Craig Shemin

Craig Shemin (b. September 19, 1966) is a former Jim Henson Company staff writer, and currently serves as the President of The Jim Henson Legacy. Shemin began his career with Henson as a college intern during the summer of 1987. After he graduated, he was hired in the Public Relations Department, during which time he also worked with the Jim Henson Archives. By 1996, however, he had transitioned to writing, contributing to a wide array of programming, merchandising, and appearances.
In TV, Shemin served as writer and consultant (and sometimes lyricist) for the first season of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and received a Writer's Guild of America Award nomination for his work on the show. For the Hallmark Channel, Craig co-wrote all 26 episodes of Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola, and contributed to two seasons of Donna's Day. Shemin also co-wrote a single episode of Dog City ("Comedy of Horrors").
In the multi-media realm, Shemin scripted two 1996 video games, Muppets Inside and Muppet Treasure Island, as well as MuppetWorld.com's MuppeToon series. In the publishing realm, he helped Miss Piggy with her 1996 cookbook, In the Kitchen with Miss Piggy, coined the title for One Frog Can Make a Difference, contributed humorous text and character quotes to The Muppets Big Book of Crafts, and has written other fiction and non-fiction books outside of the Muppets. He also wrote material for an unnumbered amount of Muppet press interviews and appearances, and text for licensed products such as the Palisades action figures and many others.
In 2001, Shemin hosted the second day of MuppetFest, and with Jim Lewis, co-wrote The Muppet Show Live. He also scripted the concerts Jim Henson's Musical World in 2012 and The Jim Henson Retrospectacle Live in Concert in 2018. Shemin has hosted numerous Henson-related screenings, panels, and events, as well as preparing video content for said events. He currently serves as a "guest curator" for the Museum of the Moving Image's "Jim Henson's World" screening series.
For supplemental materials, Shemin researched and wrote the liner notes for Music, Mayhem and More!, co-wrote the "Muppet Morsels" feature on The Muppet Show Season 1 DVD, and produced the extras on the 2005 Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas DVD, including directing and editing the behind-the-scenes featurette. He also directed a documentary on Muppet photographer John Barrett for The Muppets Say Cheese, a 2005/06 exhibition of Barrett's work at New York's Museum of Television and Radio. He also hosted a feature for the Dinosaurs DVD set. In 2014, Shemin wrote and compiled The Muppets Character Encyclopedia, a 200-page guide to The Muppets characters released by DK Publishing. Shemin later penned Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show, published in 2022.
Shemin's non-Henson writing includes seven installments of the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog, two episodes of Rory's Place (co-written with wife Stephanie D'Abruzzo) as well as an episode of the Nickelodeon series Gullah Gullah Island. He collaborated with D'Abruzzo again on special material written for Empty-Handed, a 2004 showcase by Avenue Q performers Jennifer Barnhart, John Tartaglia and D'Abruzzo directed by Alan Muraoka. He is also is the co-author, with Dep Capone, of the award-winning book Families Are Forever, about a Chinese girl adopted by an American family.
A graduate of Northwestern University, with a B.S. in Speech-Radio/TV/Film, Craig Shemin is a member of the WGA-East, BMI, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and The Dramatists Guild.
==Writing credits==
;Television
*Good Morning America Muppet Moments
**The Muppet Games
**Spring Training
*Dog City
**Episode 303: Comedy of Horrors
*Muppet Time
*The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss
**Episode 105: The Guest (teleplay with Will Ryan)
**Episode 108: Mrs. Zabarelli's Holiday Baton
**Episode 110: Almost There
**Episode 116: The Road to Ka-Larry (co-written with Will Ryan)
**Episode 119: The Birthday Moose (teleplay and story)
**Episode 120: The Grinch Meets His Max (co-written with Will Ryan)
*Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola
*Donna's Day
*Best Ever Muppet Moments
;Books
* Jim Henson's Muppet Stories
**"Let Me Help!" and "Forgetful Rowlf" in Off to Storyland
**"Hot Off the Presses" in Cozy Campfire Stories
*A Very Muppet Christmas
*Farscape Roleplaying Game (editor)
*The Muppets Character Encyclopedia
*Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show
*The Jim Henson Legacy book
;Other media
*Muppet Meeting Films
**Executive's Island
**The Meeting That Would Not Die
**Now Hear This!
*Inside Fraggle Rock (book and tape)
*Fraggle Rock Storytime (radio series)
*The Muppet CD-ROM: Muppets Inside
*Muppet Treasure Island CD-ROM
*MuppetToons
**"Net Congestion"
*The Muppets Kitchen with Cat Cora
==Notes==
*The first piece of material written by Craig Shemin and actually performed by the Muppets was a video featuring Kermit the Frog to be used at a Disney shareholder meeting around the time of the Henson-Disney deal. During the shoot, Craig recited, off-screen, the lines that would be said by Michael Eisner, who would appear live at the event.A Bit of a Chat with Ken Plume March 27, 2018 episode with Craig Shemin (01:13:36)
*In the final scenes of The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, an all-hands-on-deck crowd scene, Shemin, who once contemplated becoming a Muppeteer himself, puppeteered Waldorf.
*On day one of MuppetFest, emcee Kirk Thatcher brought his Muppets Tonight Emmy onstage. Not to be outdone, day two emcee Craig Shemin, a non-Emmy winner, proudly showed off an old bowling trophy.
*Shemin was one of several writers originally involved in the script of Avenue Q, in its first incarnation as an unproduced TV pilot. 
==Sources==
==External Links==
* Official site
* The Muppet Mindset interview: Part 1, Part 2
* ToughPigs.com interview Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
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Category:Writers
Category:Authors
Category:Lyricists
Category:Muppet Puppeteers