he played 5-year-old Wesley Walker and his father, Elijah <\/a>\u2014 Black characters introduced as a part of the show\u2019s racial justice initiative and the “ABCs of Racial Literacy” series. His acquisition of those roles was the product of talent, luck and risk.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
“There was an invitation sent out to only a few puppeteers, asking if we could send in a video to The Muppets Studio, and they\u2019d determine if our skill level as performers was what they were looking for,” Freeman said. “After I sent in my video, I got a call saying I was not going to be attending the workshop. They liked the video so much that they just hired me from there.”<\/p>\n
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A University of Texas at San Antonio instructor and lifelong fan is bringing local flair to the 2026 ‘The Muppet Show’ reboot.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Zach Hyman, Sesame Workshop<\/p>\n
Freeman was 23 then. This time around, the San\u00a0Antonian will appear more often.<\/p>\n
“As Muppet performers, we fill many roles; sometimes we\u2019re leading the scene as a character, or assisting other puppeteers when they need an extra hand,” he explained. Other times. They\u2019re puppeteering items that you\u2019d never expect to need a human behind them, like a door or an inner tube.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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“You\u2019ll see my work in nearly every scene, and hopefully you won\u2019t even know I was there,” he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult for Freeman to pinpoint only one childhood memory of the show. What stands out to him today is recalling searching for his puppets as soon as an episode began. He\u2019d puppeteer alongside his future colleagues, imagining he was a part of the action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A University of Texas at San Antonio instructor and lifelong fan is bringing local flair to the 2026 ‘The Muppet Show’ reboot.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Bradley Freeman Jr.<\/p>\n
“I was thinking about that while sitting on set doing the real thing,” Freeman said. “I felt (and feel) like the luckiest fan in the world.”<\/p>\n
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The Muppets, in all their colorful, silly glory, do more than just keep children entertained on a rough day. Adults and young ones alike are pulled into a new world, one absent of their daily responsibilities and pressures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The people who watch take those moments to step away from all of the troubles they have and join me and my friends in a world where everything is okay,” Freeman said. “I\u2019m very happy to be a part of that for people.”<\/p>\n
Still, dreams come with their own set of challenges. Freeman is often traveling between New York, Los Angeles and Texas, making it hard for him to lock down plans for the month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m never certain where I am going to be, even a week from that moment,” Freeman said, though he has gotten to see several parts of the country. “Over the past couple of years, I\u2019ve worked in over 20 states. Which is a nightmare for taxes, but incredibly fun to experience,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Freeman has just over two decades of experience in his craft, making him the best person to teach the UTSA course, “Children\u2019s Media: From Script to Screen.” It first launched in fall 2024 and centers around the experience of being on a set, “the different personalities that were in charge,” and “how to advocate for yourself and your ideas.” Depending on how his schedule plays out, it may return next fall.<\/p>\n
Though it took some time for his wishes to come to fruition, he hopes aspiring puppeteers can find joy outside of their roles, too.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t need Sesame Street to be happy. I can find so many other incredible kinds of success,” he said. “Find fulfillment in other aspects of your life; it makes the difficult path to success in this business much easier to handle.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A University of Texas at San Antonio instructor and lifelong fan is bringing local flair to the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2109,2107,820,82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-2682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-mysa-heds","9":"tag-mysaentertainment","10":"tag-mysastaff","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","13":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}