Betsy Baytos Bio
Click here for a 2023 interview on working with Muppets, Disney & PETA!
Meet Betsy Baytos
Betsy’s award-winning career features a unique expertise in the visual arts, as illustrator, designer and filmmaker. Her extensive career began at the Walt Disney Studios as spokesperson, Disney feature animator and animation choreographer including: The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon, The Fox and the Hound, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, The Emperor’s New Groove, and The Princess and the Frog.
A call from Jim Henson whisked Betsy to London and The Muppet Show, to puppeteer, design and perform as the Betsy Bird, followed by the International Puppet Festival at the Kennedy Center. This led to Shelley Duvall’s Faerietale Theatre, The Steve Allen Show and a featured role in Broadway’s Stardust.
Betsy’s animation and performance background brought life into character licensing campaigns such as the Coca-Cola Polar Bears, The Department of Homeland Security’s Ready Kids, Kurt Adler Dickens Christmas, Warner Bros., Disney, John Fogerty and Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville licensing. She has consulted for Cirque Du Soleil in character movement, and conducts workshops across the globe, including the Fred Astaire Conference at Oxford University, UCLA, Cal Arts animation, Disney Artist’s Development and Universal Studios Osaka.
A two-time grant recipient from the Jerome Robbins Foundation and an Eccentric Dance historian, Betsy presented a sold-out Program entitled The Choreography of Comedy: The Art of Eccentric Dance at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in 2019, for the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences. A documentary is now in production. In 2022, she has designed and licensed a ‘signature’ animal line for PETA and a blue whale art commission for the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Blue Whale Gala, along with six additional sea creature prints to benefit whale conservation.
Betsy’s current project, inspired by her passion for animals and a concern for our planet, compelled her to create The Watering Hole book series, to benefit African wildlife and educate about climate change.
Betsy Baytos Design
For more information on art for sale and commissioned designs, please contact Betsy Baytos at…