Sonia Manzano

thumb|300px|Making a 2002 promotional appearance at Stage Deli.
Sonia Manzano (b. June 12, 1950) is an actress who played Maria on Sesame Street from the show's third season in 1971 until her retirement in Season 45 in 2015. She has also written for the show and authored several books including a memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx, released in August 2015.
Born in Manhattan to Puerto Rican parents, Manzano attended the High School for the Performing Arts as a teenager. While going to college at Carnegie Melon University, she originated the eponymous role of Sonia in the off-Broadway musical Godspell (appearing on its original cast album as well), and continued to play the role through her first year on Sesame Street. She became part of the increasingly ethnically diverse cast and recalled that "It was such a social force... I never wanted to be on a kids' show, but I always wanted to be on Sesame Street."AARP "Diversity, Family, Languages: Birds of a Feather" by Teresa Burney, April 2003 
Manzano has received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Television Series and received the 2002 Hispanic Heritage Award for education, in addition to other awards and shows of recognition.
Married to Richard Reagan, president of the Norcross Wildlife Foundation, Manzano gave birth to daughter Gabriela Rose Reagan in 1988, a year before Maria gave birth to Gabi. Her real-life daughter played the part from Season 21 through Season 24.
The majority of Manzano's screen acting career has been spent on Sesame Street and related projects (including both Follow That Bird and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland) as Maria, and playing a handful of characters on the show. She also made appearances as herself in the documentaries Sesame Street Unpaved and A&E Biography: Sesame Street. Her other credits run the gamut, and include bit parts in the Michael Winner action films Death Wish (as a grocery store clerk annoyed by Jeff Goldblum) and Firepower (with James Coburn, as a stewardess). In television, she guest starred on B. J. and the Bear starring Greg Evigan (as Chattanooga in the 1981 episode "Snow White and the Seven Lady Truckers"), and on Law & Order in the 2004 episode "Hands Free." She voices the recurring role of Rosa Casagrande on the Nickelodeon animated series The Loud House and its spin-off The Casagrandes. On stage, she performed in The Vagina Monologues and The Exonerated. On radio, she has been a frequent narrator for the NPR dramatized fiction series Selected Shorts.
Manzano announced her retirement from Sesame Street in June 2015 and discussed her decision with various media outlets while promoting her memoir. The Daily Beast explained that "leaving Sesame Street was a move Manzano had been planning for years—she just hadn’t gotten around to picking a date. But with fewer episodes and fewer human-driven segments being produced each season, along with an ever-expanding cast of Muppets, she had begun to feel that there was 'less to go around' for each cast member."The Daily Beast "Why Maria Left Sesame Street" by Melissa Leon, September 8, 2015 In 2019, Manzano appeared in character as Maria for a live appearance with Alan Muraoka (Alan) at the grand opening of Sesame Place's newly-renovated Sesame Street Neighborhood. She also reprised the role for the specials Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration and Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism.
For the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Manzano and Rita Moreno participated in one of the festival's Cinema Café interviews, in conjunction with the release of Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street. 
==Characters==
* Maria (1971-2015)
* Teddy's mother in Episode 0313 (1972)
* Charlie Chaplin (1973-1987)
* Smart Tina (1973)
* vacuum cannister in Episode 0669 (1974)
* Anything Muppet in Episode 0949 (1976)
* canary in Episode 1278 (1979)
* Muppet woman in Episode 1420 (1980)
* Luli (1981)
* Wanda Falbo's mother (1990)
* Rosita's Abuela (2013-2014)
* various segment narrations
==Writing==
In the 1980s, Manzano tried her hand at script writing, and became a key member of the Sesame Street writing staff through season 33. She shared several Emmy Awards with the writing staff, and scripted a number of Sesame videos, including Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital, Sing, Hoot & Howl with the Sesame Street Animals, and The Best of Elmo. Other writing credits include episodes of the Nickelodeon animated series Little Bill, a parenting column for Sesameworkshop.org, an essay in the Marlo Thomas anthology Thanks & Giving All Year Long, and the 2004 children's book No Dogs Allowed, adapted as a stage musical in 2010. Manzano is also the creator and executive producer of Alma's Way, an animated series from Fred Rogers Productions that premiered on PBS in 2021.
Manzano wrote the following segments, song lyrics, and episodes of Sesame Street:episode scripts
===Segments===
* Waiter Grover plans a grandmother's surprise party 
* The Count works as an elevator operator 
* Cookie Monster's nightmare. 
