Weekly Muppeteer Wednesdays: David Rudman

Today's Weekly Muppeteer Wednesdays post was written by Tom Stroud.

DAVID RUDMAN

Born...
June 1, 1964

Notable Muppets...
Baby Bear, Cookie Monster (2001-), Right Head of the Two Headed Monster (1992-), Sully (1992-), Scooter (2008-), Janice (2008-)

WHO IS DAVID RUDMAN?
David Rudman first worked with Muppets as an intern with the Muppet Workshop in the summer of 1981. After he graduated from high school, Richard Hunt helped him get a job as a Muppet performer, beginning with background characters in The Muppets Take Manhattan. He also began working on Sesame Street, beginning mainly with background roles.

After years of background roles, he finally got his first major role in the early 1990’s, with his new Sesame Street character Baby Bear. Around that time he also took over some of the late Richard Hunt’s characters, namely Sully and the Two Headed Monster’s right head. Although Sully was eventually dropped from the show, the Two Headed Monster and Baby Bear continued to be popular characters, and still are today. However, neither of them are as popular as David’s most recent role, Cookie Monster, which he took over in 2001 after Frank Oz’s formal retirement from performing.

David has performed with the classic Muppets as well, performing background characters in Muppet*Vision 3D, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, and Muppets Tonight. He also worked on The Muppet Christmas Carol, where he performed Peter Cratchit and the Swedish Chef. Recently (first in Studio DC: Almost Live!), David has taken over two of Richard Hunt’s most popular Muppet characters, Scooter and Janice. He performed Scooter and Jaince in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, and presumably performed them in The Muppets as well.

He has also created a few non-Henson TV shows with his brother, Adam Rudman. Adam and David have created both Bunnytown, a Playhouse Disney show which David also produced and directed, and Jack’s Big Music Show where he played the appropriately named main character, Jack.

Rudman continues to work with both Sesame Street and the Muppets as one of the main Muppeteers. His work as Baby Bear and Cookie Monster means that David's work can be seen and heard in nearly every episode of Sesame Street and now that he has taken over Richard Hunt's characters for the Muppets, Rudman is heavily involved in almost everything they're doing as well.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

People Muppet Fans Need to Know

Ryan Dosier - Recently, it has come to my attention that there are a lot of important Muppet people working right now that a lot of casual Muppet fans have never heard of. I was very bothered by this, since all of these people are doing such awesome things with the Muppets right now, it's a shame that they're not more well known among the fan-base. I thought I would solve that little problem by compiling a list of some People Muppet Fans Need to Know.

The Muppets

• Lylle Breier - General Manager of The Muppets Studio and all-around awesome lady. A lot of this recent push of the Muppets back into the limelight was thanks to her.
• Jim Lewis - Muppet Consultant and writer. He's responsible for making the Muppets just that: Muppets. He makes sure Piggy says Piggy things and Kermit says Kermit things and so on. He can probably be attributed to why the Muppets have been so good recently.
• Jason Segel - Writer and human star of the upcoming The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time. Segel's pitch for a new Muppet movie is what ignited this whole Muppet Renaissance. Also, self-proclaimed Muppet fanatic. Starred in the Muppet-referencing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and in the TV show How I Met Your Mother.
• Nicholas Stoller - Writer of the upcoming The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time. Has been promoting the heck out of The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time. 
• James Bobin - Director of the upcoming The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time. Has been noted as a sort of Muppet freak. Also directed Flight of the Conchords.
• Matt Vogel - Muppet performer. Performs Floyd Pepper, Robin the Frog, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry, and others. Also writer and director for Sesame Street.

Fraggle Rock

• Cory Edwards - Writer/director of the upcoming Fraggle Rock feature film. Huge Muppet fan who knows exactly what he's doing.

Sesame Street

• Carol-Lynne Parente - Executive producer of Sesame Street since season 37. Accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys.
• David Rudman - Daytime Emmy-nominated Muppet performer. Performs Baby Bear and Cookie Monster for Sesame Street. Performs Scooter and Janice for The Muppets.
• Joey Mazzarino - Daytime Emmy-nominated Muppet performer. Performs Murray Monster and various other characters on Sesame Street. Also writer and director for the show.
• Louis Henry Mitchell - Associate Design Director of Special Projects for Sesame Street. Ace photographer, and one of the nicest guys around.
• Neil Patrick Harris - Self-proclaimed Henson fanatic. Most well known roles include Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser in Doogie Howser, M.D., and Dr. Horrible in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. No really important reason to know him... but he's at the top of my list for cameos in the next Muppet movie.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier