Puppeteer

Heiko learned the art of TV puppetry from Emmy Award winner and Muppet legend Michael Earl at Puppet School in Los Angeles. In addition to participating in US music video productions for the Foo Fighters, Tommy Trash, Advance Base or Clare Means, he also appeared in numerous US internet and children’s series, including “The FuZees”, “88 Jade Way”, “Learning Town”, and “Good Times with Barry Goode”. In 2016, together with “Ira”, he made it to the semi­finals of America’s Got Talent, where he performed in front of a live audience and 25 million US television viewers at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall.

In Germany, Heiko has played the “Giraffen­affen” character, part of the Starwatch Pro7/Sat1 family, since 2015, and has since filmed numerous music videos with artists such as Thomas D., Max Giesinger, Alexa Feser, Glas­perlen­spiel, and Sasha. He also puppeteered the lead singer of the puppet band “Giraffen­affen Gang”, which released its first CD in 2016. He also worked on numerous commercials, including the Paul Plötzlich films for PSD Bank and several social media campaigns for the German Government or the Griesson Softcake campaign. Since 2018, Heiko has been a permanent cast member of the Bigsmile puppetry ensemble in Cologne, led by Martin Reinl. Continuing to this day, he has worked on several seasons of the successful KiKa series “Ein Fall für die Erd­männ­chen”, along with a music video for Jan Delay and live performances on the ARD show “Frag doch mal die Maus”.