*Megan Piphus Peace has made history as the first Black American woman puppeteer for “Sesame Street.”
Peace was reportedly hired in September 2021 to play 6-year-old Black Muppet Gabrielle. According to Yahoo, Peace was age 10 when she developed a love for the art of ventriloquism. She developed the skill with practice materials including a doll from famed entertainer Edgar Bergen.
Peace was in elementary school when she began performing. At age 15, she was featured on “The Oprah Winfrey” show. As a student at Vanderbilt University, she was known as the “Vanderbilt Ventriloquist”.
“What I consider the magic of ventriloquism is getting to share that experience with someone else and have them believe that our conversations are real,” Peace shared with Because Of Them We Can. “I realized what an impact the writing could have on the audience, and that every age could learn something from the show. From then on, my goal was to have a theme…woven into every performance.”
READ MORE: Did Big Bird Ignore Black Boy At Sesame Street Theme Park As His Parents Claim?
In March 2020, Matt Vogel, “Sesame Street‘s” puppet captain, contacted Megan to gauge her interest in learning about “muppet-style puppetry.” She agreed, according to the Yahoo report. At the time, “Sesame Street” was working on a racial justice workshop called “The Power of We,” which featured the Gabrielle character.
“The sets of Sesame Street are like walking into a fantasy. To be there is really something,” Peace told Vanderbilt University’s MyVU News
She also spoke about the meticulous hiring process for becoming a “Sesame Street” puppeteer.
“It takes time to go through video submissions, but once we do, we earmark people that we’d like to invite to a workshop where we see their skills as a puppeteer and actor in person,” said Vogel, who acts as Big Bird and Kermit the Frog, per the Yahoo report. “Zoom is not an ideal way to conduct a workshop, but we made the best of it, and Megan was game to learn.”
Watch Peace discuss her journey and passion via the YouTube clip above.
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