Toby Philpott came from a family of performers and teachers. His father was an eminent puppeteer and teacher; his mother moved from performing as an actress and singer to teaching voice. Toby started performing when travelling in his youth. Seven years of work as a comedy juggler, acrobat, and magician led to working on animatronic puppets with Jim Henson on The Dark Crystal, and several other feature films, over the following seven year period. He then got involved with developing and encouraging circus/theatre by helping open and run circus schools, writing and performing with a travelling group - NoFit State Circus. He is now a full-time worker in the computer room of his local library.