Mike Quinn

Mike's Extensive Muppet Performing

Mike was personally chosen by Jim Henson and Frank Oz in 1980 at the young age of 16 to work on many Muppet projects including The Great Muppet Caper, The Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock (UK and Europe), Labyrinth, Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, the ABC TV series The Muppets and Muppets Now and many Muppet and Henson commercials, series, specials and videos. He worked with Jim Henson until his passing ten years later, often assisting him with Kermit, Rowlf and the rest of the principle Muppet cast, including doubling for them all, up to the present day. In fact, Mike is the only puppeteer to have assisted all three principle Kermit performers. He has also voiced many Henson and Muppet characters on assorted projects, including singing on The Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack, a film where he was also Muppet coordinator.

Star Wars / Lucasfilm

Mike is well known for his role as Nien Nunb, Lando’s copilot for the Millennium Falcon in Return Of The Jedi, the final three films in the third Star Wars trilogy and the epic Disney theme park ride Rise Of The Resistance.

Other characters he assisted with in Jedi were Yoda, Jabba, Baby Ewoks, Sy Snootles, Admiral Ackbar and Ree Yees.

He is also a Lead Animatronic Puppeteer for CFX, Lucasfilm’s creature department in the UK. Recent notable work includes animatronic lip-sync and the voice for Dewi the fisherman in the first Andor TV series. He also puppeteered on many creatures for The Acolyte and Andor season 2 on Disney Plus.

Now in his 45th year of performing, Mike's career has seen him working on both sides of the camera as a Director, Producer, Actor, Writer, Character Animator, Puppet Builder, Puppeteer, Voice Over Actor and the co-owner of a UK puppet production company. Having extensive experience as producer and performer, uniquely places him in a position to solve puppetry filming needs in advance and streamline on set filming.

Whilst Mike excels as a lead performer on characters, with strengths in technique, acting and guiding a team, he also enjoys supporting and assisting other performers bring their vision to life.

Additional Puppetry Credits

Other movies and TV shows he performed in include Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Starve Acre, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Little Shop Of Horrors, How To Get Ahead In Advertising, The Storyteller, Glee, Lady Gaga and The Muppets, Good Luck Charlie, Shake It Up, Muppets Wizard Of Oz, The Secret Life Of Toys, The Ghost Of Faffner Hall, Jim Henson’s Mother Goose Stories, Jim Carrey’s Kidding and the Willow TV series.

Character Animation

Mike is also a Lead Character Animator and moved to San Francisco to work at Pixar on Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life and the Buzz Lightyear TV series. Mike then moved on to animate Hershey's Kisses commercials. He then spent a year at ILM to animate on Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones and Jurassic Park 3. He later was lead animator at two game companies in Texas.

Live Performing

In an effort to step out of his comfort zone and push himself further, Mike has also performed in live theatre, acting a principle role in the play Rope, singing live on stage with a couple of bands (Anaheim California and Indigo O2 London) and even performing in Muppets Take The Hollywood Bowl, Muppets Take The O2 and with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem at the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco.

Now back in the UK, Mike is very much still active performing in the entertainment industry and is developing new ways to perform characters on his own upcoming projects. He also owns the first ever online academy for Film & TV puppetry.

Animatronic Puppeteer, Creature Performer, Consultant/Coordinator

• The Great Muppet Caper - Muppet Performer

• The Dark Crystal - Skek-Na Skeksis

• Return Of The Jedi - Nien Nunb, Baby Ewok, Yoda Assistant

• Dreamchild - Mad Hatter cable controls

• Labyrinth - Assorted Goblins, R/C for Sir Didymus, talking hands

• Little Shop Of Horrors - Cable control Lip-sync for Audrey II

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Puppetry for "toon" Special effects

• How To Get Ahead In Advertising - Principle performer for talking boil

• Mary Reilly - FX puppetry for John Malkovich transformation

• Sesame Street 4D

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Nien Nunb

• Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Nien Nunb

• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Nien Nunb plus additional R/C puppetry

• The Muppets (2011) - Muppet Performer

• Muppets Most Wanted - Muppet Performer

• Muppet Christmas Carol - Muppet Performer for assorted speaking / singing roles / Muppet Coordinator

