Brian Herring

Appearing Friday, Saturday, & Sunday

Best known for his performance as BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Brian also puppeteered various droids and creatures throughout the movie including First Order Mouse Droids, Steel Pecker, various animatronic creature heads and actually appearing as a Ball-Fight Gamer in Maz’s castle.

As well as 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 creatures to life.

Brian began his career in 1989 after growing up in and around theatre. Working as an actor, stand-up comedian and stage manager, 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).

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), Ice Warrior in Doctor Who (2013) and Gordon in Victor Frankenstein (2015).

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.