Sonia Manzano | |
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![]() Manzano at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, DC | |
Born | [1] New York City, U.S. | June 12, 1950
Education | Carnegie Mellon University (BFA) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1971–present |
Known for | Maria on Sesame Street |
Board member of | March of Dimes George Foster Peabody Awards Symphony Space Project Sunshine Book Club |
Children | 1 |
Awards | 15 Emmy Awards for writing, 2016 Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award |
Website | www |
Sonia Manzano (born June 12, 1950) is an American actress, screenwriter, and author. She is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 to 2015. She received a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2016.
Her memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx was published in 2015, and her works include the novel The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano as well as several children's books. She is the creator of the animated children's television series Alma's Way , from Fred Rogers Productions, and serves as an executive producer, writer and voice actor for the show.
Manzano was born and raised in the South Bronx in New York City. [2] [3] Her parents came from Puerto Rico. Manzano attended the High School of Performing Arts, where she began her acting career. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on a scholarship. [2] [3] [4] In her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show Godspell . [5]
Manzano joined the production of Sesame Street in 1971, where she eventually began writing scripts for the series. On June 29, 2015, it was announced that Manzano would be retiring from the show after 44 years. [6] [7] [8] Manzano did, however, later reprise the role of Maria in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration . [9]
She has performed on the New York stage, in The Vagina Monologues and The Exonerated . She has written for the Peabody Award-winning children's series Little Bill , and has written a parenting column for the Sesame Workshop web site called "Talking Outloud". [10] She has also appeared in multiple films, including Death Wish , Firepower , Night Flowers, Wonder Woman in Cheetah on the Prowl , Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird , The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland , The Guitar , Dumped!, Missing Grandma, and Godmothered , and television programs, including BJ and the Bear , Law & Order , and Law & Order: SVU .
Manzano is the author of a novel, children's books, and a memoir. [11] Her children's book No Dogs Allowed was published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2004. The book has been adapted as a stage play.[ citation needed ] She is also the author of the novel The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (2014). [12] [13] In 2015, her memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx, was published. [11] [14] In 2022, her novel for children Coming Up Cuban was published, as part of a contract with Scholastic to publish two novels and two picture books for children. [15]
She has served on the March of Dimes Board; the board of the George Foster Peabody Awards; [16] and the board of a New York City theatrical institution, Symphony Space. She is a member of the board of advisors of the Project Sunshine Book Club. She was featured in the Learning Leaders (volunteers helping students succeed) poster, designed to encourage reading in NYC public schools.
In several episodes of the animated Nickelodeon series The Loud House , Manzano provides the voice of Bobby and Ronnie Anne Santiago's grandmother, Rosa Casagrande, a role she reprises in the spinoff The Casagrandes . She also portrays Judge Gloria Pepitone in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit . She also provided the voice-over narration in several animated segments in the English version of the Swedish television show Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter .[ citation needed ]
On December 3, 2020, Deadline reported that Manzano would return to PBS to create a new animated children's television series titled Alma's Way . [17] In Alma's Way , which was launched by PBS in October 2021, she is the creator, [18] as well as an executive producer, writer, and voice actor. [19]
Manzano was nominated twice for the Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series. [20] As a writer for Sesame Street, Manzano won 15 Emmy Awards. [21] [19]
In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Manzano's name and picture. [22] In 2004, she was added to the Bronx Walk of Fame.
Manzano has received awards from the Association of Hispanic Arts, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, the Hispanic Heritage Award for Education in 2003, and the "Groundbreaking Latina Lifetime Achievement" award from the National Association of Latina Leaders in 2005. [23] In 2005, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of Notre Dame. [24] The Dream Big Initiative of the Bronx Children's Museum honored Manzano in 2014. [25]
On May 1, 2016, she received the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented to her by Rita Moreno and Mario Lopez, with a special introduction by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a retrospective of her career on Sesame Street featuring a montage of clips of her most iconic moments including Maria's classic Charlie Chaplin routine, her marriage to Luis, the birth of her daughter Gabi, coping with the death of Mr. Hooper, and appearances by fellow cast and guests including Emilio Delgado, Bob McGrath, Alan Muraoka, Loretta Long, Big Bird, Rosita, Elmo, and Sonia's real life friend Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. [26] [27]
Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. It is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. It premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership. It has aired on the United States national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016, then its sister streaming service Max in 2020.
Aloysius Snuffleupagus, more commonly known as Mr. Snuffleupagus or Snuffy for short, is one of the characters on Sesame Street, a PBS/HBO educational television program for young children. His head bears resemblances to giant anteaters and mammoths, but he has no tusks or (visible) ears. He also has a tail similar in shape to that of a dinosaur. He has thick, brown hair and a trunk, or "snuffle", that drags along the ground. Snuffy is also Big Bird's best friend, and has a younger sister named Alice.
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is a 1999 American musical adventure comedy film directed by Gary Halvorson in his feature film debut. This was the second of the two theatrical feature films to be based on the children's television series Sesame Street, after Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird in 1985. It stars Mandy Patinkin and Vanessa Williams alongside Muppet performers Kevin Clash, Caroll Spinney, Steve Whitmire, and Frank Oz.
