William Paul "Bill" Barretta (June 19, 1964, Yardley, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American puppeteer and producer who has been performing with The Muppets since 1991, when he puppeteered the body of Sinclair family patriarch, Earl Sinclair on Dinosaurs. He later developed several new characters on Muppets Tonight, including Pepe the King Prawn, Johnny Fiama, Big Mean Carl and Bobo the Bear. Along with having his own Muppet characters, Barretta has taken over several of Jim Henson and John Kennedy's roles, such as Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Mahna Mahna and Swedish Chef, and briefly took over Jerry Nelson's role of Lew Zealand. His film debut as a principal puppeteer was in 1996's Muppet Treasure Island as Clueless Morgan. In addition, Barretta has produced two of the Muppets' television films, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005). Barretta also provides additional voices on Kim Possible. His most recent film performance was in Disney's Muppets Most Wanted, where he also served as a co-producer. Barretta also served as an executive producer on the ABC series, The Muppets.
Barretta is the younger brother of the children's book author and illustrator, Gene Barretta. He is a native of Yardley, Pennsylvania.
He also co-wrote the screenplay of the Creature Shop film Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story (appearing on camera as Thunderdell).
Barretta directed a test pilot for the America's Next Muppet pitch and directed another presentation pilot featuring the Muppet in mock documentary style, focusing on the Muppets' efforts to launch a network television series. The second presentation pilot was written and produced by Bill Prady and featured puppetry by Barretta, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson.
