David Rudman


David Rudman is an American puppeteer, puppet builder, writer, director, and producer known for his involvement with the Muppets and Sesame Street.

Career

David Rudman has been a Sesame Street Muppet performer since 1985—currently performing Cookie Monster, Baby Bear and the right head of the Two-Headed Monster. He has received four Emmy nominations as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work on Sesame Street. Rudman has also directed several web videos for Sesame Street such as "Cookie Monster Auditions for Saturday Night Live" and "Conversations with Bert". He has performed in numerous television shows and specials including Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Muppets, where he performed Scooter and Janice. His film credits include The Muppets Take Manhattan, Labyrinth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, A Muppet Christmas Carol, Elmo in Grouchland, The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted. Following the departure of Steve Whitmire in 2017, he became Beaker's new performer.
In addition to his work on Sesame Street and with the Muppets, Rudman is co-owner of Spiffy Pictures where he co-created, executive produced, directed and performed in Jack's Big Music Show, Curious Buddies, Bunnytown, , Frankie and Frank and is the creator, executive producer, character designer, director and voice director of the animated series Nature Cat on PBS, voicing several characters including Leo the Mammoth, Prospector Jones, Nevin and the Seeker.

Personal life

Rudman attended Highland Park High School and graduated in 1981. He has been a speaker at the school's biennial Focus on the Arts program since 2003. He attended college at the University of Connecticut.
Rudman was the speaker at the 2005 graduation ceremony for the Illinois Institute of Art—Chicago.

Filmography