Anney created Jan S. Port, the star of Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Anney also puppeteered Jan’s straps alongside of Lead Puppeteer and Voice, Stephanie D’Abruzzo. While I didn’t make the Mr. Frumpus puppet, I did have to make his make him a groovy new suit for a flashback scene that I got to perform him with Kenan Thompson. I also make an “addition” to Mr. Frumpus for the awkward elevator scene and rig his trousers to descend on cue. We also did a knock-off Lion King and I made the baby Simba that had to be different enough from the original to pass the legal dept. One of my first jobs was wrangling puppets in rehearsals for the original Broadway production of the Lion King- It’s the Circle of Life!
I started working on Sesame Street Season 37 and have won 5 Daytime Emmys for my work as part of the team at The Jim Henson Company. I’ve made a lot of object puppets, Anything Muppets, and carry on the creations of the classic characters Oscar the Grouch, Rosita, Bert, and The Count.
Anney has been working with The Jim Henson Co since 2001 on various projects for theatre, television and film.
Pix include: Goofer from The Happytime Murders, Mezzo from Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, Marjorie the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, the Crane from The Secret Silk, Granny Pearl, Jerry the Bear and the Moon from Pajanimals, Business, Business from Inspired Silliness, Yancy Woodchuck from Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas: A New Musical, Mini Whale from Puppet Up!, Wise Men (hats and hair) and Camel from Jane Henson’s Nativity, Kai from Ninjago (Legoland Malaysia), Golden Lion Tamarin from X-tink-shun (Philadelpia Zoo), Crane for Ibex Puppetry, Little Shop of Horrors (Mechanical leg covers and puppeteer legs), Hallie Duck from Bear in the Big Blue House.
Anney makes puppets for Adafruit’s Circuit Playground.
Anney made 3 awesome puppets for the dynamic duo: Up, Down and Chef!
Anney made some videos.
Hairy Edge Productions. A great team getting these furniture puppets together designed by Tim Lagasse. I wrangled on the show which was a live action spinoff of Blue’s Clues.
James Godwin, Tim Lagasse, and I built and performed this Optimum Online commercial for Steve Oakes’ Curious Pictures. After college I was button pushing a stop motion spot for the Cartoon Network with Janie Geiser at Curious- What was extra curious was that this magical place was upstairs from my NYU Theatre Studio and I never knew it existed! I interned for a week soon after and worked on the practical set for a space themed Wendy’s Kids Meal commercial. I did a few other shoots at Curious over the years-Getting slimed in slow motion with Sponge Bob and a weird Spitting Image style puppet show with a cartoony James Patterson. Including some pictures of other silly videos we made with Steve for fun- Pirate Rats and Francine, real estate agent of the Newtown Creek Superfund Site. Steve continues to be an inspiration in my life.
Night of the Living was a Live Talk show at the People’s Improv Theater hosted by my pal Kurt Braunoler and written by Kurt and Scotty Landes. I played Pumpkin, Kurt’s desk telephone and various other little characters I had lying around. It was a fun time with celebrity guests, lots of kooky regulars, and an awesome house band Adira Amram and The Experience.
Burning Woman from a beach burn on Assateague Island- inspired by the Venus of Willendorf, jumping jack toys, and of course the fire of Burning Man.
Bird of Hope from our fake peace parade in the Rob Thomas Music Video, “Someday”.
Janie Geiser’s Night Behind the Windows which we performed as part of the last Henson International Festival of Puppetry in 2000.I met Janie becuase she was the designer on the senior show I was in at NYU- a weird Mac Wellman piece called Infared directed by Travis Preston. We were required to help build puppets and props at Janie’s Lower East Side studio and I liked it so much I never left! I started assisting Janie on some of her projects and performing in her shows for a few years. She got me an interview at the Lion King which sent me further down the path of making things for living.
