Sonia Manzano (born 1950) is an American actress, screenwriter, author, speaker and singer-songwriter. She is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 until her departure in 2015. She is the creator of the animated children's television series Alma's Way, from Fred Rogers Productions, and also serves as an executive producer, writer and voice actor for the show.

Sonia Manzano
Manzano at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, DC
Born	1950 (age 71–72)[1] South Bronx, New York, U.S.
Education	Carnegie Mellon University (BFA)
Occupation	Actress screenwriter author speaker singer-songwriter
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.soniamanzano.com

Early life and education

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]

Career

In her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show Godspell.[5][6] 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.[7][8][9] Manzano did, however, later reprise the role of Maria in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.[10]

She has performed on the New York stage, in the critically acclaimed theatre pieces 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".[11] In addition Manzano has appeared in multiple films and television programs including Death Wish, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Godmothered, Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, and The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Manzano is the author of a novel, three children's books, and a memoir.[12] Her children's book No Dogs Allowed, published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2004, is one of five books selected by the General Mills initiative "Spoonfuls of Stories", an initiative with its nonprofit partner, First Book, to encourage children to read and to help children in the United States gain access to books. The book has been adapted as a stage play.^{[citation needed]} She is also the author of The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (2014).[13][14][15][16][17] In 2015, her memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx, was published.[12]

She has served on the March of Dimes Board; the board of the George Foster Peabody Awards;[18] 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.[19] In Alma's Way, which was launched by PBS in October 2021, she is the creator,[20] as well as an executive producer, writer, and voice actor.[21]

Honors and awards

Manzano was nominated twice for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series.[22] As a writer for Sesame Street, Manzano won 15 Emmy Awards.[23][21]

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Manzano's name and picture.[24] In 2004, she was inducted into the Bronx Hall of Fame.^{[clarification needed][citation needed]}

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. She received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from University of Notre Dame in 2005. As in Ms. Manzano's case, a D.F.A. is typically an honorary degree conferred to someone who has made a significant contribution to society in the arts.[25]^{[citation needed]} The Dream Big Initiative of the Bronx Children's Museum honored Manzano in 2014.[26]

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.[27]

References

External links

• Official website
• Sonia Manzano at IMDb
• Sonia Manzano at the TCM Movie Database
• Sonia Manzano at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television