What Is the Cast Of "Zoboomafoo" Up To Now? All About Chris and Martin Kratt and How They're Still Connecting Kids with Animals Victoria EdelJanuary 24, 2026 at 1:48 AM 0 Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty Martin and Chris Kratt with Zoboomafoo on 'Zoboomafoo' in 1996 PBS's Zoboomafoo found a huge following of kids and their parents, beginning with its 1999 premiere The series starred Chris and Martin Kratt and the Coquerel's sifaka lemur Jovian, who played Zoboomafoo The Kratt brothers continue to make children's wildlife programs today "Me and you and Zoboomafoo!" For a generation of forme...
- - What Is the Cast Of "Zoboomafoo" Up To Now? All About Chris and Martin Kratt and How They're Still Connecting Kids with Animals
Victoria EdelJanuary 24, 2026 at 1:48 AM
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Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty
Martin and Chris Kratt with Zoboomafoo on 'Zoboomafoo' in 1996 -
PBS's Zoboomafoo found a huge following of kids and their parents, beginning with its 1999 premiere
The series starred Chris and Martin Kratt and the Coquerel's sifaka lemur Jovian, who played Zoboomafoo
The Kratt brothers continue to make children's wildlife programs today
"Me and you and Zoboomafoo!" For a generation of former kids, those are lyrics to the theme song for PBS' Zoboomafoo, a beloved series about brothers Chris and Martin Kratt and a Coquerel's sifaka lemur named Zoboomafoo.
Zoboomafoo aired on PBS from 1999 to 2001 for two seasons and 65 episodes. However, many PBS stations continued to air reruns for years, continuing to bring new fans to the series, which mixed songs, animation, humor and real information about animals. Zoboomafoo was a real lemur named Jovian, as well as a puppet performed by Canadian puppeteer Gord Robertson that spoke to Martin, now 60, and Chris, now 56.
Martin and Chris told PEOPLE in 2001 that they grew up in Warren Township, N.J., as major animal lovers. Martin majored in zoology at Duke University, while Chris majored in biology at Carleton College. After Martin graduated, they went on a six-month trip to Costa Rica, where Martin was working as a research assistant, and started filming.
Chris and Martin Kratt with Zoboomafoo on 'Zoboomafoo'
"When we were kids, there had never been enough books, magazines, TV shows about animals," Martin said, "so we decided, 'Why don't we make one?' "
They edited their amateur video and started showing it at school assemblies. When PBS saw it, they greenlit the brothers' first show, Kratts' Creatures, which aired in the summer of 1996 and continued to prove popular in reruns.
That led to Zoboomafoo, which was meant for preschool kids and filmed on a set called the "Animal Junction." It proved popular with both kids and their parents — and the brothers told Entertainment Weekly in 2000, that college students had even created a drinking game for the show. It included drinking every time the Kratts fell in the mud (a very common occurrence).
Chris told PEOPLE in 2001, "Our show is really turning a lot of kids on to creature adventuring, so they are going on adventures out in their yards." The brothers also had an interactive website, coordinating books and performed a live theatre show for kids.
In 2021, Chris told Variety that one of the toughest parts of making Zoboomafoo was the puppet; switching back and forth between the real and puppet lemur was complicated. "Fortunately, lemurs kind of look like puppets in the first place, so the idea of cutting between the puppet version and the real live version worked in the end," Chris said with a laugh. "And the set of Animal Junction was very colorful and kind of confusing, so it was very forgiving if we were cutting from one place in Animal Junction to another."
What happened to Jovian, the real Zoboomafoo?
The real lemur, Jovian, died in 2014 from kidney failure. He was 20.5 years old, according to the Duke Lemur Center, where he was born in 1994. "He was great to work with," Martin told Duke. "He'd jump in through the window and we'd feed him mangoes or garbanzo beans. Sometimes he'd grab our noses with those soft sifaka hands." Jovian's parents, Nigel and Flavi,a also occassionally appeard on the show.
Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty
Jovian the lemur in 2013
David Haring, the center's registrar and photographer, said, "Watching our young interns get excited over being in the presence of the real Zoboomafoo this summer made me realize just how lucky those of us at the Lemur Center were who had the opportunity to get to know the real Jovian in his prime. He was a playful, gentle, intelligent animal and perhaps one of the best sifaka sires ever." He sired 12 sifakas during his life.
Where are Zoboomafoo hosts Chris and Martin Kratt now?
From 2003 to 2007, Martin and Chris made the show Be the Creature for National Geographic. On the show, they visited different animals around the world in their environments. "We wanted to get back to being out, living with the animals for big chunks of time, because we'd spent a lot the time in Animal Junction for many years," Chris told Variety. This filmed 75 hours of raw footage for every 40-minute episode.
In 2008, the brothers moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Their show Wild Kratts began airing in 2011. Each episode starts and ends with Chris and Martin and live animals, but the bulk of the show is animated. The series has aired consistently since it premiered, making it the Kratt brothers' longest-running show.
In 2018, the brothers launched a YouTube Channel, The Kratt Brothers.
Both brothers tied the knot in 2000: Chris married Laura Wilkinson, while Martin married Tania Armstrong. Martin and Laura welcomed sons Ronan (a professional soccer player) and Gavin, a musician. Chris and Tania welcomed sons Aidan and Nolan. All four sons appeared on Wild Kratts as animated versions of themselves when they were younger.
Martin and Chris founded the Kratt Brothers Creature Hero Foundation to help protect wildlife and teach kids about their efforts. "We got so many letters from kids saying, 'Hey, I know I'm just a kid, but I really want to help animals; what can I do?' " Martin told The New York Times in 2000. "Kids felt powerless. They felt like they couldn't do anything. What we're trying to do is give them a chance, give them a project that they can rally around and be a part of." They created the wildlife refuge Grizzly Gulch as part of their efforts.
Now, '90s kids who loved Kratts' Creatures and Zoboomafoo are sharing Wild Kratts with their kids, as Martin and Chris keep exploring the world of animals they love so much.
"I think it feels really good just to be a part of that continuum, and families learning about the animals," Martin told Romper in 2024. "I love it. Because we always wanted our shows to be something that anybody could watch, not just for kids."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: January 23, 2026 at 03:37PM on Source: OPERA MAG
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