premiered on August 30, 2019, to critical acclaim. In September 2020, it was announced that the series had been cancelled after one season.
