THE HENSON BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Brian Henson
Chairman, Board of Directors, The Jim Henson Company
Director, Producer, Writer, Performer
Brian Henson is Chairman of the Board of The Jim Henson Company and an award-winning director, producer, and writer for film and television. He is also a technological innovator and skilled puppeteer.
In his early years, Brian regularly joined his father Jim Henson on set when he was a child. By the time he was 17, he was working on projects like the marionettes in the complicated bicycle scene in The Great Muppet Caper. Brian quickly became indispensable on the sets of his father’s productions. In May of 1983, Brian joined his dad on the production of The Muppets Take Manhattan. He was assigned to Faz Fazakas, often referred to as an electro-mechanical wizard, to help with special effects. Some of these involved radio-controlled puppets and other animatronic techniques. He was also a performer, working the marionette rig for Scooter’s bicycle ride. Talented in both areas and interested in the work of his father’s Creature Shop, Brian kept an eye out for other opportunities in fantasy film work. In 1984, he moved to London to work on Return to Oz. The film was not a Henson production, and allowed Brian to assemble his own team of animatronic performers that would go on to work with him on several projects, including Jim Henson’s fantasy classic Labyrinth. Brian served as puppet captain for the film while also performing the character Hoggle. Brian’s work both inside and outside the company during the 1980s allowed him to establish relationships on both the technical and performing sides of the business, giving him a strong foundation for his leadership role in the following decade.
Following the death of his father in 1990, Brian moved back to America to become the CEO of The Jim Henson Company. In 2009, he became Chairman of the Board for the Company, and his sister Lisa Henson became sole CEO.
Henson most recently served as executive producer for the critically acclaimed Disney+ original series Earth to Ned. Highlighted credits for television include Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (which he also directed), Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge (for which he also served as lead judge), and Jim Henson’s Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story (which he co-wrote and directed). He also directed Battleground, an Emmy Award-winning episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King for TNT. Henson’s many television producing credits also include Sid the Science Kid, Bear in the Big Blue House, Gulliver’s Travels, Muppets Tonight, and Dinosaurs. Henson’s prolific film credits include The Great Muppet Caper, Return to Oz, Labyrinth, The Witches, Little Shop of Horrors, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, and The Happytime Murders.
Henson has also led the creative and technological innovations of the Company, overseeing the groundbreaking work at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, one of Hollywood’s pre-eminent character-building, digital and physical visual effects facilities. He was part of the team that first created and utilized the Henson Performance Control System, a powerful custom-based interface for puppeteers, which won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science Scientific and Engineering Award in 1992. He has also been leading the Shop’s work with its revolutionary puppeteered animation system, the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio. In 2009, he and his team were awarded a Primetime Emmy Award, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development for this proprietary system that allows performers to puppeteer digital characters in real time.
Along with his many talents in performing, directing and technical innovation, Henson is a master at improvisational comedy. In 2005, he created Puppet Up! – Uncensored, a live puppet improvisational show starring the Miskreant puppet troupe, which was named a top ten “Best Stage Show” by Entertainment Weekly and has toured comedy festivals in Aspen, Las Vegas, Edinburgh, New York and Australia and continues to play venues around the country.
Harvey S. Gettleson
Board of Directors, The Jim Henson Company
Harvey is a Certified Public Accountant as well as an Attorney, having received his degrees in a combined program from Monteith College and the Wayne State University Law School. As a founder of Gettleson, Witzer & O’Connor, Harvey’s clients include a wide-range of film, TV, stage and music entertainers and entertainment professionals as well as corporate leaders in the Los Angeles business community, Forbes 400 members, and entrepreneurs. He is very active as an advisor to start-up companies in the Los Angeles “Silicon Beach” community.
Harvey utilizes his diverse professional experience to advise clients on how to navigate today’s studio and independent film, TV and internet opportunities, to access capital for their projects, and maximize participation in emerging entertainment strategies. With an extensive history of serving seed and early stage companies, Harvey is equally experienced advising investors, executives and entrepreneurs in the challenges facing them to grow a successful business from its initial start-up through the business’ evolution to exit either through sale or “going public”.
Cheryl Henson
Board of Directors, The Jim Henson Company
President, The Jim Henson Foundation
Henson Foundation, an organization promoting the art of puppetry in the United States through grants to artists and theater presenters.
