Brian Muehl (pronounced "meal"; also credited as Brian Meehl and Brian Wolfe, August 24, 1952, Canandaigua, New York, USA) is a puppeteer and writer who began his Muppet career on Sesame Street. Trained as a mime, Muehl had been a member of Mummenschanz as an interpreter for Andres Bossard. From there, he was cast on Sesame Street as Barkley the Dog (taking over from Toby Towson), and he initially joined the Henson Company exclusively as a body puppeteer. He soon transitioned to performing more Muppet characters on the Street, including Telly Monster, Grundgetta, Dr. Nobel Price, and, in some of his earliest appearances, Elmo. Muehl also performed in several episodes during the last season of The Muppet Show, assisting the principal puppeteers and playing small roles.
His work with Henson also included roles in the films, The Dark Crystal, The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Great Muppet Caper. Muehl also performed multiple roles on The Dark Crystal (and along with Steve Whitmire, was one of only two puppeteers to both perform and voice a character).
Changing his name to Meehl, to reflect the pronunciation, the puppeteer began churning out scripts for Eureeka's Castle, PBS series Eyewitness, The Magic School Bus, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, and Codename: Kids Next Door. He did return to the Muppets sporadically in the 1990s, notably as a regular on Dog City and several episodes of Sesame Street during season 25 (including Episode 3145, 3158, 3204, and 3261). He later made an on-screen cameo as "Ramp Guy" in episode 3319 the following season, and as a balloon salesman in episode 3634 two seasons later. He also wrote a pair of episodes for Sesame English, "A Zoo for Jenny" and "Tingo Hears a Noise."
In 2006, he published his first young adult novel, Out of Patience, which examines such issues as baseball and toilets in small-town Kansas. In 2008, he published his second, Suck It Up, a vampire comedy which contains a brief mention of his former character Elmo.
| Year | Image | Character | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992-1994 | 
|
Bruno | Dog City |
| 1984 | 
|
Tatooey Rat | The Muppets Take Manhattan |
| 1980-1984 | 
|
Elmo | Sesame Street |
| 1980-1984 | 
|
Telly Monster | Sesame Street |
| 1982 | 
|
Ornamentalist | The Dark Crystal |
| 1982 | 
|
Dying Master | The Dark Crystal |