or


[11/08/13 - 02:06 PM]
"Farscape's" Gigi Edgley to Host "Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge," Syfy's Imaginative New Competition Series to Discover Hollywood's Most Talented Creature Creator
Plus: Beth Hathaway and Kirk Thatcher are also inked to serve on the judging panel, alongside headline and lead judge Brian Henson.

[via press release from Syfy]

FARSCAPE'S" GIGI EDGLEY TO HOST "JIM HENSON'S CREATURE SHOP CHALLENGE," SYFY'S IMAGINATIVE NEW COMPETITION SERIES TO DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD'S MOST TALENTED CREATURE CREATOR

Lead Judge Brian Henson to be Joined by Additional Judges, Creature Fabricator Beth Hathaway and Creature Designer Kirk Thatcher

NEW YORK, NY - November 8, 2013 - Syfy has signed Gigi Edgley (Farscape) to host Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge, a new competition series set in the imaginative and visually stunning world of original creature creation. Beth Hathaway and Kirk Thatcher are also inked to serve on the judging panel, alongside headline and lead judge Brian Henson.

As host of the series, Edgley is charged with introducing each week's challenge to the group of contestants. The Australian actress has a long and rich history with The Jim Henson Company, beginning with her popular role as Chiana on the Company's critically-acclaimed sci-fi cult series, Farscape, in which she starred for over four years. The beloved role was the catapult for Edgley's huge online presence and large following of fans. Additionally, Edgley has appeared in countless film and television series including the ABC miniseries Carlotta and USA's The Starter Wife. She also starred on one of Australia's most popular and respected series, The Secret Life of Us. Edgley is a singer and a creator of original comic books and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Queensland University of Technology.

Syfy also finalizes the series judges with the additions of creature fabricator Beth Hathaway and creature designer Kirk Thatcher to the panel, who each week will critique the original creatures and decide the fate of the contestants.

Beth Hathaway has fabricated specialty creatures and costumes for film and television for over 25 years. With over 100 credits to her resume, Hathaway's first big break came when she landed a job at Stan Winston Studio. In her ten years with the studio, she mastered the craft of assembling creatures and worked on high profile projects like Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands and James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. For the last ten years, Hathaway has led the fabrication department at K.N.B. EFX Group working on projects like The Walking Dead and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Kirk Thatcher is an Emmy-award winning writer/producer, a Webby award-winning director, and a production designer with a penchant for special effects, strange creatures, and comedic characters. Thatcher began his career at age 19, working at George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic, building and performing creatures for films like Return of the Jedi, E.T., Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Gremlins. He co-produced the series Dinosaurs, designing most of the characters and working closely with one of his mentors, Jim Henson. He also co-wrote Muppet Treasure Island, and directed television features The Muppets Wizard of Oz, It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa. Kirk also directed multiple Muppet online videos, including the wildly popular The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody.

Brian Henson will headline and lead the panel of judges on the series. Henson is the Chairman of The Henson Company and oversees the groundbreaking work of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. An award-winning writer, director and producer, he is also a creature designer and performer taught by the iconic genius, his father Jim Henson.

Serving as mentors on the series will be world-renowned designer Peter Brooke, mechanization and animatronics master John Criswell and fabrication and artistic specialist Julie Zobel. The three are longtime Creature Shop artists who have dedicated their talents to the Henson legacy. Their tenures with The Jim Henson Company span decades and they bring a specialized knowledge having collaborated directly with Jim Henson himself. Working alongside the creature creators inside their workplace at the Creature Shop, they will be available for consultation and hands-on assistance.

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge will feature ten aspiring creature creators competing in a series of challenges where they will build everything from mechanical characters to whimsical beasts, bringing high-end creature designs to life. The contestants compete for a prize worth $100,000 including the opportunity for the job of a lifetime - a contract working at the world-renowned Jim Henson's Creature Shop(TM).

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge is a production of The Jim Henson Company. Brian Henson will executive produce with his sister Lisa Henson, the company's CEO. Also serving as executive producers on Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge are Joseph Freed (Little People Big World, Rachael Ray) and Rob Bagshaw (Paradise Hotel, Top Chef Masters, Project Runway All Stars). Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge is set to debut in first quarter 2014 on Syfy.

Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in more than 98 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBCUniversal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. NBCUniversal is owned by Comcast Corporation.(Syfy. Imagine greater.)

Jim Henson's Creature Shop(TM) provides performed digital visual effects, animatronic creatures, animation and soft puppets to the international film, television and advertising industries. Based in Los Angeles and New York with satellite shop capabilities internationally, the Shop is known for designing and building some of the world's best-known characters including the Sesame Street puppets, the classic Muppets, the dinosaurs from Dinosaurs, the aliens from Farscape and the fantastical creatures from The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Other features credits include Where the Wild Things Are, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Five Children and It. The shop is also known for its live performance work with artists like Cee Lo Green, Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Deadmau5. A recipient of more than 9 Emmy Awards? for its outstanding work building puppets for Sesame Street, the Shop also received an Academy Award for its visual effects work on the film Babe. Other awards include a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award? for the Henson Performance Control System, a powerful custom-based interface for puppeteers, and an Emmy Award for its work in developing the Henson Digital Performance Studio, a patented control system technology that enables puppeteers to physically perform a computer generated (CG) character in real time.

