Judith Freudberg (July 12, 1949 – June 10, 2012) was an American TV and film writer. She was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, and graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

with a degree in speech and dramatic arts. Freudberg identified as gay. In 1971, she started working on ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'', two years after the show's debut, as an assistant in the music department and became a writer for the children's television show in 1975. Freudberg worked on that show for 35 years and shared 17 daytime Emmys. One of the creators and developers of ''

Elmo's World ''Elmo's World'' is a segment that is shown in the American children's television program ''Sesame Street''. It always comes last and premiered on November 16, 1998, as part of a broader structural change to the show. It originally lasted fiftee ...

'', she served as head writer for that popular segment. Freudberg collaborated with

Tony Geiss Nicholas Anthony "Tony" Geiss (November 16, 1924 – January 21, 2011) was an American producer, screenwriter, songwriter, lyricist and author, known principally for his children's work. During his time at ''Sesame Street'', he often collaborated ...

on Sesame Street's first feature film, '' Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird'' (1985) as well as ''

An American Tail ''An American Tail'' is a 1986 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film directed by Don Bluth and written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss from a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film stars the voices of Phi ...

'' (1986) and ''

The Land Before Time ''The Land Before Time'' is a franchise consisting of American animated film, animated Adventure film, adventure Children's film, family films centered around dinosaurs, including a Movie theater, theatrical movie, various Direct-to-video, st ...

'' (1988), two feature animation films directed by

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth ( ; born September 13, 1937) is an American filmmaker, animator, video game designer and author. He came to prominence working for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions before creating his own film studio in ...

and executive produced by

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

. She and Molly Boylan were nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Children's Special for the home video ''Elmo's World: Wild Wild West'' (2001). For ''Sesame Street'' season 35, Freudberg co-wrote, with Lou Berger, the primetime special, ''Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On'' (2004), which was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Children's Program. She also wrote for Sesame Workshop's comedy series ''

The Upside Down Show ''The Upside Down Show'' is a children's television series produced by Blink Films and Sesame Workshop. It was made for Noggin, a channel co-founded by Sesame Workshop. The series is set in a strange apartment building where the doors lead to a ...

''. Freudberg died on June 10, 2012, in Manhattan at age 62 from complications of a

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

References

External links

* 1949 births 2012 deaths American television writers American women television writers Deaths from brain cancer in New York (state) American LGBTQ writers LGBTQ people from Tennessee Syracuse University alumni Universal Animation Studios people {{US-tv-writer-stub