Wim T. Schippers

Wim T. Schippers and Ernie behind the scenes in the talkshow De Wereld Draait Door

Wim T. Schippers at the Dutch premiere of The Muppets at the Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam.

Wim T. Schippers performing an Albert Heijn Kermit puppet at the Dutch premire of The Muppets at the Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam.

Wim T. Schippers in Sesamstraat in the 25th season

Wim T. Schippers in Sesamstraat in Paradiso

Wim T. Schippers (b. 1942) dubs the voices of many lead characters on Sesamstraat, the Dutch co-production of Sesame Street, most notably Ernie and Kermit the Frog, and has also been heard in the Dutch dub of The Animal Show. While he dubbed Kermit again in the 2003 special I Love the Muppets, he became the frog's official Dutch voice in Muppet projects in 2011, beginning with the Dutch dub of The Muppets in 2011. Schippers is a popular Dutch comedian, best known for his particularly high voice. He is also an artist and a writer, and he hosted the Nationale wetenschapsquiz (National Science Quiz) from 1995 to 2002.

Schippers has been dubbing Ernie since the first Sesamstraat season in 1976, with Paul Haenen as Bert. The Dutch Bert and Ernie are extremely popular. Haenen and Schippers were originally the only Bert and Ernie in the world who got permission from Jim Henson to write their own material, "We've gotten deep into them, because we've written our own scripts for Bert and Ernie for the CDs. We do that with respect for anything Henson has done... we got permission from him, sometime in the past." (later, Sesamstrasse would go on to produce their own, unique material starring the two). The duo have recorded a whole series of self-written Bert and Ernie record albums, and they also appear as Bert and Ernie in interviews.

Wim T. Schippers made a guest appearance on Sesamstraat in the 25th season, as one of the celebrities reading a bedtime story. He also hosted the 25th anniversary New Year's Eve special Sesamstraat In Paradiso.

In the 1990s, he performed Kermit (as a voiceover) in "Indoor Groceries" interviews with Tommie, who had to find three objects beginning with the same letter of the alphabet. He also supplied Ernie's voice in four sketches, in which Ernie asked Tommie to play outside, but with a shadow puppet used for Ernie's silhouette. In the beginning, Schippers' Ernie voice was an imitation of Jim Henson's Ernie. In later seasons, when the American sketches became a little more fast-paced, his voice grew a lot higher and more energetic.

Outside of his Muppet work, Schippers has been the Dutch voice of Mickey Mouse during the 1970s and 1980s, and dubbed Happy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He wrote and produced Hoepla, a 1967 youth-targeted series that was the first in the Netherlands to show full nudity, causing a national controversy. He created and wrote the television show We zijn weer thuis ("We're back home") in the 1980s. Here he used his pseudonym Jaques Plafond (from his radio show Ronflonflon) for the title song. Several times, the title song from the Ernie and Bert album Maak Er Wat Van played in the background.

Voice credits

• Sesamstraat: Ernie, Kermit (Kermit de Kikker), Count von Count (Graaf Tel), Guy Smiley (Henk Glimlach), The Amazing Mumford, Simon Soundman, Biff, Mr. Johnson, Showered Rozelle, Evil Prime Minister, Granny Fanny Nesslerode's Announcer, Toothbrush, Cavity
• Maak Er Wat Van! and other albums: Oscar the Grouch
• Grover Gaat Naar School: Cookie Monster, Mr. Hooper, Luis
• Ernie Heeft Rommel Gemaakt: Cookie Monster, Luis, David, Herry Monster
• In Een Uur de Wereld Rond: Mrs. Van der Grijp
• Sesamstraat en Melkweg: Ernie
• Stinkie en Boudewijn Show (The Animal Show): Yves St. La Roache
• I Love the Muppets: Kermit
• The Muppets: Kermit
• A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa: Kermit
• Muppets Most Wanted: Kermit
• Muppets Now: Kermit
• Muppets Haunted Mansion: Kermit