The preschool educational television program Sesame Street was first aired on public television stations on November 10, 1969, and reached its 54th season in 2023. The history of Sesame Street has reflected changing attitudes to developmental psychology, early childhood education, and cultural diversity. Featuring Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, live shorts, humor and celebrity appearances, it was the first television program of its kind to base its content and production values on laboratory and formative research, and the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes". Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, and 20 independent international versions had been produced. It has won eleven Grammys and over 150 Emmys in its history—more than any other children's show.
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Annie Glennie, is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is a Sesame Street Christmas special first broadcast on PBS on Sunday, December 3, 1978.
Linda Bove Waterstreet is a Deaf American actress, her most notable role being a fictionalized version of herself in the PBS children's series Sesame Street from 1971 to 2002. Bove was the first Deaf actress to be a member of the program's recurring cast.
Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television writer and producer. She is one of the founders of Sesame Workshop, the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street, which was also co-created by her. Cooney grew up in Phoenix and earned a Bachelor of Arts in education from the University of Arizona in 1951. After working for the State Department in Washington, D.C., and as a journalist in Phoenix, she worked as a publicist for television and production companies in New York City. In 1961, she became interested in working for educational television, and became a documentary producer for New York's first educational TV station WNET. Many of the programs she produced won local Emmys.
Rosita is a Muppet character on the children's television series Sesame Street. Fluent in both American English and Mexican Spanish, she is the first regular bilingual Muppet on the show. Rosita comes from Mexico and likes to play the guitar.
Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird is a 1985 American musical road comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis and written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss. Based on the children's television series Sesame Street created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, it was the first theatrical feature-length Sesame Street film. It stars Muppet performers Caroll Spinney, Jim Henson and Frank Oz alongside Sandra Bernhard, John Candy, Chevy Chase, Joe Flaherty, Waylon Jennings, and Dave Thomas with Sesame Street regulars Linda Bove, Emilio Delgado, Loretta Long, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath, Roscoe Orman, Alaina Reed, and Kermit Love in supporting roles and the voices of Laraine Newman, Brian Hohlfeld, Cathy Silvers, Eddie Deezen, and Sally Kellerman.
Sônia Maria Campos Braga is a Brazilian actress. She is known in the English-speaking world for her Golden Globe Award–nominated performances in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) and Moon over Parador (1988). She also received a BAFTA Award nomination in 1981 for Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. For the 1994 television film The Burning Season, she was nominated for an Emmy Award and a third Golden Globe Award. Her other television and film credits include The Cosby Show (1986), Sex and the City (2001), American Family (2002), Alias (2005), Aquarius (2016), Bacurau (2019), and Fatima (2020). In 2020, The New York Times ranked her #24 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
Desiree Casado is an American actress most notable for the role of Gabriela "Gabi" Rodriguez on Sesame Street, the daughter of longstanding main characters Luis and Maria. Casado took over the role in 1993. Casado got the role when the previous actress, Gabriela Rose Reagan, told her mother she did not enjoy being on television. The character of Gabi has become a more integral part of the show's cast in the last couple of years, perhaps mostly to fulfill Sesame Workshop's need to sustain youth among the cast, as the old guard of the show ages. Casado's character of Gabriela is one of only a handful of Latino/Latina characters who have appeared on Sesame Street.
Emilio Ernest Delgado was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series Sesame Street. He joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed, in late 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's retooling of the series.
Stephen J. Lawrence was an American composer, who lived and worked in New York City. He was also known as Stephen Lawrence, but used his middle initial to differentiate him from the singer Steve Lawrence.
Emily Squires was an American television producer and director best known for her Emmy Award-winning work on Sesame Street.
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street is a non-fiction book chronicling the history of the children's television program Sesame Street. Street Gang is journalist and writer Michael Davis's first book, published by Viking Press in 2008. On bookshelves in time for the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, the book developed out of a TV Guide article Davis wrote to commemorate the show's 35th anniversary in 2004. Davis spent five years researching and writing the book, and conducted hundreds of interviews with the show's creators, cast, and crew.
Merry Christmas from Sesame Street is a children's Christmas album featuring characters from Sesame Street and released in 1975 by the Children's Television Workshop and Children's Records of America. The album was nominated for the 1976 Grammy Awards, but lost to another Sesame Street album, Bert & Ernie Sing-Along.
The 43rd Daytime Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), "recognizes outstanding achievement in all fields of daytime television production and are presented to individuals and programs broadcast from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the 2015 calendar year". The ceremony took place on May 1, 2016, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in Los Angeles, California.
The Bronx Children's Museum is a children's museum founded in 2005. Its exhibition space is located in Mill Pond Park in the South Bronx, New York City. The Museum provides ongoing in-school, afterschool and summer enrichment programming throughout the borough at schools, community based organizations, shelters, libraries, local festivals and parks. Since 2011, the Museum has offered programming out of its Museum On The Go! bus, also known as the "purple bus". The museum reaches about 10,000 people per year through the purple bus. Upon completion, its primary exhibition space will be located on the second floor of the Power House building in Mill Pond Park.
Alma's Way is an animated children's television series from Fred Rogers Productions created and executive produced by former Sesame Street actress Sonia Manzano and animated by Canadian animation studio Pipeline Studios. The series premiered on PBS Kids on October 4, 2021.