Sesame Street's First Black Woman Puppeteer

Sesame Street got its first full-time Black female puppeteer. Megan Piphus Peace joined the cast full time and landed the role of Gabrielle, a 6-year-old puppet on the show.

In 2020, Piphus Peace said she was contacted by "Sesame Street" performers Matt Vogel and Martin Robinson, who asked if she'd be willing to learn the signature muppet-style puppetry of the show and the rest is history.

When she was 10, a woman at her church wanted to start a puppetry team to perform for the children in the congregation, and assembled a group to attend a puppetry conference. There, Piphus Peace was inspired by the female performers she saw that when she came home, she told her parents she wanted to be a ventriloquist.

In 2021, she joined "Sesame Street" as a full-time cast member. But it was by happenstance that she discovered she was a trailblazer.

She asked if there had been other Black female puppeteers on "Sesame Street," and a producer later informed her that she was the first.

She told CNN,

"I realized in that moment that I had made history in a show that had already been around for over 50 years," Piphus Peace said. "I realized that it would open doors for other Black women, women of color, little boys of color, entering the entertainment space to really see that they can be absolutely anything -- no matter how niche or unique." Megan Piphus Peace