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Noel MacNeal

Noel MacNeal (born September 15, 1961), sometimes credited as Noel McNeal or Edward Noel MacNeal, is an American puppeteer, actor, director, singer, and writer of children's television who has performed since the early 1980s. He was the voice and puppeteer of Bear on Bear in the Big Blue House. He also starred as Kako on Oobi, Leon MacNeal on The Puzzle Place and as Magellan on Eureeka's Castle. He is also the resident puppeteer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, portraying puppet characters such as "Mr. Nutterbutter".

Career

Noel portrays the environmentally friendly character ZoZo a mascot for safer streets, green transportation, and useful public spaces. This Jim Henson designed and created walk around puppet is used by Livable Streets Education to talk about these issues with young children and families.

While Bear is his most famous character, MacNeal has also performed Mrs. (Mommy) Snuffleupagus and various Snuffleupagus relatives on Sesame Street, Magellan, a childlike dragon, on the ACE Award-winning series Eureeka's Castle on Nick Jr, Leon MacNeal in The Puzzle Place, Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and Madame Chairbird in the Sesame Street film Follow That Bird. His repertoire of characters also includes Kako on the Nick Jr. Channel series Oobi, Blue on Nick Jr.'s Blue's Room, Rabbit for The Disney Channel's Emmy Award-winning series The Book of Pooh, Lionel on PBS's Between the Lions, and Knock-Knock on The Great Space Coaster. In addition, he’s performed with and/or for Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Emma Thompson, Wayne Brady, Dave Chappelle, Donny and Marie Osmond, Tom Bergeron, Regis and Kelly, Matt Lauer and Katie Couric.

Noel is also a television writer. His scripts have been featured on PBS Kids Sprout's The Good Night Show, The Disney Channel's Bear in the Big Blue House, PBS's The Puzzle Place, The Magic School Bus and Cyberchase, TLC's Salty's Lighthouse (in which he re-wrote an original episode of the British children's TV series Tugs for its own segments) and Nickelodeon's Eureeka's Castle and Gullah Gullah Island. He is also a script and television directorial adviser and consultant for the international versions of Sesame Street as well having directed episodes of Bear in the Big Blue House and PBS Kids Sprout's The Good Night Show.

In 2003, Noel received a Daytime Emmy Nomination as "Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series". Noel is now the resident puppeteer for the HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. MacNeal was noted for his portrayal of Mr. Nutterbutter, and operated a seagull puppet in another episode. He also portrayed Totes McGoats, a goat-human hybrid mascot which promotes recycling, in the episode on plastics.

Personal life

MacNeal was born to two African-American parents, but his father was white-passing (previously, it had been reported that his father was fully white).

On November 6, 1999, he married author Susan Elia at Manhattan's Union Theological Seminary. In 2005, their son Matthew was born.

Filmography

Puppeteer

1983: The Great Space Coaster: Knock-Knock (First-run Syndication)
1983: Sesame Street (TV Show; TV Specials): Mommy Snuffleupagus, Gretel, Additional Muppets (1983–present)
1985: Follow That Bird: Madame Chairbird
The Muppets (1985–present)
- Little Muppet Monsters: Rat, Magic Book
- Holiday Greetings from the Ed Sullivan Show
- Muppet Meeting Films: Pastry and Injured Employee
- Muppet Treasure Island (Muppet Sing-Alongs)
- A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa: Sweetums
- The Muppets Take the Bowl: Sweetums (puppetry only)
- The Muppets Take the O2
1989: Eureeka's Castle: Magellan and Webster (Nick Jr.)
1990: The Cosby Show (episode: Cliff's Nightmare), Cheese (NBC)
1991: Dinosaurs (ABC)
1992: Dog City (series): Doctor, Police Officer (FOX)
1993: CityKids (ABC)
1993: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Raphael (face performance)
1995: The Puzzle Place: Leon MacNeal, Blue Piece Police (Seasons 1&2) (PBS)
1996: Kids for Character: Leon MacNeal
1997: Bear in the Big Blue House: Bear, Moss, Billy (Playhouse Disney)
1999: Cosby (episode: My Spy), puppet (CBS)
2000: Oobi: Kako (Noggin)
2001: The Book of Pooh: Rabbit (Playhouse Disney)
2002: Oz: (Miss Sally's Schoolyard) (HBO)
2002: Playhouse Disney (UK): Bear
2004: Chappelle's Show: "Knee High Park" (puppeteer and consultant) (Comedy Central)
2004: LazyTown: Pixel (Defeeted only originally)
2009: Between the Lions: Lionel Lion (Season 9-10), Monkey (Under Construction), Beetles Member, Squeaky the Wheel (PBS Kids)
2009: Old Dogs
2014: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Puppeteer (HBO)
2015: The Show Me Show: Fynnias
2015: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (episode: Kimmy's in a Love Triangle!) (Netflix)
2017: Julie's Greenroom: Additional characters (Netflix)