Performer of: Gonzo, Dr Bunsen Honeydew, Beauregard, Waldorf (1992-present), Boober Fraggle, Uncle Traveling Matt

It is often said that Muppets take after their Muppeteers. Richard Hunt based his energetic portrayal of Scooter on himself as a kid and Jim Henson could relate himself very well to Rowlf. The same could be said about Dave Goelz, one of the few Muppeteers who started on The Muppet Show who still remains an active Muppeteer today. While he puppeteers a fair share of Muppets like professor Bunson Honeydew and Boober Fraggle his best known Muppet role has to be the daredevil plumber, Gonzo.

Just like Gonzo, Goelz also started as a bit sad, timid and felt out of place in a cast consisting of puppeteering veterans like Jim Henson and Frank Oz. This slowly changed when he got his first laugh from the rest of the cast at the end of the first season. In the second season he got his second laugh from his colleagues but felt that the always sad looking Gonzo Muppet held his performances back. Due to his droopy eyelids he could never look excited. He subsequently build a new Gonzo with an eyelid mechanism that allowed him to look excited for his daring acts.

Using this new puppet Goelz started to gain more confidence in his performing skills and shaped Gonzo more into the frantic daredevil we know today.In later seasons Goelz also started puppeteering Beauregard although the Muppet writers never found a “hook” for him, possibly due to his passive nature.

When Fraggle Rock was being developed Goelz was cast as Boober Fraggle. According to Goelz, the Fraggles were based on its performers: “They looked at the performers, and picked out our flaws, and made characters out of them. They denied it... So that's how I ended up with Boober, the superstitious, paranoid character.“ Goelz was also cast as Uncle Traveling Matt and performed a host of other minor characters.

Besides his work on Muppet Productions Goelz also worked on other big Henson projects like The Dark Crystal where he played SkekUng and Fizzgig, Labyrinth where he played Sir Didymus and the ABC comedy Dinosaurs where he operated the face of Earl Sinclair as well as a variety of hand puppets.

In the nineties Goelz rose to prominence and even recieved top billing  as Muppeteer when Gonzo got bigger parts in movies like The Muppets Christmas Carol and Muppets Treasure Island. Goelz got often paired with Steve Whitmire, who performed Rizzo, a character who would form a duo with Gonzo for much of the decade. Gonzo and Whitmire are also the current performers of Statler and Waldorf, with Goelz inheriting the part of Waldorf after Jim Henson's death.

Interestingly enough Goelz is one of the few core Muppeteers that didn't have a big time character on Sesame Street, although he did play several smaller parts.

Performer of: Rizzo the Rat, Wembley Fraggle, Lips, Bean Bunny, Kermit (1990-present), Beaker (1992-present), Ernie (1993-present), Statler (2002-present),Link Hogtrob (2011-present)

One of the core Muppeteers of this generation, Steve is  now most famously know for his permances as Kermit and Ernie but to only credit him for these two performances would not do his talent any justice.

Steve's love for puppeteering started when he was in high school, boldly claiming that one day he would be Kermit the Frog. He first appeared on tv with Otis, his alter ego puppet, on a local network in Atlanta. His first encounter with a member of the Muppet family happened when he met Carroll Spinney (The Muppeteer of Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird) at a local puppet festival. Spinney later informed Steve that auditions for Sesame Street were being held. When Steve called the Henson offices he learned that Jane Henson would be in Atlanta the next week. After seeing Steve perform she recommended him to Jim Henson. Using his last money to travel to New York he met and auditioned before Jim who asked him to perform on the Muppet Show. 

Steve and Rizzo

On the Muppet show Steve started out as the performer of Rizzo and later took on the part of Lips, the trumpet player of the Electric Mayhem band. Besides these original characters he also played a lot of supporting roles like Rowlf's second hand (Rowlf is a Muppet which needs 2 performers since his mouth needs to be operated by hand too) when playing the piano. He also puppeteered characters in scenes where two characters who are normally operated by a specific Muppeteer interact like Fozzie and Ms Piggy, who were normally both operated by Frank Oz.

Following the intimely death of Jim Henson  he began to perform as some of Jim's main characters, starting with Kermit in the 1990 tv special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson. On Sesame Street Steve started taking over the role of Ernie and has been Ernie's key performer since 1993. Steve's Rizzo also became more of a foreground character in the nineties, often paired up with Gonzo.

After Jerry Nelson's retirement of his Muppet characters Steve took over the role of balcony heckler Statler, a role originated by the late Richard Hunt whose Beaker also found a new Muppeteer in Steve. In The Muppets (2011) Steve started puppeteering Link Hogtrob marking the first time the pompous leader of the Swine Trek's voice was heard in a Muppet movie, although Whitmire did perform Link's voice for the Muppets Party Cruise and Muppets RaceMania games.

Since then, he has been involved in all big Muppet productions while also working on other non-Muppet Henson projects like the 90's 
Henson sitcom Dinosaurs.
There are numerous examples of Steve's mastery of his craft but one of the more recent ones is his performance as Ernie, singing I wonder, a song that was nominated for a 2011 Daytime Emmy. Enjoy: