Sonia Manzano

Manzano was born in Linwood, New Jersey, and was raised in the South Bronx. 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.[1][2][3]

In her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show Godspell.[4][5] 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.[6][7][8] Manzano would, however, later reprise the role of Maria in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.[9]

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".[10]

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". As part of that effort, Manzano is working with General Mills and its nonprofit partner, First Book, to encourage children to read and to help children across the United States gain access to books. The book has been adapted as a stage play. She is also the author of The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (2014).[11][12][13][14][15]

She has served on the March of Dimes Board; the board of the George Foster Peabody Awards;[16] 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.

On December 3, 2020, Deadline reported that Manzano would return to PBS to create a new animated television series titled Alma's Way.[17]

Manzano was nominated twice for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series.[18] As a writer for Sesame Street, Manzano won 15 Emmy Awards.[19]

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Manzano's name and picture.[20] In 2004, she was inducted into the Bronx Hall of Fame. On April 7, 2016, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced that Manzano would receive the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award at the May 1 awards ceremony.[18]

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.[21] The Dream Big Initiative of the Bronx Children's Museum honored Manzano in 2014.[22]

In the 1970s, Manzano was in a relationship with film director and producer Michael Winner and appeared in his 1974 film Death Wish.[23]

Manzano resides in the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her husband Richard Reagan, whom she married in 1986, and their daughter Gabriella.[24] Gabriella played the role of the same name on Sesame Street for two seasons (21 and 22) as Luis and Maria's daughter before she decided she did not enjoy acting. Desiree Casado replaced her afterwards.

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