Eric Jacobson (born January 15, 1971) is an American puppeteer. He is best known for his involvement with the Muppets, performing Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle for The Muppets Studio, as well as Sesame Street characters Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Guy Smiley—all roles that he inherited from the characters' original performers, Frank Oz, Caroll Spinney, and Jim Henson. Since 1994, Jacobson has been a regular performer for Sesame Street, where he has received Daytime Emmy Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Since 2001, he has performed as part of the Muppets cast in several feature films and television series, including The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), the ABC primetime television series, The Muppets (2015), and the Disney+ series, The Muppets Mayhem (2023).

Career

Jacobson was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He was inspired to enter the field of puppeteering after the death of Jim Henson. In 1992, while attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he interned at the Jim Henson Company, working in the archival library. Jacobson earned his BFA from Tisch the following year. Jacobson began his career as a puppeteer on Sesame Street in 1994, where he worked alongside Frank Oz, often performing the roles of Grover and Bert when Oz wasn't available. Following Oz's retirement from the roles, Jacobson became the characters' primary performer. Since 2005, he has performed Guy Smiley, a role previously performed by Henson. Following Caroll Spinney's retirement in 2018, Jacobson became the full-time performer of Oscar the Grouch. For his work on Sesame Street, Jacobson has been nominated for both a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance in 2011 and 2019, respectively. For the Muppets, Jacobson began performing Miss Piggy in 2001, debuting at the "MuppetFest" fan convention. The following year, he began performing Fozzie Bear and Animal, debuting in the roles in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. In 2005, he also began performing Sam Eagle beginning in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. The aforementioned characters were also previously performed by Oz, whom Jacobson consulted with to accurately portray the proper characterization, physicality, and voice for the characters.

Other works

Beyond his work with Henson, Jacobson has contributed to several other children's television shows, including The Puzzle Place and Jack's Big Music Show. He has also performed live puppet theater with Basil Twist, The Puppet Company, The Cosmic Bicycle Theater, and The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park. For Disney, Jacobson performed Harry the Duck on Bear in the Big Blue House and puppeteered Piglet on The Book of Pooh. In 2007, he served as both puppeteer and writer on Playhouse Disney's Bunnytown. In 2013, Jacobson served as puppeteer for Shaggy Rogers for the DVD movie Scooby Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map, with Matthew Lillard providing Shaggy's voice.

Personal life

Jacobson is married to Mary Jacobson, whom he met during her time as a production assistant on Sesame Street.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Other appearances

Awards and nominations