Mokey Fraggle is a fictional puppet character created by

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating ''Fraggle Rock'' ( ...

. She is one of the five main characters in Henson's television series ''

Fraggle Rock ''Fraggle Rock'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock'' or ''Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets'') is a children's Musical film, musical Fantasy film, fantasy television comedy, comedy puppet television series about interconnected so ...

'', well as its 2022 reboot '' Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock''. She is performed by Kathryn Mullen in the original series, and by Donna Kimball in ''Back to the Rock''.

Mona Marshall Mona Marshall is an American television and voice actress, known for her work in a number of cartoons, anime shows, films and video games. Her major credits include ''South Park'', where she voices many of the female characters on the show, '' .h ...

voiced her in the animated series. Mokey is one of the main characters in ''Fraggle Rock'', alongside Gobo,

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

Boober ''Fraggle Rock'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock'' or ''Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets'') is a children's musical fantasy comedy puppet television series about interconnected societies of Muppet creatures, created by Jim He ...

, and

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

. She is the best friend and roommate of Red Fraggle. Mokey is dreamy and artistic. She loves writing poems, singing songs, and painting. She has a pet plant named Lanford, who is strongly disliked by Red. Mokey is the tallest and oldest of the Fraggles. It is her job to journey into the Gorgs' garden to retrieve

radishes The radish (''Raphanus sativus'') is a flowering plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. Its large taproot is commonly used as a root vegetable, although the entire plant is edible and its leaves are sometimes used as a leaf vegetable. Origina ...

, the Fraggles' primary source of food.

Development

Mokey was designed by

Michael K. Frith Michael Kingsbury Frith (born 8 July 1941) is a British artist and television producer. He is the former executive vice-president and creative director of The Jim Henson Company. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and vari ...

and built by Jan Rosenthal. She was allegedly named after a childhood friend of

. Kathryn Mullen was cast to play the character. During rehearsals, Mokey was originally performed by

Karen Prell Karen Leigh Prell (born July 26, 1959) is an American puppeteer and animator. She is the performer of Red Fraggle in ''Fraggle Rock''. Early life and career Prell was born on July 26, 1959, in Florida but grew up in Seattle, Washington. She a ...

, who would later play

Behind the scenes

Mokey is a live-hand puppet, which means that her arms are glove-like sleeves into which the puppeteer places their real arms to move the puppet's hands. Mokey was the only character on ''Fraggle Rock'' to be a live-hand puppet, while the others were rod puppets. (Other notable live-hand puppets include ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

Ernie Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (disambiguation) * Ernie Afaganis ...

and

The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...

Fozzie Bear Fozzie Bear is a Muppet character from the sketch comedy television series ''The Muppet Show'', best known as the insecure and comedically fruitless stand-up comic''.'' Fozzie is an orange-brown bear who often wears a brown pork pie hat and a ...

and

Rowlf Rowlf the Dog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Known most notably as the resident pianist on the sketch comedy television series ''The Muppet Show'', Rowlf is an anthropomorphic scruffy brown dog of indeterm ...

). Kathryn Mullen performed Mokey's left hand, while her right hand was performed by Trish Leeper (also the on-set performer for Ma Gorg). One of Mokey's unique features is her eyelids, which she can lift up to show surprise or other emotions. She was one of only a few puppets on the show to have this ability (the rebuilt Gobo Fraggle puppet being another). Donna Kimball has voiced Mokey since the 2020 short-form TV series ''Fraggle Rock: Rock On!"

Reboot

Mokey's portrayal in the 2022 reboot TV series '' Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock'' is significantly different from her portrayal in the original series. The Mokey puppet was redesigned heavily, now wearing a green dress instead of her gray robe, and sporting a blue

beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure which houses honey bees, subgenus '' Apis.'' Honey bees live in the beehive, raising their young and producing honey as part of their seasonal cycle. Though the word ''beehive'' is used to describe the nest of ...

-like ponytail. Her eyelids are also less prominent, and she is now strictly a rod puppet, like the other characters. This version of Mokey was performed by Donna Kimball, who had previously portrayed her in the short-form TV series ''Fraggle Rock: Rock On!'' for

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

John Tartaglia John Nicholas Tartaglia (; born February 16, 1978) is an American puppeteer, actor, and singer. Early life Tartaglia was born in Maple Shade Township, New Jersey, and graduated from Upper Dublin High School in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, i ...

(the performer for Gobo on the new series) commented on the design change during a ''Fraggle Rock'' Q&A on his

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

stories, stating, "Mokey is super creative and artistic and she wanted a new look - she's always in touch with the creative vibes of the Rock!" Tartaglia went into more detail about the reasons for the redesign in an interview with MegaPodTastic

References

Fraggle Rock characters Television characters introduced in 1983 Female characters in television Fictional poets Fictional painters {{character-stub