Richard Mueck

Notes

Biography. Richard’s passion for performing started early when he landed key roles as Prince Charming in both Swan Lake and Cinderella at Birralee primary school. This love for drama continued into high school however, his love for Aussie rules football soon took over and he joined the Fitzroy Football club and became captain of the under19 team. Injuries and family circumstances diverted his career, so he ran away from home and joined the circus (Perry Bros.). After touring rural Victoria for some time, he eventually returned to Melbourne and pursued a career in film and television, starting as a puppeteer on Shirl’s Neighbourhood. He started his own company (The Fantasy Workshop) making puppets, props and costumes where he created and performed iconic tv characters ‘King Willie Wheatie’, the ‘Butter Menthol’ Frog, and the ‘La Tan’ Lobster. Early in his career he created the puppet alien character ‘Slyde Finkley’ which he took onto channel Nine’s ‘Hey Hey, it’s Saturday’, won ‘Red Faces’ (getting a “7” from Red Simons, inconceivable!) and was invited onto MTV, The Wide World of Sports, The Cartoon Company, and Body and Soul, where he wrote directed and performed comedy sketches as various characters for 2 years. He had a tilt at stand up comedy performing at the Hilton hotel as Captain Gumnut (Australia’s first superhero), but eventually the demands of a young family moved him to pursue a more stable career in film and television (hahaha!) In 2001 he co-created the award winning all-puppet kids tv series “Lil Horrors” where he was associate producer, lead sculptor and puppeteer. For several years Richard rode the “golden years” of animatronics where he worked on a multitude of films movies with the Academy award winning John Cox’s Creature Workshop (Babe). He sculpted and performed on movies including, Peter Pan, George of the Jungle 2, Inspector Gadget 2, Pitch Black, Komodo, Rogue, The Host, Nim’s Island, and many, more that you’ve probably never heard of and are fortunate enough not to have seen (however, ‘Gargantua’ (1998), the ‘Godzilla’ rip-off is so bad, it’s almost worth watching for the laughs!) Gaining a reputation as a specialist sculptor and prosthetics/costume performer Richard etched out a niche for himself working on films and tv projects from Star Wars (episode III) to Where the Wild Things Are, Racing Stripes, Unbroken, Siegfried, the short film ‘I love Sarah Jane’ and many more. In between film and tv projects Richard worked as a sculptor/designer for the award winning Creature Technology Company including: Walking with Dinosaurs, King Kong (live), How to Train a Dragon (live), and The Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride (Shanghai). After a many years of hiding behind layers of silicone and latex Richard has rekindled his career and love for performance and is passionate about bringing raw authentic expression to life on the screen, big or small. 2023 saw him acting in over 12 short films, 5 music videos, 3 ad campaigns and a web series. Richard has also spent many years training as a counselor in a variety of modalities, having studied Trans-personal Counseling, Circling, Non-Violent Communication and Hakomi. Having used these skills as a counselor, workshop facilitator and men’s group leader, makes him a valuable asset to any set, bringing a calm and grounded maturity with an up beat, always positive out look.