David Rudman (born June 1, 1963) is an American puppeteer, puppet builder, writer, director, and producer known for his involvement with the Muppets and Sesame Street. Career David Rudman has been a Sesame Street Muppet performer since 1985—currently performing Cookie Monster (since 2001), Baby Bear and the right head of the Two-Headed Monster (since 1998). He has received four Emmy nominations as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work on Sesame Street. Rudman has also directed several web videos for Sesame Street such as "Cookie Monster Auditions for Saturday Night Live" and "Conversations with Bert". He has performed in numerous television shows and specials including Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Muppets, where he performed characters originally portrayed by Richard Hunt, such as Scooter, Janice, Bobby Benson and Wayne. His film credits include The Muppets Take Manhattan, Labyrinth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, A Muppet Christmas Carol, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted. Following the departure of Steve Whitmire in 2016, he became Beaker's new performer in 2017. Personal life Rudman attended Highland Park High School and graduated in 1981. He has been a speaker at the school's biennial Focus on the Arts program since 2003. He attended college at the University of Connecticut. Rudman was the speaker at the 2005 graduation ceremony for the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago. Spiffy Pictures Spiffy Pictures is a television production-channel company that started in 2003 and founded by David and Adam Rudman, located in Chicago, that consists mainly of its most famous live-action comedy-adventure-musical television shows for Noggin, Disney Channel, HBO Max, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, Nick Jr., and PBS. In addition to his work on Sesame Street and with the Muppets, Rudman is co-owner of Spiffy Pictures where he co-created, executive produced, directed and performed in Jack's Big Music Show (Noggin), Curious Buddies (Nick Jr. Baby), Bunnytown (Disney Junior), Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map (Warner Bros.), Frankie and Frank (Nick Jr.), Donkey Hodie (PBS Kids) and is the creator, executive producer, character designer, director and voice director of the animated series Nature Cat on PBS Kids, voicing several characters including Leo the Mammoth, Prospector Jones, Nevin, and the Seeker. Filmography I Love Liberty (ABC) The Muppets Take Manhattan (film): Additional Muppets Little Muppet Monsters (CBS): Boo Monster Labyrinth (film): Goblins (puppetry only)