Puppetry
Puppeteer. Voice Actor.
Both at Once.
In puppetry, seeing is believing.
In voice acting, hearing is believing.
Same job. Different door.
I'm Nate Begle, a professional puppeteer, puppet specialist and voice actor based in Orlando, Florida. I've performed Crow T. Robot AND Tom Servo for Mystery Science Theater 3000 (one of only two people to play both bots), brought the Muppets to life for The Walt Disney Company, and helped originate a live, real-time performance capture show at Universal Orlando Resort.
Whether your production needs hands in the puppet, a voice in the booth, or one performer who does both at once... let's talk.
What I Bring to Your Production
Theme Parks & Live Entertainment
Parades, stage shows, seasonal events and live interactive experiences. I know how to keep a character alive and consistent show after show... and how to train a whole team to do the same.
Film, TV & Commercials
On-camera puppetry, puppet captain duties and multi-performer coordination for film, TV, commercials and web series. Monitor-aware, frame-aware, and happiest just below it.
Performance Capture & Real-Time Animation
Live and recorded mocap performance for games, animation and interactive shows, plus training performers to get show-ready.
Voice + Puppet in One Hire
Most productions hire a puppeteer and a voice actor and hope they meet in the middle. Hire me, and the character comes from one place: one body, one voice, one point of view. Fewer handoffs, faster sessions, and a character that holds together.
Puppetry Training & Coaching
Workshops and 1:1 coaching for puppeteers, actors and voice actors. (Voice actors, trust me: your character work gets better the second a character is on your hand.) Catch my hands-on puppetry breakout at MAVO 2026, November 13-15. Puppets provided. No experience needed.
Digital Puppetry & Performance Capture
My puppetry background is what got me into motion capture, and I've worked with mocap systems (suits, sensors and optical cameras) since 2006. I performed the puppet character in The Gunstringer for Xbox 360 Kinect, and at Universal I performed live, real-time capture in front of park guests: body suit, facial capture and finger tracking, all streaming into Unreal Engine at showtime.
Here's the secret nobody tells you about mocap: it IS puppetry. You're still bringing a character to life that isn't you, from the inside out, for an audience that has to believe it. The rig just got more expensive. (And there's no foam and fleece. I miss the foam and fleece.)
Where It Started
Thanks to my dad's Marx Brothers obsession, I saw Monkey Business at six years old. Then the Punch and Judy scene hit. Pure chaos. I laughed so hard it flipped a switch that never flipped back.
Puppetry led me to performance, to storytelling, to theater, film and TV... and eventually into the vocal booth. It's still the root of everything I do. I'm a 45-year-old kid, and I will forever remain so. I stay young because I play with puppets and talk funny for money.
Below the Frame: Credits
Mystery Science Theater 3000
One of only two performers to play both Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, across MST3K Season 13 and MST3K Live. Riffing on a terrible movie while keeping a robot alive in real time is a VERY specific skill set. (I'm proud to have it.)
The Walt Disney Company
Three years as a Disney puppeteer: opening cast of The Muppets Present... Great Moments in American History, performing every character in the show, plus Baby Groot and Sebastian in Voyage of the Little Mermaid.
Muppets. Marvel. Mermaids. (Rule of three: satisfied.)
Universal Orlando Resort
One of eight original performers who created the role for Po Live!, DreamWorks' live, real-time performance capture show, where I also helped write the show's performance and technical standards and trained 15 performance capture performers.
Specialist, trainer and performer for The Secret Life of Pets float puppets in the Superstar Parade.
Multiple years of puppetry for Halloween Horror Nights, including 2025's Five Nights at Freddy's house... where I performed every puppet in the house.
Film, TV & Live Stage
Credits with The Jim Henson Company and Sesame Street. Puppet captain on film and TV sets. Stage manager AND cast member on a touring show, at the same time. (Ask me about it. Actually, don't. I'm still tired.) Hundreds, honestly probably thousands, of live performances.
Why a Puppeteer Makes Your Character Better
Every character I've ever built... on a hand, in a booth or in a mocap suit... starts in the same place: the inside. Who is this character? What do they want? What are they feeling RIGHT NOW? The soul of the puppet travels down the arm, through the hand, and only THEN out through the voice.
All of it is in service of suspension of disbelief... the audience's greatest ally and its most fragile one. One wrong beat and the illusion wavers. Years of keeping that illusion alive, for live audiences sitting ten feet away, is what I bring to your set.
“The only way the magic works is through hard work. But hard work can be fun.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you perform a puppet AND voice it at the same time?
Yes. That's the whole trick. Live, on set, in the booth or in a mocap suit.
Are you available for on-site work in Orlando?
Yes. I'm Orlando-based and work theme parks, sets and live events locally. For voice work, everything records remotely from my pro studio.
Do you do motion capture or digital puppetry?
Since 2006, on suit, sensor and optical systems, including live, real-time performance streamed into Unreal Engine.
Can you train our performers?
Absolutely. I've trained performance capture performers and parade puppeteers to show standards, and I teach puppetry workshops for actors and voice actors.
Union or non-union?
Both.
Got a Character That Needs a Pulse?
Let's bring it to LIFE.
Serious craft. Serious passion. Serious FUN.