Sonia Manzano is a first-generation American of Latino descent who has affected the lives of millions of parents and children since the early 1970s, when she was offered an opportunity to play “Maria” on "Sesame Street".

Manzano was raised in the South Bronx where her involvement in the arts was inspired by teachers who encouraged her to audition for the High School of Performing Arts. She was accepted there and began her career as an actress. 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, Manzano joined the production of "Sesame Street", where she eventually began writing scripts for the series. She was thrilled to help write the story line for “Maria’s” marriage and birth of “Maria’s” baby, played for a while by Manzano’s real-life daughter Gabriela.

Manzano has performed on the New York stage in the critically acclaimed theater pieces "The Vagina Monologues", "The Exonerated", and "Love Loss and What I Wore". Movies include Deathwish, Follow That Bird and Elmo in Grouchland.

She has written for the Peabody Award-winning children’s series, Little Bill, and has written a parenting column for the Sesame Workshop web site called Talking Out Loud. Her children’s book, No Dogs Allowed! published by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing in 2004. In 2005 General Mills selected No Dogs Allowed! for their Spoonfuls of Stories series. Over one million copies of No Dogs Allowed! were given away in cereal boxes courtesy of General Mills.

No Dogs Allowed! has been turned into a children’s musical, with a productions at the Actor’s Playhouse, in Coral Gables, Florida and the Atlantic Theater in New York. Productions included Ridgefield Theater Barn and Theaterworks at the Milford Playhouse, both in CT. Theatrical Rights Worldwide has licensed No Dogs Allowed! Her second book, A Box Full Of Kittens, was published in 2007.

Her first young adult novel entitled "The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano" was a Pura Belpre Honor. "Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx", is her memoir. "Miracle on 133rd Street" is a picture book she published in 2015.

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