About Us

We make awesome stuff

Monkey Boys Productions has become the leading studio for creating puppets, props, creatures, costumes, practical effects and entertainment for film, television and stage.
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Helpsters: Property of Apple TV and Sesame Workshop
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Our Story

Learn more about the folks behind the puppets

MARC PETROSINO

Co-founder / Puppetry Supervisor

Marc Petrosino

Marc Petrosino is an Emmy-nominated designer, puppeteer, fabricator, and co-founder of Monkey Boys Productions who, as a child, was heavily influenced by Sesame Street & The Muppets, as well as many talented family members and friends. In college, he decided to pursue his passion, and designed a degree in puppetry. While at school, he volunteered at the O’Neill Puppetry Conference, where he met and learned from some of the industry’s most esteemed talent. Over the years, Marc’s hand has made several ‘appearances’ on film in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (TriStar Pictures), and on television, on Saturday Night Live! (NBC), Sesame Street (PBS), Blue’s Room (Nick Jr.), Crank Yankers (Comedy Central), Elmo’s Christmas Countdown (ABC), and with The Muppets on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC). He has also appeared onstage in Little Shop of Horrors (Broadway & First National Tour), Anthony Minghella’s Madama Butterfly (The Metropolitan Opera), three separate Young People’s Concerts at Carnegie Hall, Basil Twist’s Petrushka (Lincoln Center), and Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home (Vineyard Theatre, Off-Broadway. During his career, Marc has also worked as a fabricator and/or designer on many projects, including Saturday Night Live! (NBC), The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (NBC), The Today Show (NBC), Helpsters (Apple TV), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Broadway), Amélie (Broadway), Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Broadway), and Little Shop of Horrors (Off-Broadway).

MICHAEL LATINI

Co-founder / Design Supervisor

Michael Latini

Michael Latini is an Emmy-nominated designer, puppeteer, fabricator, and co-founder of Monkey Boys Productions who has always played with and taken apart toys. Around the age of 12, he started performing in school shows, doodling during class, and working with his carpenter father. These passions, along with his love of the amazing practical effects films of the 80s & 90s, led him to the puppetry industry after getting his degree in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM from @tyler_artandarchitecture. His puppetry career began as “Bear” in the Bear in the Big Blue House Live, national tour in 2001 and he’s been lucky to work with many shows and productions since then. Little Shop of Horrors, Avenue Q, Johnny & the Sprites, Sesame Street, Walking with Dinosaurs LIVE, How to Train Your Dragon LIVE, The Muppets, Helpsters, & Saturday Night Live. His sustained success is all thanks to the people around him, especially Sarah, Marc, & the entire MBP crew!

MARC PETROSINO

Co-founder / Puppetry Supervisor
Marc Petrosino is an Emmy-nominated designer, puppeteer, fabricator, and co-founder of Monkey Boys Productions who, as a child, was heavily influenced by Sesame Street & The Muppets, as well as many talented family members and friends. In college, he decided to pursue his passion, and designed a degree in puppetry. While at school, he volunteered at the O’Neill Puppetry Conference, where he met and learned from some of the industry’s most esteemed talent. Over the years, Marc’s hand has made several ‘appearances’ on film in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (TriStar Pictures), and on television, on Saturday Night Live! (NBC), Sesame Street (PBS), Blue’s Room (Nick Jr.), Crank Yankers (Comedy Central), Elmo’s Christmas Countdown (ABC), and with The Muppets on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC). He has also appeared onstage in Little Shop of Horrors (Broadway & First National Tour), Anthony Minghella’s Madama Butterfly (The Metropolitan Opera), three separate Young People’s Concerts at Carnegie Hall, Basil Twist’s Petrushka (Lincoln Center), and Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home (Vineyard Theatre, Off-Broadway. During his career, Marc has also worked as a fabricator and/or designer on many projects, including Saturday Night Live! (NBC), The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (NBC), The Today Show (NBC), Helpsters (Apple TV), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Broadway), Amélie (Broadway), Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Broadway), and Little Shop of Horrors (Off-Broadway).

MICHAEL LATINI

Co-founder / Design Supervisor

Michael Latini is an Emmy-nominated designer, puppeteer, fabricator, and co-founder of Monkey Boys Productions who has always played with and taken apart toys. Around the age of 12, he started performing in school shows, doodling during class, and working with his carpenter father. These passions, along with his love of the amazing practical effects films of the 80s & 90s, led him to the puppetry industry after getting his degree in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM from @tyler_artandarchitecture. His puppetry career began as “Bear” in the Bear in the Big Blue House Live, national tour in 2001 and he’s been lucky to work with many shows and productions since then. Little Shop of Horrors, Avenue Q, Johnny & the Sprites, Sesame Street, Walking with Dinosaurs LIVE, How to Train Your Dragon LIVE, The Muppets, Helpsters, & Saturday Night Live. His sustained success is all thanks to the people around him, especially Sarah, Marc, & the entire MBP crew!

