David Rudman

David Rudman (b. June 1, 1963)Shay, Art. "The Dean of the Digits." Chicago Tribune. June 14, 1992."The People in Our Neighborhood" Facebook post is a core Muppet performer who on Sesame Street plays Baby Bear, Davey Monkey, Chicago the Lion, Humphrey, and assumed the role of Cookie Monster in 2001. For The Muppets Studio, he performs Scooter, Janice, and Beaker, characters that were originated by Richard Hunt on The Muppet Show.
==Early career==
Rudman graduated from Highland Park High School in Chicago in 1981 and began working for the Muppets that summer, interning as a builder in the Muppet Workshop. His assignments included building Oscar the Grouch for Sesame Street Live and photo puppets for Muppet displays.The Barretta Brothers: Two of Us Show #27 (00:12:19) At the end of Rudman's internship, Richard Hunt helped him in preparing an audition tape for Jim Henson. Rudman used the red monster puppet that would later be established as Elmo for his audition, lip-syncing to "I Can Do That" from A Chorus Line. A few weeks into Rudman's college freshman year, Henson saw his audition tape and hired him as a performer. While Henson advised Rudman to stay in college, he was allowed to work on Muppet projects on his vacations.David Rudman on The Joey and Amanda PodcastGikow, Louise. Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street. p. 103
After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1985, Rudman was cast as Boo Monster, one of the lead characters on the short-lived Little Muppet Monsters.
==Sesame Street==
Rudman started performing for Sesame Street in season 17. On his first day, Rudman was intended to right-hand for Richard Hunt, but Hunt instead gave his primary performing duties to Rudman. His first Sesame Street segments, taped on November 7, 1985,Documents provided by trusted source were "The People in Your Neighborhood" playing an Anything Muppet dentist, and "Scratch My Back" puppeteering Jill, an AM Monster, to a prerecorded song track.Rudman, David The MuppetCast episode 41 After Hunt's passing in 1992, Rudman assumed the roles of Sonny Friendly, Sully, and the right (horns up) half of the Two-Headed Monster. 
In addition to his work as a Muppeteer on Sesame Street, Rudman has also provided voice-acting for the show, notably as Baby Bear's animated sidekick Hero Guy, as well as in several animated segments. Many Sesame Street cartoons featuring his voicework also include other Muppet performers, such as Joey Mazzarino.
Rudman has received multiple Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work on Sesame Street: 2004, 2010, 2013, and 2014.
==Assuming the role of Cookie Monster==
Rudman's prominence as a lead Muppet performer on Sesame Street was on the rise during the years in which Frank Oz was increasingly unable to commit time to puppeteering. As some of Oz's characters were recast with understudies, Rudman auditioned for the role of Cookie Monster, and was ultimately selected for the job. "Frank decided who he wanted to do it," Rudman told the press while promoting the show's 40th anniversarySioux City Journal "Change is key to Sesame Street" by Bruce R. Miller, Nov 6, 2009.
Rudman's first performances as Cookie Monster appear in season 32 including Episode 3943 ("One of These Things"), Episode 3950 ("Zero" sketch), Episode 3962 (street plot), and Episode 3968 ("Me Draw Cookie"). He previously recorded for season 31 that went unaired on the domestic Sesame Street.
David Rudman talked about Frank Oz passing the torch to him while filming a Letter of the Day sketch in season 33 that features Rudman's Cookie Monster in a scene with Oz's Super Grover:
==The Muppets==
In addition to his role in Little Muppet Monsters, Rudman worked as an additional Muppet performer on several projects in the 1980s and early '90s, including The Muppets Take Manhattan, A Muppet Family Christmas, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, Muppet*Vision 3D, The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson along with some home video titles, several Muppet Meeting Films shorts and the Muppet Time interstitials. He played the role of Peter Cratchit and others in the 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol.
Rudman drifted away from performing with the classic Muppet characters in the mid-1990s when most of their productions moved to Los Angeles, and he stayed based in New York to work on Sesame Street and other projects.
Rudman says that Steve Whitmire was the one to push for him taking on Richard Hunt's characters within the classic Muppets:
Shortly after, in 2008, The Muppets Studio held a meeting with Rudman along with Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, Matt Vogel, Marty Robinson and Debbie McClellan to discuss Rudman taking on Hunt's characters and Vogel taking on Nelson's.Below the Frame Episode 29 (53:59)
In 2008, he officially took over some of Richard Hunt's Muppet Show characters, including Scooter and Janice (and later assuming the role of Beaker following Steve Whitmire's departure from the troupe). His first performance of Janice was in Studio DC Hosted by Dylan and Cole Sprouse and his Scooter debuted in Studio DC Hosted by Selena Gomez (both in 2008). He debuted as Beaker in The Muppets Take the Bowl in 2017.
Rudman spoke about performing Hunt's characters saying:
Rudman has performed Scooter and Janice in featured roles in the films The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted and the series The Muppets, Muppets Now and The Muppets Mayhem.
==Creature Shop==
He performed Goblins in Labyrinth and puppeteered on the Henson series Dinosaurs. He was also the facial puppeteer for Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 
Rudman performed Bobut (both puppetry and voice), the alien baby on Aliens in the Family.