As the President of The Jim Henson Foundation, Cheryl is an ardent advocate of contemporary puppetry. Each year, she oversees a competitive granting process to encourage excellence in puppet theater. Since 1982, the Foundation has awarded over 714 grants to more than 320 American puppet artists for the creation of innovative new works, as well as over 113 Presenters grants to theaters in New York City for presenting this work. (For more on The Jim Henson Foundation visit www.hensonfoundation.org)
Cheryl executive produced the award winning biennial Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater from 1992 to 2000. These five festivals presented 136 different productions from 31 countries in 24 theaters throughout New York City. The Festival won both the Drama Desk and the OBIE Award, received coverage from prestigious sources including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, CBS Sunday Morning, and National Public Radio, and is widely acknowledged as having changed the perception of puppet theater today. (For more on these festivals visit www.hensonfestival.org)
Cheryl served as a Vice President of The Jim Henson Company from 1992 until 2000. During this time, she was the liaison between The Jim Henson Company and Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), the producer of Sesame Street, working closely with production teams on Sesame Street shows both here and abroad. Cheryl believes in the power of puppets to educate as well as entertain; to transcend cultural differences and to communicate in a universal language. Having repurchased the company in 2003 with her siblings, Cheryl is excited to be working with the New York branch of The Jim Henson Company where the renowned Sesame Street Muppets continue to be designed and built.
Cheryl is on the board of the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia which opened “The Worlds of Puppetry Museum” in November 2015. This museum is host to the largest collection of Jim Henson’s puppets, as well as the most extensive collection of global puppetry in the United States. She is also the founder of Darkcrystal.com, a vibrant online destination for everything regarding The Dark Crystal.
Cheryl has led two successful book projects. In 1994, she and the Muppet Workshop created a book to help children explore their imaginations by making puppets out of everyday objects. The Muppets Make Puppets, published by Workman Press, sold more than 100,000 copies. In 2004, she worked with The Jim Henson Company Archives to compile a special book of quotes from her father, his characters and his friends. It’s Not Easy Being Green, and Other Things to Consider, published by Hyperion publishing and recipient of the Quill Book Award for “Health/Self Improvement” in 2005, continues to inspire interest in Jim’s philosophy of creative collaboration.
Cheryl built puppets while in high school for The Muppet Show (1976-1979) and before college on The Dark Crystal (1982). After graduating from Yale (l984) with a degree in History, Cheryl continued to work on films and television specials as a puppet and mask maker. Her work is seen in the film Labyrinth (l986) and The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986). In 1987, Cheryl earned a degree in textile design from the Fashion Institute of Technology and returned to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ in London where she worked on The Storyteller and Mother Goose Stories. Later, she worked as an Art Director for Song of the Cloud Forest, a segment of The Jim Henson Hour, which was nominated for an Emmy and won a Monitor Award for Best Achievement in Entertainment Series.
Cheryl lives in New York City with her husband and their two children.
Heather Henson
Board of Directors, The Jim Henson Company
Heather Henson is a contemporary puppet artist whose work promotes harmony and healing for the planet through artistic spectacle and discussion. Heather graduated with a degree from Rhode Island School of Design and studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Heather founded IBEX Puppetry in 2000, a multi-platform production company dedicated to promoting the fine art of puppetry in all of its mediums, honoring her work as well as puppetry artists nationally and internationally.
Heather is best known for her Environmental Spectacles: original performances designed to provide a transformative experience for the audience through the use of non-traditional storytelling. Heather blends the disciplines of puppetry, dance, and kiting with evocative sound and light effects to create immersive, interactive presentations that engage all of the senses and awaken the soul.
For the past several years, Heather’s story telling has been heavily impacted by her sense of kinship with the endangered species of the world, particularly Whooping Cranes. First moved by the plight of the Florida wetlands and their inhabitants, she designed the UNIMA Citation of Excellence-winning stage show Panther and Crane. More recently, inspired by the healing partnerships formed between cranes and teams of humans at The International Crane Foundation, she has brought animals and elemental forces of our planet out to frolic and fly among human audiences with her Endangered Species Parade, Celebration of Flight, FLIGHT: A Crane’s Story, and newest educational spectacle production Ajijaack.
Heather Henson’s environmental spectacles advocate for harmonious relationships between all the species and planetary forces of our beautiful Earth.
In addition to Heather’s original environmentally-themed works, she and IBEX Puppetry also produce the Handmade Puppet Dreams (HMPD) film series, a selection of short films by independent puppetry artists exploring their hand made craft specifically for the camera, showcasing a new generation of puppeteers embracing film as their medium of expression. IBEX Puppetry also supports the HMPD touring festival with multiple collections of short films from puppet filmmakers worldwide, providing a venue for these creative and unique films to be seen.
Heather is a Trustee for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and sits on the Board of Directors for The International Crane Foundation and The Jim Henson Company.
Lisa Henson
Board of Directors, The Jim Henson Company
CEO, The Jim Henson Company
As CEO of The Jim Henson Company, Lisa Henson oversees all television and feature film production, from early development through post-production. She is most recently serving as executive producer for the new Apple TV+ series Harriet the Spy and the reboot of Fraggle Rock. She is currently in production on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio for Netflix and the feature film The Portable Door. Lisa’s many television credits include the Emmy®-winning series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and the popular Word Party, both for Netflix, as well as the Emmy-nominated PBS KIDS series Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Splash and Bubbles.
