Sonia Manzano, Maria on ‘Sesame Street,’ talks ‘Street Gang’ doc and how the kids’ show was first to reflect her Bronx nabe

Long before “Sesame Street” premiered, Sonia Manzano lived there — minus the Muppets. Manzano spent 45 years on the beloved children’s show as Maria, joining two years after its 1969 debut that showed a place she knew well but TV audiences did not. “What hooked me on ‘Sesame Street’ was that it was set in this urban environment that looked like the Bronx neighborhood that I was kind of raised in,” she said.

from New York Daily News https://ift.tt/2RzA7LM