Freelance Puppets NYC is a puppet design, fabrication and production company based in Yonkers, New York. The company was founded by puppeteer, artist and designer Kevin Hammarberg, a Tulsa, Oklahoma native who previously worked for The Jim Henson Company during the 1980s. In 1998, Hammarberg founded Freelance Puppets NYC in his Manhattan apartment, before moving to Westbury, New York in 2002 and then Yonkers in 2007. The company's studio has a workshop, woodshop, storage unit, and casting facilities.
Since 2012, Freelance Puppets NYC has been under contract with Seagrounds Financial Group to maintain the characters of and build characters created for Between the Lions and Lomax, the Hound of Music. They are also under contract to Mattel to maintain the full-body characters of Barney & Friends.
Freelance Puppets NYC built the Gary and Plankton puppets used by VEE Corporation's SpongeBob SquarePants Live! shows, and, since 2000, has worked with Fuse Special Effects in the design & assembly of many of Fuse's walkaround characters.
The company has been subcontracted by Jim Henson's New York Creature Shop in the past to build characters for Sesame Street international co-productions, including the redesigned Bluki for the Barrio Sésamo revival.