Sonia Manzano

Sonia Manzano holds a permanent place in my affection. Born in New York in 1950 and trained at Carnegie Mellon, she played Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 to 2015, earning a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy. What moves me is not the longevity alone but what it meant: a Puerto Rican woman from the South Bronx gave countless children who rarely saw themselves on screen the simple, radical message that they belonged. She later wrote a memoir and children's books, becoming a storyteller off-camera too. Beneath that warm smile lives a genuine social conscience, and I treasure performers like her.

Name (English)

Sonia Manzano

Name (Japanese)

ソニア・マンザーノ

Reading

そにあ・まんざーの

Born

June 12, 1950 (age 76)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Tiger

Origin

New York City, New York, United States

Occupation

voice actor / stage actor / television actor / screenwriter / film actor

High school

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School

University

Carnegie Mellon University

Awards & achievements

• 2013 Américas Award

• Official sitehttps://www.soniamanzano.com/
• Xhttps://x.com/SoniaMManzano
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia%20Manzano
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7561732

Tags

• New York
• voice actor
• stage actor
• television actor

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.