The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include the Emmy(R) nominated Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Pajanimals as well as the new series Doozers, a CG animated preschool series. Features include The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, MirrorMask, and the upcoming Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day and television productions include Fraggle Rock and the sci-fi cult series Farscape.

With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and postproduction facilities. Independently owned and operated by the five adult children of founder Jim Henson, the Company is also home to Jim Henson's Creature Shop(TM), a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television, theme park and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry's top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment. The Company's Henson Alternative brand is currently touring "Puppet-Up! - Uncensored," a live puppet improvisational show.





  [november 2013]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
     


· FARSCAPE (SCI FI)
· JIM HENSON'S CREATURE SHOP CHALLENGE (SYFY)





[06/27/25 - 02:29 PM]
"Live with Kelly and Mark" Gears Up for Summer Rising Week to Week in All Key Measures
Wednesday, June 11, was the most-viewed day of the week among Total Viewers (2.164 million).

[06/27/25 - 12:18 PM]
ABC News Studios Announces Three Chilling New True-Crime Docuseries to Premiere in July, Streaming Exclusively on Hulu
On tap are "Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit" (Tuesday, July 15); "Trophy Wife: Murder on Safari" (Monday, July 21); and "Mr. & Mrs. Murder" (Wednesday, July 30).

[06/27/25 - 10:40 AM]
Amazon MGM Studios Casts Levi Miller in the Role of Haakon in the New Original Series "Bloodaxe"
"Bloodaxe" is an epic historical drama that chronicles the rise of one of history's most famous Viking warriors, Erik Bloodaxe, and his formidable wife, Gunnhild, Mother of Kings.

[06/27/25 - 10:31 AM]
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" Tops Late-Night in Adults 18-49 for Third Week in a Row
Winning three of five nights in Kimmel's final week before summer guest hosts, Thursday, June 19, was the show's strongest night among Adults 18-49 (0.35 rating).

[06/27/25 - 10:07 AM]
Oxygen's "Buried in the Backyard" Returns for Season Six on Saturday, July 12 at 8 P.M. ET/PT with Special Two-Hour Premiere
The series unearths the tragic stories of ordinary people fallen prey to unthinkable crimes - dark deeds left hidden and concealed by the perpetrator, hoping to never to be discovered.

[06/27/25 - 10:02 AM]
ESPN Major League Baseball Schedule Update: New York Mets Visit the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, July 9
The Mets-Orioles matchup is in addition to the network's weekly Sunday offerings.

[06/27/25 - 10:00 AM]
FOX to Debut Powerful Three-Week Biblical Event Series "The Faithful" Sunday, March 22
The series, which begins production this summer in Rome and Matera, Italy, will air throughout the Easter and Passover season on FOX and the next day on Hulu.

[06/27/25 - 09:33 AM]
Video: "Robot Chicken: Self-Discovery Special" - Official Trailer - Adult Swim
The show's 20th anniversary special premieres July 20 on Adult Swim, next day on Max.

[06/27/25 - 09:03 AM]
Paramount+ to Debut New Groundbreaking Docuseries "Hip Hop Was Born Here" Executive Produced and Co-Created by LL Cool J and Peyton Manning
Hosted by LL Cool J, the series will chart the creation, evolution and ongoing legacy of Hip Hop not just as a genre but as a culture.

[06/27/25 - 09:00 AM]
HBO Original Comedy Series "The Comeback" Returns for a Third and Final Season
Season three will begin production this summer and will debut on HBO and HBO Max in 2026.

[06/27/25 - 08:01 AM]
Video: "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print" - Official Trailer - HBO
Ms. wasn't just a magazine-it was a revolution. Told through the lens of three directors and the covers that made history.

[06/27/25 - 07:31 AM]
Peacock Exclusively Streams "Drop" Beginning July 11
Directed by Christopher Landon, the action-thriller film stars Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane and Jeffery Self.

[06/27/25 - 07:01 AM]
Video: "Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano" - Official Trailer #2 - Netflix
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano headline a historic all-women's boxing mega-event from Madison Square Garden. Presented by Most Valuable Promotions.

[06/27/25 - 06:01 AM]
HBO Max Celebrates Pride Month with the Release of Gay HBO Max Song - A New Track by Trixie Mattel Featuring HBO Max's Most Iconic Quotes
As part of the Pride Month celebrations, the music video is available now on YouTube.

[06/27/25 - 05:32 AM]
Video: "The Family Man" Season 3 - Official Announcement - Prime Video
The wait is over. New season. New mission.