Rick Lyon is a puppeteer, actor, and puppet designer and builder originally from Rochester, New York, who has worked for the Jim Henson Company as one of the operators of Big Bird. He appeared on Broadway originating the roles of Trekkie Monster, Nicky, the blue Bad Idea Bear, and other characters in the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q, a musical for which he designed and created all of the puppets. In the fall of 2005 he reprised his roles in the production of the show in Las Vegas for eight months before returning to the Broadway cast. Rick was a puppeteer on Sesame Street for 15 seasons, from 1987 to 2002. He also worked with Nickelodeon on the Stick Stickly project. He was a lead puppeteer for the first season of Comedy Central's television program Crank Yankers. Lyon's company The Lyon Puppets, maintains a large permanent workshop outside New York City in New Jersey. In addition to building all of the Broadway and Las Vegas Avenue Q puppets, the company has built puppets for the original West End production of Avenue Q in London, the US national tour, and international productions in Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland and Germany, and Paris, France. Rick frequently coaches actors in puppetry for productions of Avenue Q for which he provides puppets.He studied theater at Penn State University and puppetry at the Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts in Connecticut and the Institut International de la Marionnette in France.He is married to actress Tonya Dixon, who played opposite him as Gary Coleman in the Las Vegas cast. Lyon and Dixon were married at The Wynn Casino. They have one daughter.
He was awarded the 2007 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Puppet Design for "Avenue Q" at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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Making his Broadway debut in the new comedy/musical "Avenue Q" as a singer/puppeteer voicing the roles of "Nicky", "Trekkie Monster" and others. [July 2003]
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Russian Broadway Shut Down
2014
Short
Avenue Q - Nicky
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
2013
TV Series
MO-MO
Elmo's World: Pets!
2006
Video
Guess That Shape and Color
2006
Video short
Elmo's World: Reach for the Sky
2006
Video
Elmo Visits the Doctor
2005
Video
Sesame Street: All-Star Alphabet
2005
Video
Sesame Street: Friends to the Rescue
2005
Video
Corn
2004
Puppeteer
Crank Yankers
2003
TV Series
Puppeteer
Elmo's World: Wake Up with Elmo
2002
Video voice
Elmo's World: The Wild Wild West
2001
Video
ABC Weekend Specials
1995
TV Series
Voice of Crash
Sesame Street
1989-1991
TV Series
Cookie Monster in 'Conga' / Blue Bird / Cookie Monster in 'Hand Talk' / ...
Muppet*vision 3-D
1991
Short
Additional Muppet Performer (voice)
Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital
1990
Video short voice
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
1990
TV Series
Dog / Frog / Rat / ...
The Jim Henson Hour
1989
TV Series
Additional Muppet Performer
Inner Tube
1987
TV Short voice
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
Sesame Street
2012
TV Series puppetry - 1 episode
The Book of Pooh
2001
TV Series puppetry
Bear in the Big Blue House
1997
TV Series stand-in: "Bear"
Men in Black
1997
puppeteer - uncredited
The Neverending Story III
1994
puppetry
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
1993
animatronic puppeteer: "Donatello"
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
1991
animatronic puppeteer: "Tokka"
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
2007
Documentary performer: "If You Were Gay", "The Internet Is For Porn", "You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want When You're Making Love"
The 58th Annual Tony Awards
2004
TV Special performer: "It Sucks to Be Me"
Sesame Songs: Sing-Along Earth Songs
1993
Video short performer: "Keep the Park Clean for the Pigeons" 1989 - uncredited
Special Effects
Title
Year
Status
Character
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
1993
animatronic puppeteer: Donatello
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
1991
animatronic puppeteer: Tokka
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Broadway.com Show
2013
TV Series
Himself
Working in the Theatre
2004
TV Series documentary
Himself
The 58th Annual Tony Awards
2004
TV Special
Himself - Performer
Elmopalooza!
1998
TV Special
Additional Muppet Performer (voice)
All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever!
1994
TV Special
Additional Muppet Performer (voice)
Sesame Street Stays Up Late!
1993
TV Special
Additional Muppet Performer (voice)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
1990
TV Movie documentary
Muppet Performer (unconfirmed)
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Sesame Street: Computer Caper
2002
Video
Muppet Performer
Sing Yourself Sillier at the Movies
1997
Video short
Sesame Street
1994
TV Series
Cookie Monster in 'Hand Talk' / Oscar in 'Hand Talk'