Lisa’s feature credits include Sony Pictures Animation’s The Star, Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, as well as MirrorMask, The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, Good Boy!, and Henson Alternative’s The Happytime Murders. She is currently developing the highly anticipated sequel to the classic fantasy film Labyrinth, and The Conductors in partnership with Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit Entertainment.
Prior to her current position, Lisa was President of
Columbia Pictures where she oversaw a string of critical and commercial
successes including Little Women (1994), Immortal Beloved, and
Ang Lee’s Oscar®-winning Sense and Sensibility. Before joining Columbia
Pictures, Lisa served as an executive at Warner Bros. for ten years.
John Hyde
Vice Chairman, Board of Directors,
The Jim Henson Company
Hyde is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at The Jim Henson Company. Hyde is also the founder and CEO of Rehab Incorporated, which consists of Rehab Entertainment, a television, film, and intellectual rights company, as well as Rehab Consulting, an entertainment and media consulting firm. In 2014, he executive produced A Walk Among the Tombstones.
Hyde was President of Strategic Planning and a member of the Board of Directors for RLJ Entertainment. Hyde was also Vice Chairman of the Board at Image Entertainment, a premier producer and distributor with over 5,200 exclusive titles. Previously, Hyde served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Starz Media, which purchased IDT Entertainment in 2006 for nearly $500 million.
From 2000-2006, Hyde was Chief Operating Officer of IDT Entertainment and CEO of Film Roman, IDTE Productions and New Arc Productions. Hyde was responsible for organizing these acquisitions and subsidiaries and creating an infrastructure to give IDT Entertainment a cohesive production and distribution system. Hyde was brought into Film Roman as President and CEO. Hyde successfully generated new business while continuing to produce King of the Hill and The Simpsons, for which he was nominated for five Emmys, winning one.
Hyde was involved in financing and overseeing production and worldwide distribution of nearly 175 motion pictures and television shows. His Executive Producing credits include Short Circuit, Flight of the Navigator, Space Chimps, Neverending Story, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, Homicide: Life on the Street, 9 ½ Weeks, UHF, and Das Boot.
Hyde was involved in the restructuring or reorganization of Avenue Entertainment, Filmstar, Management Company Entertainment Group, Orion, and MGM, among others. He is a former director of The Cousteau Society. He was also a founding member of the Independent Film and Television Alliance (originally American Film Market). Hyde graduated from New York University with additional international economic studies at Leiden University in Holland.
Robin Russell
Board of Directors, The Jim Henson Company
Robin Russell received her J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of Law, in 1978, where she graduated with honors. She received her B.A. in Economics (with Honors) from the University of California, Berkeley.
After completing her education, Robin was an associate at one of the top Los Angeles law firms, specializing in complex business litigation with a focus on Federal civil defense litigation. She went on to be an associate at Gang, Tyre, Ramer and Brown, a firm whose practice was focused on Entertainment law. It is there that Robin developed her passion for Entertainment. In 1984 she was recruited to join the Frank Wells/Michael Eisner management team as a Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for Walt Disney Pictures.
While at Disney, Robin worked closely with senior leaders and served as an advisor to the corporate business development group responsible for the re-structuring of the Consumer Products and Disney Parks segments. Her responsibilities also included oversight of the legal and business affairs departments and all aspects of the business for the production of an annual slate of theatrical motion pictures released under the “Disney” and “Touchstone” brands.
Robin, following her entrepreneurial spirit, spent 2 years in the role of Chief Financial Officer, Business Affairs and Administration for InterTalent, a small, high-end, talent agency which was started by six senior agents from ICM and CAA. The company became Endeavor, which was then merged with The William Morris Agency to become WME2, the largest talent agency in Hollywood.
It was at this point in her career that Robin joined Sony Pictures Entertainment. Over her 19 year career at Sony, Robin’s span of control and responsibility continued to grow, spending 3 years as Executive Vice President Business Affairs for Columbia Pictures, overseeing negotiation of development and production agreements for the Studio, contract oversight and administration and supervision of all facets of Columbia’s business relationships with its creative family. Starting in 1997, Robin served for 10 years as Senior Executive Vice President and General Manager for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, where her main focus was the development of the DVD format and transition from a home rental to sell through market and expansion of the distribution outlets, including Amazon and Netflix. Ms. Russell’s career culminated as Senior Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations Marketing and Distribution. In this role, she was responsible for development of the business models for digital delivery in exhibition as well as media spend optimization and transition to on-line advertising.
Included as one of the “Women in Entertainment Power 100” for 5 years (2000-2005), Robin has been considered one of the most influential women in the Home Entertainment Industry. Robin recently concluded 18 months as a Fellow in the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative Program. She has an active consulting practice focused on litigation strategy, expert witness services, and content distribution. Robin is also an Adjunct Professor at USC Gould School of Law, where she teaches in the Entertainment Law curriculum.