Long-running children show, “Sesame Street” welcomes its first Southeast Asian muppet, TJ who is a Filipino!
TJ, brought to life by Oscar-nominated and Filipino-American animation director Bobby Pontilla, becomes the second Asian character in the iconic show.
TJ’s first appearance was in a segment where they are discussing the word of the day: confidence, along with Grover, Harold and Kumar star Kal Penn, and Korean-American muppet Ji-Young. In the segment, TJ shares how he feels confident while learning Tagalog.
“I’m learning Tagalog. It’s a language my Filipino family speaks. And I’m confident because I can always ask my lola for help when I don’t know a word,” he shared during the said segment.
In an Instagram post, Bobby shared the initial design for TJ, who was first called “Filipino Boy Muppet,” and whose look was based on Max and Mateo, the kids of Bobby’s longtime friends.
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“I had the amazing opportunity to work with the geniuses at the Sesame Workshop to create a Filipino muppet for [Sesame Street]! Meet TJ!” he said.
“I was blessed to collaborate with master puppeteer Louis Mitchell, the loveliest human on earth,” he added.
Sesame Workshop’s director of talent outreach, inclusion, and content development, Rosemary Espina Palacios, puppeteer and voice actor Yinan Shintu “for bringing TJ to life,” and the Sesame Street crew were also recognized by Pontillas.
In her own post, Rosemary welcomed TJ to Sesame Street, saying “I’m so proud to help bring some Filipino representation to the neighborhood, and just in time for API (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month to show the range in our diaspora.”
“His first segment with [Kal Penn] and Ji-Young is all about confidence, something I personally feel can help unravel the model minority stereotype,” she said.
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