Brian Herring

Best known for his puppeteer performance as BB-8 in 'Star Wars The Force Awakens' (2015) ‘The Last Jedi’ (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), SE-2 in ‘Rogue One’ and The Last Jedi’s adorable Porgs, Brian also puppeteered various droids and creatures throughout the most recent Star Wars trilogy including Ponda Babba, Bor Gullet, Oki Pokis, First Order Mouse Droids, Steel Pecker bird, many animatronic creature heads and actually appearing as a Ball-Fight Gamer in Maz's castle and a Resistance Soldier in the battle of Crait. He played the Parrott-faced Hirang Birren as well as being part of the core puppetry team responsible for bringing Lady Proxima, Rio Durant and many other characters to life in Solo. In addition to performing these memorable roles, Brian was initially hired as Puppeteer Consultant, working with the CFX Dept to develop many of the creatures from page to screen. He was also responsible for finding most of the performers that brought the all of the unique creatures in the current Star Wars universe to life.

Brian began his career in 1989 after growing up in and around theatre, he joined the UK's premier satire show 'Spitting Image' (1992) as an assistant puppeteer where he worked with Phil Eason (Yaddel) and Tim Rose (Admiral Akbar). The show enjoyed a revival in 2020 and Brian returned to perform caricatures of such famous faces as James Cordon, Prince Charles and now President Joe Biden.

In 1999 he joined the world-famous Jim Henson company and was a principal performer on all of their UK TV productions until they closed their English production arm in 2005, working on such productions as Mopatop's Shop (Father Mouse and many guest characters), Construction Site (Diggs) and The Hoobs (Hubba Hubba and Groove). His other children's TV work includes; Wizadora (Hangle), The Animal Magic Show (Billy Nibbles), What's Your News? (Anthony, Peek and Gi Ant) Space Pirates (Stringy) and Wizards Vs Aliens (Stickley & Squiggly).

With the arrival of computer animation and CGI, using digital motion capture systems, Brian has worked extensively in many aspects of puppetry and suit performance on both stage and screen to develop new types of virtual puppetry and keep performers at the heart of performing.

His work includes; various frogs, pigs, and chickens in 'Muppet Treasure Island' (1996), Vogon minions and the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (2005), Infected in '28 Weeks Later' (2007), Silkard the fish vendor in 'Hellboy II The Golden Army' (2008), Hammerpede in 'Prometheus' (2012), The London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, Ice Warrior in 'Doctor Who' (2013), Gordon in 'Victor Frankenstein' (2015) and Polly in Doolittle (2019).

In the world of popular music, he had been involved in performances with Scissor Sisters, Olly Murrs, Metallica and Ed Sheeran.

Since 1992 his combination of forward thinking, a keen interest in the industry, good humor and enthusiasm has helped Brian stay one of the UK's busiest puppeteers.

Most recently Brian has lent his voice to several characters in forthcoming video games. He can currently be heard on the new PS5 hit ‘Destruction Allstars’ where he plays fan-favorite Boxtop.