Sonia Manzano Biography
Sonia Manzano has been a presence on Public Television since the 1970's.
Raised in the South Bronx, Sonia Manzano attended the High School of Performing Arts. A scholarship took her to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and in her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show, Godspell.
Within a year Sonia Manzano was cast as "Maria" on Sesame Street. After ten years as an actress, Sonia Manzano began writing scripts for the series and has thirteen Emmy Awards as part of the Sesame Street writing staff. Sonia also wrote for the Peabody Award winning children's series, Little Bill, for Nickelodeon and for a short time wrote a parenting column for the Sesame Workshop web site called "Talking Out Loud."
Sonia Manzano returned to the New York stage starring in The Vagina Monologues and The Exonerated.
Sonia Manzano has received awards from The Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington DC, and The Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and she received an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Nortre Dame University in 2004. Closer to home, she was inducted into the Bronx Hall of Fame in 2005. Sonia Manzano was twice nominated for an Emmy Award as "Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series."
Sonia Manzano's first picture book No Dogs Allowed! was published in April 2004. General Mills gave away 1.5 million copies of No Dogs Allowed! in boxes of Cheerios, as part of their "Spoonfuls of Reading" program.
No Dogs Allowed! was turned into a musical which was presented by the Actor's Playhouse at the Miracle Theater in Coral Gables, Florida on June 2006.
Sonia Manzano's second book A Box Full Of Kittens was published June 2007. She currently is working on a memoir.
Sonia Manzano enjoys traveling the county, speaking seriously, but still infusing humor on her various topics.
Sonia Manzano Topics
- Diversity
- The Impact of Television on Children
- The Empowerment of Women
- Literacy
- How Staffs Should Function
- Would Elmo Make a Good Board Member?
- Can Muppets Read?
- Can a Muppet be a Health Nut?
- 123 Who Let Latin’s on TV?
- Critical Thinking on Public Television
- Families: The First Teachers
- My Immigrant Story
- From The South Bronx To Sesame Street
- Coping With Alzheimer's