Ryan Dillon (b. May 25, 1988) began puppeteering for Sesame Street in 2005, at the age of 17.

As a high school student, Dillon came to the attention of the Sesame producers when he went to an open call for puppeteers. Kevin Clash immediately assigned Dillon to participate in that year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where he performed Ernie on the Sesame Street float, and the taping of Season 37. Dillon received on-screen credit for his first two seasons, for which he assisted and played background roles. After a few years away from the series, he returned to the Sesame fold full-time when he was cast in the major roles of Cooper Monster, a motion capture Muppet, and Paul Ball for the Kinect Sesame Street TV video games.

In 2013, Dillon was selected to take over performing Elmo, following Kevin Clash's departure. He made his first public appearance as Elmo at the White House Easter Egg Roll and has continued to play the character in all forms of media. Dillon's work as Elmo has received Daytime Emmy nominations in 2017 and 2021. In 2020, he won the award for "Outstanding Principal Performance in a Daytime Program" for the special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, in which he took on the classic Muppets Don Music and Lefty the Salesman. In addition to performing, Dillon has directed several seasons of the short-form series, My Sesame Street Friends.^[1]

Outside of his Muppet work, Dillon's main project is co-producing puppet web videos with frequent collaborator Mark Gale under the banner The DillonGale Idiots. He previously formed a short-lived puppet building business with Patrick Holmes in the late 2000s. Dillon's early credits include puppeteering Dorsel in the original off-Broadway run of John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean, and puppeteering the title character for the Nickelodeon webseries Ask Sylvia. Through the O'Neill Puppetry Conference, Dillon appeared and worked on productions by Ronald Binion, Terry Lee, Emily Perl Kingsley and others.

Muppet/Henson credits[]

for a complete character gallery, see Ryan Dillon characters

• Sesame Street: Elmo (beginning in 2013) and others...

• 2005 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Ernie (puppetry only)^[2]

• 2006 Macy's Parade: Hoots (puppetry only)^[3]

• Garden State Film Festival: "How to Get to Sesame Street" puppet workshops, March 24th, 2007

• Kids' Favorite Country Songs
• Kraft MilkBite commercials: Mel the MilkBite
• Healthy Teeth, Healthy Me
• Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce
• Kinect Sesame Street TV: Cooper, Paul Ball
• Sesame Street Explores National Parks
• Little Discoverers: Big Fun With Science, Math and More
• Little Children, Big Challenges
• Words Are Here, There, and Everywhere
• The Furchester Hotel: Elmo and others...
• Count on Elmo
• Play All Day with Elmo
• The Cookie Thief
• Julie's Greenroom (credited as "Ryan Dylan")
• Trick or Treat on Sesame Street
• Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas
• The Muppets Take the Bowl: (Nigel)
• The Magical Wand Chase
• The Muppets Take the O2
• When You Wish Upon a Pickle
• A Swingin' Sesame Street Celebration: Circle, Sirloin Sister
• Meet the Peetes: Roosevelt Franklin (puppetry)^[4]
• Elmo's Playdate
• The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Chip and Dip, Felix
• Elmo's Playdate: Scavenger Hunt
• The Power of We: Anything Muppet boy, Square
• My Sesame Street Friends
• See Us Coming Together: Green AM Monster, Brown AM Monster

Assistance[]

During Dillon's first couple of years on Sesame Street his assisting performances were documented:

• Sesame Street

• Season 37

• Hansel (hands) in Episode 4110^[5]
• Mr. Blechstein in Episode 4127^[5]
• Herry Monster in Episode 4130^[6]
• Grundgetta in Episode 4134^[5]

• Season 38

• A Honker and a Dinger in Episode 4159^[7]

• Sesame Beginnings: right-hand assistance for Nani Bird in Exploring Together and Moving Together^[8]
• Learning is Everywhere: AM Dog, AM Fish, right hand and ultimatte assistance, etc.^[9]
• The Get Healthy Now Show: AM cucumber and yam (finale), right hand assistance, Frankie the Stagehand (in most shots)^[10]
• Elmo's Christmas Countdown: Mel, Green Dinger, Leonard Birdseed^[11]
• Here For You: AM Boy^[12]

Animation voices[]

• Elmo's World: Vegetables: Lettuce
• Elmo's World: Shapes: Circle and Rhombus
• Elmo's World: Grandparents: Elmo's Grandpa
• Elmo's World: Photographers: Groundhog
• Episode 4903: One of the Five Ws
• The Power of We: Kevin (boy in racism video)
• Mecha Builders: Mecha Elmo

Directing credits[]

• My Sesame Street Friends (framing scenes)
  • My Abby (first and second series)
  • My Sesame Music (first series)
  • My Cookie Monster (second series)
• 2024 "Bein' Green" video with Cynthia Erivo^[13]

Sources[]

External links[]

• Official site (archive)