==Other Work==
With the Jim Henson Company, Rudman worked on The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, The Ghost of Faffner Hall, Dog City, CityKids, Billy Bunny's Animal Songs and Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree.
With his brother, Sesame Street writer Adam Rudman, he founded the Illinois-based production company Spiffy Pictures, which has produced the children's series Jack's Big Music Show, Nature Cat, and Donkey Hodie (co-produced with Fred Rogers Productions). He has also written and directed live-action films and cartoons for Sesame Street, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Rudman's work in television commercials include ads for Coke, McDonald's, Cheerios, Disney World, the National Wildlife Federation and most notably as Fingerman for a series of Ziploc bag commercials. Spiffy Pictures is also credited with "Puppet Production" for the 2013 direct-to-DVD movie Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map, for which Rudman was a producer and also puppeteered Scooby-Doo.
==Credits==
for a complete character gallery, see David Rudman characters
* Muppets Characters: Scooter, Janice (2008-present); Miss Poogy, and others...
* Sesame Street: Baby Bear, Cookie Monster (2001-present), and others...
*I Love LibertyDavid Rudman interview with BBC
* The Muppets Take Manhattan
* Little Muppet Monsters: Boo Monster
* Labyrinth: Goblins (puppetry only)
* The Tale of the Bunny Picnic: Snort, The Snail
* A Muppet Family Christmas: Miss Piggy's Photographer
* Sing-Along, Dance-Along, Do-Along: Farmer Lear
* Neat Stuff To Know & To Do: Danny, Dino Doc and others...
* Wow, You're a Cartoonist!: Mookie
* Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting
* The Jim Henson Hour: "The Song of the Cloud Forest"
* The Ghost of Faffner Hall: Dragon son (episode 111)
* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello (face)
* The Cosby Show: Sweetums, Boo Monster
* The Muppets at Walt Disney World
* Muppet*Vision 3D: Roy and Max
* The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson: Penguin
* Dinosaurs
* Monster Hits!: Herry's Mother
* Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Firehouse: Mr. Monster
* The Muppet Christmas Carol: Peter Cratchit and others...
* Dog City: Bowser, Bram, Colonel Claghound, and others...
* CityKids: Dread and others...; also Muppet Coordinator
* Billy Bunny's Animal Songs: Percival Bear and others...
* Elmo's Sing-Along Guessing Game: Mary's little lamb
* Muppet Meeting Films: Big Head and others...
* We All Sing Together: Monster Report crew member
* Sing-Along Earth Songs: Junior
* A New Baby in My House: Courtier
* Sesame Street Stays Up Late
* Muppet Time: Milton
* Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree: Ned Mouse
* Muppet Sing-A-Long: It's Not Easy Being Green
* Muppets Tonight (episode 201)
* Elmocize: one of the Twister Sisters
* Elmo Saves Christmas: Elf
* Aliens in the Family: Bobut
* Telling the Truth: Leo
* Elmopalooza: Sparky
* The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland: Alarm Clock Bird and others...
* CinderElmo
* Let's Make Music
* Elmo's Musical Adventure: Peter and the Wolf
* Kids' Favorite Songs 2
* Play with Me Sesame
* Elmo's World: Happy Holidays!: Orange Gold Caroler
* Talk, Read, Write: Timmy's caregiver
* Bert & Ernie's Word Play
* The Street We Live On
* What's the Name of That Song?
* A Magical Halloween Adventure: Pumpkin, Surprise Monster
* Happy Healthy Monsters
* Elmo's Christmas Countdown
* Studio DC: Almost Live
* Abby in Wonderland
* A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa
* C is for Cookie Monster
* For Me, For You, For Later
* The Muppets: Food in the "We Built This City" montage
* Kinect Sesame Street TV
* Little Children, Big Challenges
* Lady Gaga & the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular
* Muppets Most Wanted: Gulag Rat,Personal communication with Bill Barretta by Anthony T. Baby, Thingy-Thing
*The Furchester Hotel: Cookie Monster, The Tea Time Monsters, Arthur, Mr. Smellsalot 
*Monster Manners
* The Muppets 2015 Presentation Pilot: Scooter, Janice, Satay
* Count on Elmo
*The Muppets: Scooter, Janice
*Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas: Cookie Monster
*The Muppets Take the Bowl: Scooter, Janice, Beaker, Wayne
*The Magical Wand Chase: Cookie Monster
*The Muppets Take the O2: Scooter, Janice, Beaker, Wayne
*When You Wish Upon a Pickle: Cookie Monster
*Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration: Cookie Monster, Baby Bear
*The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Cookie Monster, Baby Bear
*Muppets Now: Scooter, Janice, Beaker
*Muppets Haunted Mansion: Scooter, Janice, Beaker, Wayne, Squid Ghost
*Mecha Builders: Mecha Cookie Monster
*The Muppets Mayhem: Janice
==Director credits==
*Cookie Monster Auditions for Saturday Night Live
*Conversations with Bert
==Sources==
==External links==
*Official Site
*The Chicago Tribune: The Dean of the Digits
*The Barretta Brothers interview
*Below the Frame interview
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Category:Muppet Performers
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Category:Directors
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