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Puppeteer well-known for her work in the United States and Canada, who performed on such Henson productions as Fraggle Rock and The Christmas Toy. Her professional partner, Kermit Love, was also a puppeteer, as is her surviving husband, R.D. Tilroe.
Working out of Toronto during the 70's and 80's, Nikki served as director for Frog Print Theater where she received a Citation of Excellence for her direction of Mimi and Toto in 1974-75. She performed on a number of Canadian TV shows as well, including Today's Special, and The Waterville Gang.
She appeared on Shari Lewis' Charlie Horse Music Pizza and was one of three puppeteers to manipulate Snuggles the Bear, a puppet designed by Love. She also taught many courses on Manipulation technique through the O'Neill Puppetry Conference, and was a contributer for the book "Puppets and Television."
She has worked on the web-produced puppet films for Sammy Snail and in 2004 she received a Seed Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation for a production called Aging, produced with Larry Siegel through Tricinium Limited in Keene, NH.
Nikki passed away in September of 2005, and a new scholarship fund has been set up in her honor. Pam Arciero, Leslie Carrara, Heather Henson and Heather Asch were among the performers appearing at benefits for the fund.
Credits
- Fraggle Rock: Background Fraggles, Merple Merggle, Yvette
- The Christmas Toy: Ding-a-ling (the phone)
- Follow That Bird: Board of Birds
- Funnybones: Mrs. Stuffynuff, Mississippi Educational Television Series, PBS