William Barretta is an American puppeteer, producer, writer, director, and actor, best known for his involvement with the Muppets. He performs the Muppet characters Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear, Johnny Fiama, Rowlf the Dog, The Swedish Chef, and Dr. Teeth. He originated the role of Louie, Elmo's dad, on Sesame Street.
Barretta began performing with The Jim Henson Company in 1991, as the body performer of Earl Sinclair on Dinosaurs. He later developed several new characters for Muppets Tonight, including Pepe the King Prawn, Johnny Fiama, and Bobo the Bear.
Barretta has succeeded several of Jim Henson's roles, such as Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, and Swedish Chef. He performed Clueless Morgan in Muppet Treasure Island (1996). He additionally served as Muppet captain on The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted. He played the main puppet character Phil Phillips in The Happytime Murders (2018).
For Sesame Street, Bill Barretta originated the role of Elmo's dad, Louie, originally appearing in direct-to-video specials. He based Louie's voice on Louis Prima's.
Barretta has served as a producer on various Muppet projects, including It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005). In 2014, he served as a co-producer on Muppets Most Wanted. He also served as an executive producer on the ABC series, The Muppets. For Disney+, he produced Muppets Haunted Mansion and co-created The Muppets Mayhem, winning a Children's and Family Emmy Award in 2023.