Sonia Manzano

Sonia Manzano (born 1950) is an American actress, screenwriter, author, singer and songwriter. 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.

Early life and education

Manzano was born and raised in the South Bronx in New York City. 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. In her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show ''Godspell''.

Career

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. Manzano did, however, later reprise the role of Maria in the 2019 television special ''Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration''.

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". She has also 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, children's books, and a memoir. 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. She is also the author of the novel ''The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano'' (2014). In 2015, her memoir, ''Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx'', was published. 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.

She has served on the March of Dimes Board; the board of the George Foster Peabody Awards; 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''.

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''. In '' Alma's Way'', which was launched by PBS in October 2021, she is the creator, as well as an executive producer, writer, and voice actor.

Honors and awards

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

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Manzano's name and picture. 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. In 2005, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of Notre Dame. The Dream Big Initiative of the Bronx Children's Museum honored Manzano in 2014.

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.

Selected works

Books

* ''No Dogs Allowed!'' (2004)
* ''A Box Full of Kittens'' (2007)
* ''The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano'' (2014)
* ''Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx'' (2015)
* ''Miracle on 133rd Street'' (2015)
* ''A World Together'' (2020)
* ''Coming Up Cuban'' (2022)Reviews of ''Coming Up Cuban''
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References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Manzano, Sonia
Living people
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
Actresses from New York City
American film actresses
American voice actresses
American musical theatre actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Television personalities from New York City
American women television personalities
American television writers
People from the Bronx
Writers from Manhattan
Screenwriters from New York (state)
American women television writers
People from the Upper West Side
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American novelists
1950 births