Our Team

Meet the folks responsible for bringing the puppets to life!
Michelle has been a maker and a creative collaborator since the fourth grade. She earned a BFA from The University of the Arts and worked as a ceramist at The Tileworks for a decade before finding her way to MBP. While apprenticing with performance troupes like Arche Dream and Usiloquy Dance she honed her skills as a self taught costume designer. She has won international awards for her wearable art creations. Her favorite skills to deploy are sculpting in clay, draping challenging shapes and sewing. She is grateful for awesome coworkers, the opportunity to be a maker everyday, and to bring her familiar, Luna, to work with her.

Michelle Yeager

Senior Fabricator

Terri Aluise started her non-linear maker journey twenty years ago with a background in metal fabrication, sculpture and an inquisitive hankering to tinker. Today she continues to design innovative work for Monkey Boys Productions as a Lead Fabricator by combining practical mechanics, the inherent qualities of her materials and the essence of whimsy.

Theresa Aluise

Senior Fabricator

Greedy for participation in every craft, Zach makes puppets because they combine so many different creative disciplines, and because they involve their audience in the conjuring of a collaborative magic.  Although his academic background is in anthropology and fine art, he credits much of his informal training to his father, an accomplished goofball and craftsman, who built acoustic guitars in between helping his kids with their own sculptures and hijinks. Professionally, Zach has worked in collaborative arts education, finish carpentry, and project management.  As childhood hobbies of building pen guns and pop-up books unfolded into large scale puppets for parades and festivals, Zach eventually decided to pursue puppetry as a serious career and feels lucky to have found Monkey Boys Productions in 2017, even though he cynically told his grandmother when he was 10 that making puppets “wasn’t a job.”

Zachary Stock

Senior Fabricator

Betsy Falk holds a BA in theatre from DeSales University and a MS in Education from Gwynedd Mercy University. In the past, she has worked as the Wardrobe Supervisor for Theatre for a New Audience (NYC), Costume Shop Supervisor for the Weathervane Theater (Whitefield, NH), and a Director/Costume Designer/General Manager for On Stage & Off, Inc. (Lansdale, PA). She is an experienced seamstress who finds her sanity in making things, so she spends her free time sewing, painting, knitting, baking, and making art with her two sons.

Betsy Falk

Operations Manager

Dylan Pecora has worked as a sculptor and illustrator since 2008. He’s a graduate of Tom Savini Special Effects Makeup Program. He gave James Brown the idea to ask the audience “How’s EVERYBODY feeling tonight?” instead of asking each attendee individually, which would often take several hours.

Dylan Pecora

Lead Fabricator

Valerie has crafted and created since she could hold a crayon, drawing and graffitiing all over her mother’s house. She took her creative passion to Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, where she graduated with a BFA in Sculpture and Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM. Interested in working in TV and film she received her certification from the Make-up Designory in New York for beauty and special effects make-up. This led her to work with CollegeHumor on some sketches and music videos. Before joining MBP, Valerie worked as a prosthetic skin technician using her fabrication skills in mold making and sculpting. She continues to sculpt and make molds, design, paint, sew, and 3D CAD models. Her mother is very grateful she found a career to express her creativity.

Valerie Scarfone Centanni

Lead Fabricator

In 2017, Brown joined MBP as a fabricator with almost a decade of professional experience in metalwork, machining, and sewing. However, they have loved working as a finisher and scenic artist over the years the most. Brown holds a BA in Sculpture with further education in Engineering Science and Theater. After graduating, they had apprenticed and worked in learning preservation, painting, and patina, which had led to a prolific career in the fine arts, commercial, and theater industries. Creatively, Brown has always been a world builder and storyteller and feels right at home at MBP. “I like to build things just so I can make them look like they don’t belong here. It’s magic I get to do every day.”

Killian T. Brown

Lead Fabricator

Noelle McManus has worked at Monkey Boys Productions since June of 2019. A Philadelphia native, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from their Theatre Arts Program. She would describe herself as a multidisciplinary artist, who is always looking to learn something new and challenging to expand her knowledge and creativity. Her favorite part of working at MBP is the diverse skill set that every job demands. You can find her anywhere from the mold making area, to the wood shop, and especially behind a sewing machine.

