- Play Hard
- 31st Jul 2026
- 0
- 0 minute
Meet the Northumberland puppet maker bringing characters to life
Georgia Hill makes puppets that make people laugh, gasp and occasionally believe, for a moment, that a 10ft ogre really has walked into the room.
Based in Northumberland, the designer and maker has spent her career turning foam, fabric and shredded book paper into characters with real personalities, working everywhere from CBeebies to the West End stage.
Her latest creation, a mischievous troll called Trolliver, has children and adults laughing in equal measure.
We caught up with Georgia to talk colour, chaos and the ogre that changed everything.
A CHILDHOOD SPENT IN THEATRES AND WORKSHOPS
Georgia grew up surrounded by the arts in the North East, and it never quite let her go.
“I’ve always had a passion for the theatre since I was really young, and I think that’s where my love for it all began,” she says. “Growing up in the North East, I loved engaging in the arts – seeing shows, taking part in craft workshops, and visiting outdoor events, all of which gave me the chance to explore my creativity.”
As soon as she was old enough, she started volunteering at a local theatre, an experience she describes as “the buzz of being involved in a production”. She went on to study Design for Performance at university, expecting to become a set or costume designer. Puppetry had other ideas.
“I fell so in love with puppetry, I just knew it was the perfect fit for me”
WHERE THE COLOUR AND SILLINESS COME FROM
Ask Georgia to describe her style and two words come up straight away: colour and silliness.
“I’ve always been drawn to bright colours and anything that oozes fun. I can be quite shy, but my work is where I truly express myself.”
Her best creations are the ones where she can wholeheartedly channel her personality and humour, and the finished puppet is usually a reflection of her in some way.
QUESTIONS FIRST, GLUE GUN SECOND
Every commission starts the same way, with a barrage of questions, to understand a puppet’s technical requirements as well as its personality, narrative and aesthetic.
“I always begin with lots of questions. I do lots of drawings; I won’t begin making anything until I have cracked it in drawing form.”
A single puppet can take weeks to complete, depending on its size and complexity.
FROM SEWING MACHINE TO WOODWORK BENCH
Georgia works across foam, cardboard, fabric and paint, sometimes all in the same day.
“One minute I can be doing a bit of woodwork, then the next I’m on my sewing machine,” she says. Fabrication is her favourite stage, painting eyes and hand sewing final details.
“Mechanisms like an eye blink are trickier; it hurts my brain a little, she admits, but the payoff, watching a puppet gain that extra flicker of expression, always makes it worthwhile.”
THE OGRE THAT STARTED IT ALL
Georgia’s proudest early creation is a 10ft ogre, built in her final year at university for a touring orchestral show introducing children to classical music.
“It wasn’t a very scary ogre, more of a cartoon-type villain that the children could nervously giggle at,” she says. “It was so amazing to watch the audience filled with hundreds of children ripple with nervous excitement, all shouting and cheering at my puppet. I really wasn’t expecting it.”
Her latest character, Trolliver the Troll, is having a similar effect on children and adults alike.
DESIGNING FOR CARNIVALS, THEATRES AND TV SCREENS
No two puppets face the same job, so Georgia tailors every build to where it’ll end up.
A giant carnival puppet needs to survive North East weather while staying light enough for a puppeteer to carry for hours: “for a carnival, you want the puppet to be as big and bold as possible, but also very lightweight as the puppeteer could be operating it for a very long time.”
When she’s designing for children’s theatre or TV, she keeps her young audience firmly in mind, ensuring they will be both engaged and delighted by her characters.
THE WACKIEST BRIEFS AND THE BEST DAYS AT WORK
Georgia has never had a dull day at the workbench. “I thrive on the wacky requests,” she says, recalling a giant stick insect doing an 80s workout and a pineapple puppet who sang about Vitamin C to the tune of Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre for a North East theatre children’s show (the first stage adaptation of the children’s book Kitchen Disco). “It’s never a dull day”, she says.
FROM NEWCASTLE THEATRE ROYAL TO THE WEST END
Georgia’s proudest career moment so far came through Gerry and Sewell, a Newcastle Theatre Royal production for which she created a scraggly puppet dog, Rusty.
“The show was so warmly received by North East audiences and unbelievably in January it went on to have a two week run in the West End at the Aldwych Theatre. It was the most thrilling experience to be working in the North East but have a puppet that I had designed and made on the West End stage.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR GEORGIA?
Summer means festivals for Georgia, with walkabout puppets and children’s workshops booked in across the region. Behind the scenes, she’s already deep into Christmas preparations for the coming theatre and events season.
“I have lots of my own characters and ideas that I’d like to create whenever the opportunity arises, she says, so fingers crossed I get to bring some of them to life soon.”
Rachael Ellis
Head of Content
After gaining a first in her BA Media and Journalism degree at Northumbria University, Rachael worked at Newcastle’s leading regional newspaper with her stories being picked up in national and global newspapers. She spent two very successful years giving a voice to those communities across the North East who otherwise…
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