Puppeteer
DON'T HUG ME I'M SCARED: 2022
In 2021, I had the great privilege to lead a team of puppeteers in a new series for Channel 4. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared originally consisted of 6 short episodes released from 2011 to 2016 on YouTube. I joined the team in 2016 to film an unreleased full-length pilot episode. A six-episode television series was released in 2022 on All 4 and Channel 4 and DHMIS has since been nominated for a number of awards including Best Scripted Comedy Show at the 2023 National Comedy Awards.
"Snoopmas" Just Eat Commercial, 2020 & 2021
In late 2020 I spent two days filming, on location, for the Just Eat Christmas 2020 commercial. We had a small team filming under Covid safe conditions and the team at Just Eat were delighted with the result, commissioning the commercial again for the 2021 UK and Ireland Christmas spot.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Jim Henson Company / Netflix
As an avid fan of the original 1982 film, I was very proud to be a member of the puppetry team for this utterly beautiful show. I was one of the additional performers for the large number of background characters and also assisted the core team of perfomers with the main characters, including Deet and Brea, as well as working with the second unit on green screen, VFX and close up elements. The show won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program 2020.
INTU Christmas Commercials, 2016 & 2017
In 2016 I filmed the first of two Christmas campaigns for INTU shopping centres throughout the UK. This was a particularly exciting project to be involved in as not only were the puppets absolutely beautiful and varied in design but we, the puppeteers would be seen on camera alonside the charaters we were animating. I not only had to negotiate how to manipulate the puppets to keep them the focus of the shot but also had to actually pay attention to what my face was doing! "Smile, Lesa" was a fairly regular instruction!
The Furchester Hotel - Sesame Workshop / CBeebies
I had the great joy to go back to my roots and work again with Sesame Workshop for their first series of The Furchester Hotel. I played multiple background characters as well as a number of featured roles and had the distinct honour of being the assistant puppeteer for one of my all time favourite characters, Cookie Monster.
Big and Small - Kindle Entertainment / Sixteen South
I can still say that this has been one of my favourite and most-loved shows to work on. I played Ruby and assisted with Big on the third series of Big and Small. Every day was an absolute joy (as well as very hard work!!) and an amazing learning experience with puppeteers Jason Hopley and Todd Doldersum.