* Maria as Chaplin falls in love with a painting at the art museum 
* The American Revolution: The Declaration of Independence 
* Robin Williams showing Elmo a stick 
* Whoopi Goldberg and Hoots the Owl being proud 
* "Monsterpiece Theater: Monsters of Venice" 
* Elmo appears at the top and bottom of the TV screen 
* A diva sings "The Alphabet Song" 
* Big Bird's Video Postcards
** East Harlem 
** New York City 
** Union Square 
* Humphrey and Baby Natasha teach STOP and GO 
* A harried bird visits a tree 
* Elmo and Slimey in an apple 
* Gordon reads the story of "The Turtle and the Rabbit" 
* New material for "You Made Me Love You" 
* New material for Ray Charles singing "Believe in Yourself" 
* New material for Elmo and Zoe singing "Share" 
* Ernie makes Bert's hat the same 
* Kofi Annan Helps Out 
* Number of the Day: #2 
* Maria has coffee with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor 
===Song lyrics===
* "Broken Toaster Aria"
* "Busy Getting Better All the Time"
* "(Come on Out and) Share!"
* "Cross It Out"
* "Cuando Estoy Solo"
* "Don't Be a Tough Nut to Crack"
* "Don't Litter"
* "Healthy Food Aria"
* "Muppets Rhyme in School"
* "My Family's Doin' Just Fine"
* "Thinking of You"
* "Thirteen"
* "Twice as Nice"
* "We Are the Same"
* "Write It Down"
* "Yell"
* "You Gotta Be Patient (To Be a Patient)"
* "You Say Hola and I Say Hola"
===Episodes===
* Episode 1958
* Episode 1961
* Episode 1968
* Episode 1998
* Episode 2005
* Episode 2027
* Episode 2053
* Episode 2059
* Episode 2061
* Episode 2065
* Episode 2091
* Episode 2114 (R)
* Episode 2121
* Episode 2136
* Episode 2143
* Episode 2158
* Episode 2164
* Episode 2178
* Episode 2200
* Episode 2209
* Episode 2211
* Episode 2234
* Episode 2235
* Episode 2259
* Episode 2273
* Episode 2278
* Episode 2281
* Episode 2291
* Episode 2308
* Episode 2312	
* Episode 2322
* Episode 2364 (R)
* Episode 2366 (R)
* Episode 2374 (R)
* Episode 2385
* Episode 2397
* Episode 2411
* Episode 2418
* Episode 2427
* Episode 2455
* Episode 2483
* Episode 2484
* Episode 2493
* Episode 2518 (R)
* Episode 2522
* Episode 2530
* Episode 2547
* Episode 2603
* Episode 2609
* Episode 2614
* Episode 2615
* Episode 2640
* Episode 2662
* Episode 2667
* Episode 2688
* Episode 2735
* Episode 2737
* Episode 2739
* Episode 2792
* Episode 2798	
* Episode 2807
* Episode 2815
* Episode 2846
* Episode 2847
* Episode 2883
* Episode 2907
* Episode 2959
* Episode 2967
* Episode 2987
* Episode 3014
* Episode 3066
* Episode 3077
* Episode 3081
* Episode 3089
* Episode 3101
* Episode 3107
* Episode 3117
* Episode 3142
* Episode 3146
* Episode 3162
* Episode 3177 (R)
* Episode 3208
* Episode 3259
* Episode 3266
* Episode 3337
* Episode 3362
* Episode 3383
* Episode 3394
* Episode 3396
* Episode 3402	
* Episode 3438 (R)
* Episode 3442
* Episode 3451
* Episode 3492
* Episode 3510
* Episode 3573 (R)
* Episode 3585
* Episode 3611
* Episode 3617
* Episode 3689
* Episode 3691 (R)
* Episode 3711
* Episode 3732 (R)
* Episode 3774
* Episode 3780
* Episode 3806
* Episode 3818
* Episode 3823
* Episode 3836
* Episode 3866
* Episode 3886
* Episode 3902
* Episode 3922
* Episode 3924
* Episode 3960 (R)
* Episode 3992
* Episode 3997
==Interviews==
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation interviewed Manzano in 2004 for the Archive of American Television. The hour and a half interview was posted on YouTube in 2008.
==See also==
* Sonia Manzano acting roles
==Sources==
==External links==
*Official site
*Interview with Sonia Manzano
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Sesame Street Cast
Category:Muppet Movies Actors
Category:Writers
Category:Lyricists
Category:Muppet Voice Actors