Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
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Jim Henson's Creature Shop logo
Melissa Creighton, Director of NY Workshop
Jason Weber, Creative Supervisor
Credit: Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Credit: Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Credit: Jim Henson's Creature Shop
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ABOUT JIM HENSON'S CREATURE SHOP
Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ provides animatronic creatures, digital puppetry, and soft puppets to the international film, television, theater, live event, and advertising industries. Recent credits include the wildly popular music video “A Boggart Ballad” for Magic: the Gathering, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV), for which it won an Emmy, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix), the Blumhouse horror franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s, and an upcoming all-puppet episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The Shop is renowned for designing and building some of the world’s best-known characters including the Sesame Street puppets, the classic Muppets, and characters from Dinosaurs, Farscape, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and more. Additional credits in film and television include The Naked Gun (2025), Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 (2025), Lost Ollie (2022), Come Play (2020), and Where the Wild Things Are (2009). The shop is also known for its performance work for theatrical productions including My Neighbour Totoro, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, as well as for its partnerships with commercial clients like Snuggle, Topgolf, and General Mills, and with artists like Coldplay, The Avett Brothers, Cee Lo Green, Ben Rector, Lady Gaga and Deadmau5.
A recipient of multiple Emmy Awards for its outstanding work building puppets for Sesame Street, the Shop also received an Academy Award for its visual effects work on the film Babe. Other awards include a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for the Henson Performance Control System, a powerful custom-based interface for puppeteers, and an Emmy Award for its work in developing the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a patented control system technology that enables puppeteers to perform a computer generated (CG) character in real time.
ABOUT MELISSA CREIGHTON
Melissa Creighton is the Director of the New York Workshop where she oversees all aspects of production, from beginning to end on projects big and small, interfacing with clients and fabricators. She is the HR representative and facilities manager for the New York Shop, as well as the main point of contact between LA and NY.
Prior to her current position, Creighton was a part of the core team that launched Puppet Heap in 2005 where she was a major player in projects for clients including Little Airplane, Pierre Huyghe and The Walt Disney Company. Earlier in her career, she led a team of designers and builders at Shadow Character Design and worked as a prop builder at Clockwork Apple, eventually moving into project management.
On top of all this, Melissa is an established puppet artist and has created work in partnership with award-winning companies such as Wakka Wakka Productions, Cosmic Bicycle Theatre, and Ave. Q. As a puppeteer, Creighton performed on It’s a Big Big World, Sesame Street and Henson Alternative’s Stuffed and Unstrung. As an independent filmmaker her works have been featured in BAM’s Puppets on Film Festivals. As a show creator she has won grants from the Jim Henson Foundation.
ABOUT JASON WEBER
Jason Weber is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with an MFA in theatrical costume design. He began working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in 1985 as a freelance fabric painter and dyer. After freelancing with the company and several design jobs with companies such as Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey Dance Co, he was invited to become a member of the staff in 1996. Since then he has worked on numerous projects such as Muppets Tonight, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Muppets Treasure Island, Muppets from Space, Elmo in Grouchland, The Jim Henson Hour, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and many others.
In 2002, Weber stepped into his position as Creative Supervisor for the Creature Shop’s work on the internationally renowned Sesame Street. He continues to serve in this position today, overseeing all Sesame Street projects and acting as art director and a designer for the series’ domestic production, international co-productions, home video, PR appearances, and photo shoots. He has been awarded ten Emmys for his work on the Sesame Street team.
Since 2010, Weber has been part of the leadership of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, serving as Creative Supervisor for all New York-based projects.