• Muppet Treasure Island - Muppet Performer

• Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice - R/C puppeteer for "Shrinkers" and other characters

• Starve Acre - Animatronic puppeteer

• Project Hail Mary - Creature puppeteer

Film Puppetry

TV Puppetry

• The Muppets Go To The Movies - Frogs and Camel

• Fraggle Rock - Sprocket, Gobo & Uncle Traveling Matt puppeteer for UK, France & Germany co=productions over 96 episodes

• Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories - Brown Gosling and many principle characters in 39 episodes

• Jim Henson's The Ghost Of Faffner Hall - Riff and assorted characters

• Jim Henson's The Secret Life of Toys - Bunnylamp, Humble Gary and assorted characters

• Jim Henson's The Animal Show - Digital puppeteer for Tizzy the Bee and assistant to Jake the Polar Bear

• Jim Henson's The Storyteller - Devil in "The Soldier and Death"

• Jim Henson's The Tale Of The Bunny Picnic - Mayor Bunnyparte and Bulbous

• The Jim Henson Hour - Jojo the dog (London sequences)

• The Great Bong - Ogmore Weasel (voiced by Spike Milligan)

• The Slow Norris - Animatronic/hand puppeteer for Allie and Ben Beetle

• Huva and Thing - Principle puppeteer for Thing the alien

• Thing's Thing - Puppeteer for chat show host Thing the alien

• The Beano's Dennis The Menace - Principle puppeteer for Dennis

• The Muppets Wizard Of Oz - Flying Monkey, Mickey Rat

• The Muppets (ABC TV) - Kermit assistant and assorted Muppets

• Muppets Now - Assorted Muppets

• Kidding (Jim Carrey) - Secret Chef

• Good Luck Charlie - Assorted Muppets

• Lady Gaga & The Muppets - Assorted Muppets

• Willow (TV Series) - Animatronic Puppeteer

• Andor - Voice and animatronic fave performer for Dewi the fisherman

• The Acolyte - Animatronic performer for Noodle Bartender, Captain Blex, Tentacled Convict, Door Sentry Droid

• Andor Season 2 - Animatronic performer for assorted characters

Character Animation - Pixar & ILM

• Toy Story 2 - Woody's Roundup sequence and assorted characters

• A Bug's Life - Assorted characters

• Buzz Lightyear TV Series - Opening titles

• Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones - Yoda, Geanosians, Pit Droids, Count Dooku (head animation)

• Jurassic Park III - Assorted dinosaurs

Lead Animator - Games

• Blackstar MMO - Lead animator

• Rockband 2 (Wii conversion) - Animation

• Unnamed Zombie MMO - Lead animator

• Bonk: Brink Of Extinction - Lead animator & voice

Voice Acting

Mike has provided hundreds of live voices on set for many Muppet and animatronic characters and creatures. In addition he has done:

• Shake It Up (live action) - Harold the Parrot

• Mighty Magiswords - Agnes Packard

• Andor - Dewi the Fisherman

Live Performing

• Rope (stage play) - Principle lead Brandon

• Outside Lands Rock Concert, San Francisco - Muppet performer with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

• The Muppets Take The Hollywood Bowl - Assorted Muppets

• The Muppets Take the O2 London - Assorted Muppets

• Guest singer with The Flux Capacitors, Anahem CA, - sang Rebel Yell

• Guess singer with Blues Harvest, Indigo O2, London - sang Dance Magic Dance

Credits - 1980 To Present Day

Performing full R/C head and face with guide voice for Bob on all Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice commercials, promo's and social media.

Behind The Scenes video of Mike returning to his legacy character from Return Of The Jedi, Nien Nunb in The Force Awakens.

Performed the R/C head for Bob in his final scene.

Additional Gallery

Puppeteered lip sync and on set dialogue for the noodle bar tender in The Acolyte.

Puppeteered lip sync and on set dialogue for Captain Blex in The Acolyte.

Puppeteered lip sync and on set dialogue for the prisoner in The Acolyte.

Archive video clip of Mike on Return Of The Jedi

USEFUL LINKS

Secrets Of Puppetry Film & TV Online Academy

The QuinnZone - Mike's Fan Site

Joyful moments from my life and career that are best described as "Magic Moments"

Free PDF book