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Jim Henson's Creature Shop

Creative & Production
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Founded
1979
Employees
51-200
Offices
4

About Jim Henson's Creature Shop

Jim Henson's Creature Shop designs and builds practical characters, animatronic creatures, soft puppets and digital performance systems for film, television, advertising, live entertainment and interactive media. Operating as a division of The Jim Henson Company, it combines character design, fabrication, mechanical engineering and puppetry to create characters for recorded and live performances.

Founded in London in 1979 by Jim Henson and Brian Froud, the shop originated with the creature-building work for The Dark Crystal. Its name distinguished this mechanical creature operation from Henson's existing soft-puppet workshop in New York. Its subsequent work spans fantasy creatures, realistic animal animatronics, television puppets, commercial mascots and characters designed for concert stages.

From concept to performance

The shop develops characters through sketches, digital models and sculpted physical maquettes. Fabrication capabilities include foam and fabric puppets, custom costumes, articulated walkaround suits and mechanical frameworks. Its animatronics work uses cable-actuated assemblies, servo mechanisms and performer-operated controls to bring physical characters to life.

Alongside practical fabrication, the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio enables performers to articulate and voice three-dimensional digital characters in real time on virtual sets. The shop also supplies rentals of existing animatronic animals, fantasy creatures and walkaround suits from the Henson archives, giving productions access to previously built characters.

Screen and live entertainment

Its screen work includes Labyrinth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Witches, Babe, Where the Wild Things Are and Five Nights at Freddy's. Television projects include Sesame Street, Dinosaurs, Farscape, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.

The studio's work also extends to advertising mascots and live music, including characters for Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Deadmau5. Its current workshop network combines soft-puppet construction in New York with animatronics, creature suits and digital integration in the Los Angeles area. Together, these capabilities support projects ranging from individual puppets and branded characters to ensembles of creatures for screen and stage.

More about Jim Henson's Creature Shop

Workshop leadership

  • Peter Brooke is Creative Supervisor in Los Angeles, alongside Animatronics Supervisor John Criswell and CG Supervisor Dan Ortega.
  • Melissa Creighton directs the New York workshop, where Jason Weber is Creative Supervisor.

Performance technology and recognition

Electro-mechanical designer Faz Fazakas developed the Henson Performance Control System in the 1980s. Its multi-channel radio controls replaced cumbersome physical cables and enabled puppeteers to articulate complex facial movements. The system received Scientific and Engineering Academy recognition in 1992.

The Henson Digital Puppetry Studio has also received Emmy recognition for its digital puppetry technology.

Public access and production model

The New York workshop offers official behind-the-scenes weekend tours. Its core engineering, fabrication and digital teams expand with project-based artisans, sculptors and puppeteers during active productions.

Historical development

Following Jim Henson's death in 1990, Brian Henson assumed leadership and expanded creature services for third-party productions. After the 2004 sale of the Muppets intellectual property to Disney, the New York puppet workshop was consolidated under the Creature Shop umbrella.

Notable credits

30 credits
  • The Dark Crystal
  • Labyrinth
  • The Bear
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • The Witches
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol
  • The Flintstones
  • Babe
  • 101 Dalmatians
  • The English Patient
  • George of the Jungle
  • Dr. Dolittle
  • Where the Wild Things Are
  • Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  • The Happytime Murders
  • Come Play
  • Five Nights at Freddy's
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 2
  • Sesame Street
  • Fraggle Rock
  • Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock
  • Dinosaurs
  • Farscape
  • The Storyteller
  • The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
  • Sid the Science Kid
  • Word Party
  • Earth to Ned
  • Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time
  • Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge

Offices

Current and former locations of Jim Henson's Creature Shop

5 locations

  • Burbank office

    2827 Burton Ave, Burbank, CA 91504Burbank, California, United States
    About this office

    West Coast workshop for character design, animatronics engineering, creature suits and digital puppetry development. Represents the saved Greater Los Angeles location.

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  • Long Island City office

    37-18 Northern Blvd, Suite 400, Long Island City, NY 11101Long Island City, New York, United States

    Opened 2009

    About this office

    Queens workshop building soft puppets for Sesame Street and outside clients, with public behind-the-scenes tours. The workshop consolidated here in 2009.

    creatureshoptours@henson.com
    View mapOffice website

  • Los Angeles office

    Los Angeles, California, United States

  • New York office

    New York, United States

  • London offices

    Former office
    London, England, United Kingdom
    About this office

    **Hampstead workshop** Status: inactive / historical Opened: 1979 Original Creature Shop workshop in Hampstead, established for The Dark Crystal. --- **Camden Town workshop** Status: inactive / historical Opened: 1990 Closed: 2005 Former Creature Shop workshop in Camden Town, subsequently converted into The Henson apartments.

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