Helena Smee - CV Resume Website and Showreel at helenasmee.com
Contact helena.smee@btinternet.com
Helena Smee is a British Puppeteer, Puppet Maker and Writer.
Her work has been seen on screens for over 30 years, from 'Dappledown Farm', presented by pre-school legend Brian Cant, to her current iconic puppet character, ‘Milkshake Monkey' (Bafta nominated) for Channel 5's Milkshake!
During that time, Helena has designed and built over 80 puppets that have featured in more than 50 kids TV series, and has performed at least 30 of the characters herself (puppet and voice). She has exceptional experience filming puppets on location, outside in the ‘real World’.
In 2017, Helena was cast as a principal puppeteer to play lead characters, 'Mira', 'Seladon' and 'The Collector/SkekLach', in The Jim Henson Company/Netflix original TV series, 'The Dark Crystal; Age of Resistance'. The series won an EMMY for 'Outstanding Children's Program' in the 2020 awards.
Helena has been hired to puppeteer on feature films including, ‘Muppets Treasure Island’, ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ & ‘Solo; a Star Wars Story’.
She was cast by the Sesame Workshop to play lead character ‘Chelli’ in both UK series of ‘Big Bag’.
Helena has also worked on various puppet-led advertising campaigns including ‘Freeview Aliens’, ‘3 Mobile’, ‘Dolmio’, ‘Travelodge’, ‘O2’, ‘McDonalds’, ‘Hewlett Packard’, ‘D-Con’ and ‘Doordash’.
Over the last 15 years, Helena has also been commissioned to write scripts for Children's Animation series, including ‘123 Number Squad’, 'Winnie & Wilbur', 'Daisy & Ollie', 'School of Roars', ‘Wissper’, ‘Wanda and the Alien’, ‘Pip Ahoy’, ‘Toby’s Travelling Circus', 'Castle Farm', 'The Beeps' and ‘Bottle Top Bill’.
To date, she has written over 1,000 minutes of broadcasted original animation.
Helena is married to fellow puppeteer and artist Marcus Clarke. They live happily in Nottingham, UK with their 2 sons and very scruffy dog.
Professional Memberships: British Actors Equity,
Writers Guild of Great Britain, PRS, ALCS, Screen Actors Guild USA.
Awards:
Milkshake Monkey - 2014 BAFTA Nominated - Short Form
Milkshake Show 2008 - BAFTA Nominated - Pre-School Live Action
Milkshake Summer 2006 - BAFTA Nominated - Pre-School Live Action
The Christmas Milkshake Show 2009 - BAFTA Nominated - Pre-School Live Action
Puppeteer
credits include:TV
* Milkshake Monkey Continuity Links Milkshake! Channel 5 2003
* Meaban &Moo Series 1 and 2 Ceebeebies/Alba
* Milkshake Monkey's Amazing Adventures - (2 Series)
* Dark Crystal; Age of Resistance - Principal Puppeteer - Core Group - Jim Henson Company and Netflix. Winner of 2019/20 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Children's Program'.
* Milkshake Monkey (4 Series) - BAFTA Nominated - Iconic puppet character presenter for Milkshake! Channel 5.
* Hacker Time CBBC (series 4 & 5) - BAFTA Nominated - CBBC
* The Milkshake Show BAFTA Nominated - Milkshake/Channel 5
* Smarteenies Cbeebies
*
Dappledown
Farm
C5 & TVAM* Punctuation Pals BBC Learning
* Playbox Ragdoll for CITV
* Dotty and Buzz C4 education
* A House That's Just Like Yours Milkshake/Channel 5
* The Softies Milkshake/Channel 5
* Big Bag (Chelli) Sesame Production CITV
* Tickle, Patch & Friends Milkshake/Channel 5 (11 series)
* Top Banana TVAM
* The Great Bong CITV
* Sandy and Mr Flapper Milkshake/Channel 5
* The Slow Norris (original cast) CITV
* Havakazoo Milkshake/Channel 5
* The Children's Channel & TCC - all on-air presentation from 1993-1995
Including: Ike & Webber, Ratkan Zoo, Ratkan Live, Droibee Time.
FILM
* Solo: A Star Wars Story - Lucas Films
* Muppets Most Wanted - Disney
* Muppets Treasure Island - Jim Henson Company
* 10th Kingdom - Carnival Films
ADS - COMMERCIALS
* Freeview Aliens (TV commercial) Blinkink - 2021 ‘Crack open the good biscuits’
* 3 Mobile (TV commercial) Bacon Prods & Arch Model Studios - 2022 ‘Karaoke’
* Agile Films (Hans Christian Anderson Museum) 2020 Promotional Film 'Mermaids'
* York Productions (US) 2020 Door Dash - 'Talking Kitchen'.
* Hewlett Packard 2017 Xmas Campaign "Create wonder in your World".
* McDonalds 2016 Christmas 'The Doll'.
* O2 2016 "Gift Box".
* Travelodge 2016 'That's Travelogical'.
* Dolmio Pasta Sauce 'The Meeting' & 'Stay for Dinner'.
* Beagle Insurance Blink Productions
* Hyundai (Web Commercial) Viral Factory
Script-writing credits include:
ANIMATION* 123 NUMBER SQUAD Omens Studios
* Princess Doremi FZ Entertainment China
* School of Roars Monster Paw Productions
* Winnie and Wilbur Wundana Enterprises
* Daisy & Ollie HOOPLA
* Wissper Absolutely Cookoo
* Pip Ahoy CHF
* Wanda and the Alien Komixx
* Toby's Travelling Circus Komixx
* Bottle Top Bill Southern Star
* The Beeps Impossible TV
* Angels of Jarm Impossible TV
* The Milky and Shake Show Kerrupt TV
* Castle Farm Impossible TV
TV
* Tickle, Patch & Friends C5
* Sandy and Mr Flapper C5
* The Softies
C5
* Milkshake Monkey C5
THEATRE PLAY
* Dreaming with Roo - Funded by ACE & REEP
TV Series Created and Co-created:
* The Softies 80 x 5 min eps Created for C5
* Beachcomber Bay 90 x 24 min eps Co-created for C5
* Sandy and Mr. Flapper 26 x 5 min eps Co-created for C5
* Tickle, Patch and Friends 11 Series Co-created for C5
Real Time Animation:I spent 8 months in Los Angeles writing scripts for Medialab and Canal+ CG RTA presentations, as well as Performing RTA CG Characters for many Hollywood Studio presentations and working on the resulting productions for NBC and Fox Studios Beverly Hills.
I have written, presented and performed similar presentations in Osaka, Amsterdam, New Orleans, Orlando and Hamburg.
TV Puppet Maker:
I am one half of 'Hands up Puppets'. www.handsuppuppets.com.
Formed in 1989 with my partner, Marcus Clarke, we have designed and created over 70 Puppets, appearing in as many Children's TV Series over 28 years including Milkshake Monkey.
Teaching Experience: Teaching EEC Euro funded ‘lesser language initiative’.
I helped to devise a course and teach T.V Puppetry to a mixed age group of Gaelic speakers over a 16 week period. This resulted in the students successfully performing in an award-winning Gaelic TV series that aired on Eire and British Gaelic TV Services.
Teaching Real-Time Animation in the USA and Japan:
I taught a mixed age group of primarily ‘Muppet’ Puppeteers to perform the Medialab France computer animation system in Los Angeles over a 16 week period. Also, a shorter course in Tokyo,
Japan.
