Ryan Dillon (born May 25, 1988) is an American

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

who has worked as an ensemble muppeteer for the

Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company (formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc.; commonly referred to as Henson) is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for ...

since 2005. He also played Cooper and Paul Ball for the interactive series Sesame Street TV for Xbox Kinect, and appeared on all four seasons of the new

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...

and co-productions of ''Sesame Street'', ''

The Furchester Hotel ''The Furchester Hotel'' is a puppet series that aired on CBeebies (the BBC's preschool network). It is the second British-American spin-off of ''Sesame Street'' that the BBC have made after '' Sesame Tree'' 6 years before. The show ran on CBeeb ...

'', and ''

The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo ''The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by the Muppet character Elmo. It is a spin-off of ''Sesame Street'' and was developed exclusively for the HBO Max streaming service. The series, consisting of 13 epis ...

'' as

Elmo Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...

. In March 2017, Dillon was nominated for the

Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming was an Emmy award given to performers in television programming aimed towards children. During the 1970s and 1980s, guest performers in dramatic specials and regular performe ...

Background and career

Dillon was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. As a young puppeteer, Dillon came to the attention of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' producers when he went to an audition as a high school student. He took time off from school during his senior year to participate in the shooting for Season 37 in 2005. Since 2014, he has taken over performing Elmo in new productions and appearances, replacing

Kevin Clash Kevin Jeffrey Clash (born September 17, 1960) is an American puppeteer, director and producer known for puppeteering Elmo on ''Sesame Street'' from 1984 to 2012. He also performed puppets for ''Labyrinth'', '' Dinosaurs'', '' Oobi'', and various ...

after his resignation from ''

'' in November 2012. Ryan has also taught classes in television puppetry at

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

, and various schools and centres in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He also replaced the late Richard Hunt as

Don Music The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson, many for the purpose of appearing on the children's television program ''Sesame Street''. Some of the best known Muppets on ''Sesame Street'' include Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, ...

in ''Sesame Streets 50th Anniversary tribute. In addition to playing Elmo, Dillon has appeared on Kraft MilkBite commercials, "Healthy Teeth, Healthy Me," "Little Children, Big Challenges," "Little Discoverers: Big Fun With Science, Math and More," ''

Julie's Greenroom ''Julie's Greenroom'' is an American educational pre-school television series that was released on Netflix on March 17, 2017. Characters * Miss Julie (portrayed by Julie Andrews) – The director of the Wellspring Center for the Performing Arts. ...

'', '' The Muppets Take the Bowl'', ''The Muppets Take the O2'', the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

webseries A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

"Ask Sylvia" as the title character, and ''

John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean ''John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean'' is an Off Broadway musical about fish. It was written by and stars John Tartaglia, whose previous theatre acting credits include ''Avenue Q'' and ''Beauty and the Beast''. The show played at New World Stages, whic ...

'' (2010).

Filmography

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dillon, Ryan 1988 births American male voice actors Muppet performers Daytime Emmy Award winners American puppeteers Living people Sesame Street Muppeteers