Bill Barretta began performing with The Jim Henson Company in 1991 and has become one of the core Muppet performers.
Originally from Philadelphia Pa, Barretta was trained at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City under the late, great Sanford Meisner and has appeared in several films and television shows such as, Murder in the
First, Born to Be Wild, Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story, (which he also co-wrote and received a Saturn Award), Nightmares and Dreamscapes and more recently, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Barretta began his career with The Jim Henson Company, landing the character of Earl Sinclair on the ABC hit television series Dinosaurs. From there, he transitioned to supporting and then ultimately featured roles, making his film debut as a principal performer playing Clueless Morgan in Muppet Treasure Island.
Barretta soon developed several new characters on the ABC series Muppets Tonight, including Pepé the King Prawn, Johnny Fiama and Bobo the Bear, to name a few.
Along with having his own Muppet creations, Barretta is honored to have taken over several of Jim Henson’s roles: Rowlf the Dog, The Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth and Mahna Mahna.
In addition, Barretta has served as coordinator, co-producer and executive producer for many Muppet projects over the last twenty-six years, including It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, Muppets Letters to Santa, The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, the most recent ABC Primetime series The Muppets, and the highly successful live shows, The Muppets Take The Hollywood Bowl, and The O2 Arena.
Barretta has directed, produced and written countless projects for the Muppets over the last twenty-six years including commercials for, UL, Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut, Subway, Lipton, Toyota, PAM and an abundance of Social Media content.
Barretta also recently co-starred with Melissa McCarthy as private-eye Phil Philips in the “The Happytime Murders”.
…Oh, and he’s a nice Italian boy.