Don Austen

Donald Austen is an English puppeteer who worked on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Austen began working for the Jim Henson creature shop in 1986, on movies like Labyrinth and Little Shop of Horrors, where he was one of the main puppeteers, like David Alan Barclay, Sue Dacre and David Greenaway. He became a valuable puppeteer for other blockbuster movies in the following years, such as Santa Claus The Movie (1985) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) The Bear (L'ours) (1988) and Roald Dahl's The Witches (1990)

Austen's British TV puppeteering debut was on the irreverent cult ITV series Spitting Image. (1989)

He was then to join the exclusive Muppet club with the Henson factory. He would be a puppeteer for two Muppet movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) where he performed inside both the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and The Muppet Treasure Island (1996) putting in brief appearances as Pirate Crew & Cannibals due to TV commitments.

Austen voiced and puppeteered SKY ONE's DJ Kat for 2000-plus award-winning DJ KAT Shows (1989-95) and 200 Breakfast Shows as Earl E Bird on Channel 4's Early Bird (1991) EB's Ballooning and skiing in Colorado proving a spectacular series finale. It was on the weekly LIVE ITV Saturday morning show What's Up Doc? (1992-94) that Austen teamed up with Puppeteer John Eccleston to create their winning partnership of fourteen years writing and performing a run of British TV puppet favourites. Firstly, THE WOLVES, a.k.a. Bro & Bro, who within weeks earned their own spin-off comedy drama series Wolf It! (1993-96) Written by Austen and Eccleston, it ran for five series. Austen and Eccleston were invited to jump channels to rival show Live and Kicking, BBC1's LIVE Saturday morning flagship (1995-2000) and hilarious, cantankerous, Leprechauns Sage & Onion were born. As Mr. Sage, the one with the dodgy hairpiece, Austen would write and puppeteer their comedy sketches year round for five years. He was to outlive three sets of in vision presenters and become the longest surviving presenter (Eccleston having taken time out to perform RYGEL in the cult sci-fi series Farscape) To cover Eccleston's brief sojourn, Austen introduced a female Leprechaun called Shamrock as his overbearing long lost sister. Securing the services of puppeteer Rebecca Nagan, the show hosted by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston, received a BAFTA in 1999. The Leps, as they were affectionately called, guest-starred on a wide range of British TV Shows, including; The French & Saunders Christmas Special; The Making Of Titanic (1998), Jim Davidson's Generation Game (1998), The National Lottery (1998), and GMTV for St. Patrick's Day Celebrations (1998 & 99) During 1999, Austen was hand-picked by master puppeteer Frank Oz to help him portray Yoda in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. For this complex puppet, Oz would need three helpers, including Austen, David Greenaway and Kathy Smee. Next a return to the Jim Henson fold to star in all 250 episodes of BAFTA winning pre-school TV series The Hoobs (2000-02) Here he voiced and puppeteered the excitable, vulnerable, purple Hoob ‘Iver.’ He would be nominated to the Gemini Award for three consecutive years. Austen's long association with LIVE TV could be seen again year round in the weekly LIVE Saturday morning ITV series, Ministry of Mayhem (2005) voicing and puppeteering Scratch - one half of riotous duo THE HYENAS. Scratch & Sniff were the third Austen-Eccleston collaboration. MOM changes its format, set, and is renamed Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown retaining presenters Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern from the previous show. (New year 2006) It plays weekly through to July with Scratch featuring large in the slimmed down line up. Austen was also called upon to write and voice the commentary to the successful Supermarket Sneak game strand and, further to his acting portrayal of Ozzy Osborne on MOM, gave us Igor - the larger than life dancing Russian Cossack both IN VISION! Austen has notched up 5 series as voice and puppeteer on the BBC's Basil Brush Show as both evil Cousin Mortimer and naughty Nephew Bingo. The show was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006. Basil & Bingo performed at Buckingham Palace Children's Party At The Palace (2006) Austen puppeteers ‘Wooly The Sheep’ in the Woolworths TV/radio commercials (2003-06) with Eccleston as side kick ‘Worth The Dog.’ Cast for the nationwide ad campaigns shot in England and Prague, their track record serves them well. “Their wondrous dynamic a desperately infectious on screen symbiosis of proven comic ability.”

The Hyena's record 15 GAME SHOW's for Granada Kids – CITV (2006) Scratch & Sniff's Den Of Doom.

Austen and Eccleston work on pilot for MTV. (2006)