Question: Facts: - years active: 1996-present - birth name: matthew j. vogel ii - othername: matt matt j. vogel j. vogel ii matthew j. vogel matthew vogel - birth date: 6 october 1970 - name: matt vogel - nationality: american - birth place: kansas city , kansas , u.s. - occupation: puppeteer artist , comedian , actor , writer , singer , voice Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of matt vogel -lrb- puppeteer -rrb- .
Answer:
matthew j. '' matt '' vogel ii -lrb- born october 6 , 1970 -rrb- 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 .vogel has also , occasionally , operated the big bird puppet to a vocal track by spinney in scenes where big bird is in the same scene as oscar the grouch , letting spinney perform oscar .he has also taken over jerry nelson 's characters , on the recommendation of nelson himself .with the muppets studio , vogel has been performing the '80s robot , floyd pepper , lew zealand , crazy harry , robin the frog , and camilla the chicken since 2008 .he also took over the puppetry of the sesame street character count von count , although nelson continued to provide the voice of the count until his death on august 23 , 2012 .in 2013 , vogel assumed both voice and puppetry duties of the count .as of 2010 and 2011 , he provides both the puppetry and voice of sweetums and he performed him as well as uncle deadly -lrb- another of nelson 's muppet characters -rrb- in the 2011 movie '' the muppets '' .vogel performed the muppets that were used in kenneth 's view of the world in the '' 30 rock '' episode '' apollo , apollo '' .he also performed constantine in '' muppets most wanted '' .