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About
I’m a director, puppeteer, and creature builder who designs productions from the ground up. My specialty is comedy, improv, and puppetry / creature work.
I’m based in Los Angeles, with twenty years of work across commercials, television, film, music video, and live events. I founded Seymour Creatures Studio because I kept seeing details get lost in translation between clients, agencies, and the builders actually making the character. Too many puppets showed up to set unprepared to do what the client wanted, leaving builders scrambling to make a last-second fix that “worked” but missed the original creative vision.
I prefer to keep everything in-house and work closely with every department so nothing falls through the cracks in preproduction, though I also collaborate well with other creature shops. Every puppet gets rehearsed and refined until it performs exactly as it needs to, before the money’s on the line. Some days it feels like being mayor of a small puppet village.
My work has screened at SXSW, Slamdance, Clermont-Ferrand, Raindance, and Cannes Lions. I’ve directed campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, Eyeglass World, and Lenovo, television for The Jim Henson Company, Bento Box, Apple, SYFY, Funny or Die, and Sesame Workshop, and music videos for Norah Jones, Will.i.am, and Moby, among many others.
“Watching Toben create magic has been one of the highlights of my career. He breathes joy and life not just into puppets, but into the process — with boundless enthusiasm, always-inspiring creativity, and genuine care for us and our clients.”
— Danny Bryan, Creative Director, TRG
“Toben and his team have been integral in bringing the Eyeglass World ‘Mr. World’ puppet to life over six years — design, engineering, manufacturing, rigging, filming, and puppeteering. But that isn’t even the best part. His limitless enthusiasm, childlike warmth, and playful whimsy made our collective production experience truly unforgettable.”
— Todd McArtor, Creative Director, TRG Dallas
What We Do
I founded Seymour Creatures Studio to design, build, and perform original characters in-house, from first idea through final performance on set, then edit, ADR, and lip sync through delivery. I find it’s crucial as a director to be heavily involved in the character and build design as well as performance tests. Clients love being part of the process, and it means we’ve already signed off together on every detail before we’re burning valuable production time on the day of the shoot. It’s the advantage of working with a director who oversees the whole arc, the way an animator does, except the character is real, the camera is rolling, and it has to hold up opposite an actor. We also build for other directors. Bring us the whole character, or just the piece your production is missing.
Silhouette, profile, materials, mechanisms, range of expression. Mapped out and mocked up before the character is built.
Hand puppets, rod puppets, full-body puppets built for wide-shot performance, walkaround mascots, shadow puppets, and anything else that needs to move and feel alive. Foam, fleece, and silicone, hand-dyed and sewn from scratch in-house.
Custom eye mechs, brow lifts, blinks, jaw actuators, servo rigs, articulated hands, increasingly 3D-modeled and printed for precision. The smallest details are what breathe life into a character.
Servo-driven and remotely performed, for when a puppeteer can’t be in the shot with the puppet. Think motorcycle sidecar wide shots, or riding a zipline. Built in-house by the same team behind the eye mechs and facial rigs.
In-camera effects that hold up on set and in post. I also consult on practical effects and in-camera trickery, including how to shoot around puppeteers and rigging so they disappear clean in post.
Full team performance for TV, film, and commercial shoots. SAG-AFTRA and non-union, camera-conscious, years of improv experience, always in character. Puppets that take direction, improvise, and riff with actors for alternate takes.
When someone else is directing, I step in as Puppet Captain, leading the puppetry department, translating direction into performance, and flagging problems and offering solutions to keep production moving.
Also Available
Twenty years of relationships with puppeteers, builders, engineers, puppet captains, producers, and directors across the US and abroad. If I’m not the right fit, I know who is.
Puppeteer-performed voice is always the first choice; it allows for more improvised options and alt takes on set. When the pipeline calls for it, my team and I lip-sync to prerecorded V/O, including celebrity talent, or puppeteers perform live for V/O to be dubbed in post.
Pull from a growing bench of blank-slate puppets, waiting for their chance to get in the game and prove themselves like Rudy. Restyled and re-costumed for quick turnaround on a tighter budget.
Building your own puppet, writing for one, or directing one for the first time? Get direct advice on design, performance, and how to actually shoot puppets on camera, before you spend a dollar of your budget.
Contact
Management
The Gotham GroupCommercial Representation · United States
Untitled Inc.office@untitled.tv · 310 917 9191
Midwest
Marguerite Juliusson & Dawn Ratcliffe
marguerite@juliussonratcliffe.com 312 925 2989 dawn@juliussonratcliffe.com 312 925 9928Thank you.
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