
Age: 55
male
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Matthew J Vogel II (born October 6, 1970) has been a Muppet performer for the Jim Henson Company since the 1990s. On Sesame Street, Vogel served as the assistant puppeteer for Ernie, performing either one or both hands while Steve Whitmire performed the head and vocal. Eventually, Vogel's ability to mimic the sound and performance of Caroll Spinney's Big Bird was put to use. As of 2006, Vogel's primary performances as Big Bird are the "Journey to Ernie" segments. He's also taken over Jerry Nelson's characters, by the recommendation of Nelson himself. Vogel is, as of 2008, the voice of Floyd Pepper, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry, Robin the Frog, & Camilla the Chicken. He has also taken over the puppetry of Jerry's most famous character, Count von Count, but Jerry is still providing the voice. Vogel performed the muppets that were used in Kenneth the Page's view of the world in the 30 Rock episode, "Apollo, Apollo." Description above from the Wikipedia article Matt Vogel (puppeteer), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Brian Henson boldly walks into Disney headquarters and negotiates The Muppets removal from Disney. Bill Barretta starts a campaign by creating a mini-series titled "After Dark with Pepé the King Prawn", a late night talk show starring Bill Barretta's characters. He brings Steve Whitmire and Frank Oz to come back and play their characters for the movement. Arjuna Myles creates the puppets, and Bill signs up thousands of professional scientists to create an invention that allows the illusion of puppeteering to climb to another level. Disney separates themselves from The Jim Henson Company and they recast Steve Whitmire as Kermit, keeping Matt Vogel in the cast. Frank Oz occasionally substitutes for Eric Jacobson. They finally decide around Christmas 2026 to release Midnight Muppets. An all-new adult show made by Bill Barretta, Colin Jost and Brian Henson.
