Ryan Dillon (born May 25, 1988) is an American

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the ...

. He has played

Elmo Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and frequently refers to himself in the third person, he hosts the last full 15-minute segmen ...

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 ...

'' since 2013. Dillon has worked as an ensemble muppeteer for the

Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...

since 2005. He also played Cooper and Paul Ball for the interactive series Sesame Street TV for Xbox Kinect, and appeared on all four seasons of the new

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

and co-productions of ''Sesame Street'', ''

The Furchester Hotel ''The Furchester Hotel'' is a puppet series that aired on CBeebies (the BBC's preschool network). It was the second British-American spin-off of ''Sesame Street'' that the BBC had made after '' Sesame Tree'' 6 years before. The show ran on CBeebi ...

'', and '' The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo'' as Elmo. In March 2017, Dillon was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming.

Background and career

Dillon was born on May 25, 1988, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. As a young puppeteer, Dillon came to the attention of ''

'' producers when he went to an audition as a high school student. He took time off from school during his senior year to participate in the shooting for season 37 in 2005. In 2013, he succeeded

Kevin Clash Kevin Jeffrey Clash (born September 17, 1960) is an American puppeteer, director and producer best known for puppeteering Elmo on ''Sesame Street'' from 1985 to 2012. He also performed puppets for ''Labyrinth'', ''Dinosaurs'', '' Oobi'', and vari ...

as the performer for Elmo in new productions and appearances following his resignation from ''

'' in November 2012. He also replaced the late Richard Hunt as Don Music in ''Sesame Streets 50th Anniversary tribute. Dillon has taught classes in television puppetry at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

, and various schools and centers in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In addition to playing Elmo, Dillon has appeared on Kraft MilkBite commercials, "Healthy Teeth, Healthy Me," "Little Children, Big Challenges," "Little Discoverers: Big Fun With Science, Math and More," ''

Julie's Greenroom ''Julie's Greenroom'' is an American educational pre-school television series that was released on Netflix on March 17, 2017. Characters * Miss Julie (portrayed by Julie Andrews) – The director of the Wellspring Center for the Performing Arts. ...

'', '' The Muppets Take the Bowl'', ''The Muppets Take the O2'', the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

webseries A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short screenplay, scripted or Improvisation, non-scripted online videos, generally in Episode, episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), w ...

"Ask Sylvia" as the title character, and '' John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean'' (2010).

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dillon, Ryan 1988 births American male voice actors Children's and Family Emmy Award winners Daytime Emmy Award winners American puppeteers Living people