Sonia Manzano

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Sonia Manzano (born December 6, 1950) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street since 1973. She also licenses her image to promote items of baby clothes and plates in Hispanic America.

Sonia Manzano as Maria Rodriguez on Sesame Street

Ms. Manzano was born in the South Bronx, New York of Puerto Rican descent, and attended the High School of Performing Arts, where she began her acting career.

Ms. Manzano attended the 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". Within a year, Ms. Manzano joined the production of Sesame Street in 1973, where she eventually began writing scripts for the series. Sonia has won 15 Emmy Awards as part of the Sesame Street writing staff.

Ms. Manzano has performed on the New York stage, in the critically acclaimed theatre pieces 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".

Ms. Manzano's 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, Ms. 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.

Ms. Manzano was nominated twice for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series. 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 was featured in the Learning Leaders (volunteers helping students succeed) poster, designed to encourage reading in NYC public schools.

Ms. Manzano has received awards from the Association of Hispanic Arts, The Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington DC, The National Hispanic Media Coalition, The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families and Hispanic Heritage Award for Education in 2003. She received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from University of Notre Dame in 2005. In 2004, she was inducted into the Bronx Hall of Fame.

Ms. Manzano has a licensing company called the Three Amigas. She resides in the Upper West Side with her husband and daughter, and is working on a second children's book and her memoirs.