Biography
Brett Hansen is the founder of and principal puppeteer at Larrikin Puppets, a Queensland based puppetry company established in 2012.
Born in Brisbane, Australia in 1979, Brett Hansen spent his entire youth drawing cartoons, playing piano and performing puppetry. After graduating from high school, Brett studied animation for four years and film and television for one year.
During his many years working in minimum wage jobs, Brett was a freelance cartoonist and performed as keyboard player in several bands - most notably thirteen years with the avant-garde heavy metal band Headkase. Brett also performed improvised piano with theatre company ImproMafia, and occasionally with Edge Improv and Youth Theatresports in the same manner.
Brett's weekly puppetry work with Larrikin Puppets is mostly focussed on live performances at schools, childcare centres, festivals, shopping centres and corporate events around Queensland. He also runs puppetry workshops at schools and for theatre, film and television, and performs puppetry in film and TV productions as well. He is joined by his wife Elissa Jenkins at workshops and larger festivals and touring shows.
In 2016, Brett spent three months in the USA networking, training and performing with puppeteers in New York City, Los Angeles and Texas. He received formal puppetry training at the 'Beyond The Sock' advanced puppetry workshop under Jim Henson puppeteers Marty Robinson and Noel MacNeal, with puppet construction training from Pasha Romanowski. Brett also trained at The Puppet Kitchen in Manhattan, New York under Michael Schupbach (another Henson alumnus), and performed in New York City at the Puppetry Arts Festival of Brooklyn.
In theatre, Brett was puppetry trainer in both the 2012 and 2014 Brisbane Arts Theatre productions of Broadway musical, 'Avenue Q'. Brett was also a puppeteer cast member of the show in 2012, co-performing the characters of Nicky and Trekkie Monster. In 2017, Brett trained another Avenue Q puppeteer cast at Sunnybank Theatre Group, and in 2018 trained the cast at Shoebox Theatre Company in Toowoomba. Brett's own casted stage show 'Thank Troggg You're Here: A Puppet Impro Spectacular!' debuted at the 2014 Anywhere Theatre Festival and has been performed several times to large audiences. A new version of the show called 'Show of Hands' premiered at the 2018 Anywhere Theatre Festival.
In film, Brett performed the puppet characters in Richard Bell's '5 for 35', a film which screened in 2015-2016 at the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) at GOMA (Queensland's Gallery Of Modern Art). He also assisted with the puppetry in 'Cluck: The Web Series', puppeteered Troggg in the short film 'Heart of a Thousand Souls', Kev and Carlos the Cop in the short film 'Kev', and two characters in the Tia Gostelow music video for her single, "That's What You Get".
In television, Brett performed the practical effects puppetry of a magical pogo stick in "The Bureau of Magical Things", Episode 11: A Fairy Tale (Jonathan M. Shiff Productions and Network Ten). He has also performed puppetry on an episode of "Totally Wild (Network Ten) and episodes of "Juiced TV" (Children's Hospital Foundation), "The Late Nite Show" and "Showreel" (Channel 31).
Hansen's most popular puppet character is a blue monster named "Troggg".
Brett is married. No children.
