Bill Barretta

Bill Barretta is an American puppeteer, producer, writer, director and actor, who is best known for providing the puppetry and voice of The Muppets characters such as Pepe the King Prawn and Johnny Fiama.

He originated the role of Louie, Elmo's dad, on Sesame Street.

Barretta also inherited the roles of Rowlf the Dog, The Swedish Chef, and Dr. Teeth after the death of The Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Barretta has been performing with The Muppets since 1991, when he puppeteered the Sinclair family patriarch, Earl Sinclair, on Dinosaurs.

He later developed several new characters on Muppets Tonight, including Pepe the King Prawn, Johnny Fiama, and Bobo the Bear.

He has been referred to as "muppet captain".

Barretta has taken over several of Jim Henson's roles, such as Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, and Swedish Chef.

His muppet film debut was in the 1996 Muppet Treasure Island as Clueless Morgan.

He had several roles in Muppets from Space (1999) and played the main puppet character Phil Phillips in The Happytime Murders (2018), which won a Houston Film Critics Society best worst film award.

Barretta has produced two of the Muppets' television films, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005).

Barretta also provided additional voices on Kim Possible.

He performed in Muppets Most Wanted, where he also served as a co-producer.

Barretta also served as an executive producer on the ABC series, The Muppets.

In 2021, Barretta produced the special Muppets Haunted Mansion.

He co-created the 2023 The Muppets Mayhem, which won an Emmy.

For Sesame Street, Bill Barretta originated the role of Elmo's dad, Louie, who was introduced in 2006.

At first, Louie only appeared in a few direct-to-video specials, but he became a more regular character later on.

Barretta based Louie's voice on Louis Prima's. In 2010, Tyler Bunch took over the role after talking with Barretta.

In an interview, Barretta explained that he had to fly to New York for every appearance on Sesame Street, so once Louie started to appear more often, it was much more practical for a New York-based puppeteer to take over the role.