Noelle McManus

Lead Fabricator

Zach Broome is an award-winning sculptor, painter, scenic designer, and puppet artist who hails from the state of Georgia.  An alumnus of Mercer University, Zach graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Theatre and Art.  He later earned both a Master of Fine Arts in Puppetry and a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from the University of Connecticut.  His scenic designs have appeared in more than sixty theatrical productions in the Southeastern and Northeastern United States.  He has created and performed in solo puppet shows, and his short-form puppet films have appeared in festivals and puppet slams across the nation.  In 2016, Zach designed and fabricated puppets for, and performed in, a live puppet production with the Boston Pops Orchestra.  In 2022, his work went international when he designed mechanisms and fabricated puppets for Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North— a large-scale puppet production that toured Europe, North American, and South America.  His paintings, sculptures, and illustrations have been published in literary magazines and books. 

Zach Broome

Lead Fabricator

Bridget Reilly Beauchamp (she/her) first came to Monkey Boys as a fabricator after over 25 years as an IATSE costumer/dresser. Upon graduating with a BA in Theatre/French in the last century, she realized her skill set prepared her to go into the performing arts or become a governess in a Brontë novel. Having no great love for brooding antiheroes, she went into costuming and eventually running her own theatre company, which naturally led to puppet-making and project management.

Bridget Reilly Beauchamp

Project Support Specialist

Steffie is a multimedia artist known for the 70’s vibes and warm colors she emanates. She recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Savannah College of Art and Design (@scaddotedu) with a BFA in Production Design. Driven by creative forces for as long as she can remember, Steffie’s passion for Props, Stop Motion, Set Design and Puppets was sparked upon first watching “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” as a kid. One of her greatest pleasures in life is holding the creations that were once only an idea in her head.

As a Montgomery County, PA native, she is amazed to be working at the job of her dreams so close to home! She thanks MBP and all of her coworkers (and dogworkers) for creating a fun and enlightening environment to work in!

In her free time she is a woodland elf, bug enthusiast, and one of Oingo Boingo’s top .5% of listeners on Spotify.

Steffie Barszowski

Fabricator

Jon was born at the stroke of midnight on a full moon and had dreams of being the next Dr. Frankenstein.  After realizing that reanimating the dead is a sin against nature he decided to stick to recreating his favorite creatures with resins and plastics.  The obsession with monsters, special effects makeup, and movie miniatures started around the age of 7 when his father introduced him to the Universal studios horror films of the 30’s and 40’s.  Ever since then Jon has used whatever he can get his hands on to recreate and pay homage to the creatures and people who have inspired him.

After serving in the USMC Jon made his hobby his profession.  He has since done miniatures for multiple feature films and web series, Crayola, Hasbro, Wicked Cool Toys, and is a frequent contributor to Amazing Figure Modeler magazine.

Jon Giancola

Fabricator

Stacy Hill joined MBP in August of 2022.  Stacy holds a B.S. in Community Health Education and M.A. in Education.  After teaching, Stacy used her background to help create an HR/business position at a local non-profit private school in Bucks County, PA that grew from 2 students to 140 students with two locations.  Always up for a challenge, Stacy joined MBP in a new role which she’s helping to define.  Stacy thrives on making sense of new laws, regulations, and taxes which is super helpful for her role. She loves getting to know new employees and seeing them thrive with their creativity. On the weekends you can find Stacy enjoying the outdoors either going for long walks or hiking. When she’s not outdoors she enjoys reading a good book.

Stacy Hill

Financial and Human Resources Administrator

After a 15 year detour into public elementary education, Russell has returned to the company he once helped found with his fellow Monkey Boys. Russell has a B.S. in Film Production from Ithaca College and a M.A. in Education from Bank Street College of Education. He has created costumes, props and puppets with Den Design, Yvette Helin Studios, and Chiodo Bros. Studios before starting his own company, Highly Flammable Toys. There he created original personalized action figures, packaging, and movie posters. He was a member of Flock Theatre and performed many times at the O’Neil Puppetry Conference  He has puppeteered on stage with Frank McCourt, on screen with Meryl Streep, and in malls across America as an out-of-shape, walk-around Grover. He considers his greatest claim to fame to be his name appearing in the credits of Spawn: The Video Game for Super Nintendo as lead QA tester. Thanks to Marc and Mike for enticing him back east to breathe the sweet fumes of Barge once again.

Russell Tucker

Fabricator

A sculptor extraordinaire with an aptitude for mechanics. Studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts. An Adventure traveler and connoisseur of gourmet jello.

James Scannell

Fabricator

Headshots courtesy of Josh Beauchamp