Paul Haenen
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Paul Haenen does the voices of Bert and Grover on Sesamstraat, the Dutch co-production of Sesame Street.
Paul Haenen is a well known Dutch comedian who plays many different characters. He also translates a lot of the American Sesame Street songs to Dutch.
Paul Haenen has been doing Bert since Sesamstraat's first season in 1976, with Wim T. Schippers as Ernie. The Dutch Bert and Ernie are extremely popular and funny. Jim Henson was so impressed by Paul and Wim's performances, that they're the only Bert and Ernie in the world who are allowed to make their own material. Paul and Wim have recorded a whole series of selfwritten Bert and Ernie record albums, and they also appear as Bert and Ernie in interviews.
Paul and Wim don't record the TV sketches together: partly because of their busy schedules, but also because they make each other laugh too much. This of course means that either Paul or Wim sometimes has to go back to the studio to rerecord a line.
A running gag on the Dutch Bert and Ernie albums is that Bert sings off key, whereas Ernie knows how to sing harmony, and likes to brag about it. In real life, Wim has a lot more feeling for music than Paul; Paul is better at singing in a bass voice.
