Move Over Maria, Here Comes Leela
Neela Banerjee - April 10, 2008
Sesame Street has a new neighbor running the laundromat: Leela, or Indian American actor Nitya Vidyasagar.
I remember feeling really warm seeing the Puerto Rican Rodriguez family -- Maria and Luis -- because they kinda looked like me. How cool that, from August 2008 -- Sesame Street's 39th (!!) season -- Indian kids will grow up with someone who REALLY looks like them.
The best part of this story [1] is that the producers claim that they weren't looking for another ethnic character:
"When the producers of Sesame Street were looking for a new actor to run the local laundromat, they were not looking for an Indian or any particular ethnicity -- they just wanted someone who was charming and not patronizing to a young audience. According to the newspaper India-West, the fact that this character is a Hindu and Indian American is purely coincidental. In fact, the character was recreated for this actress since they were smitten by her theatrical abilities."
Momo recently blogged about the bi-lingual Madarin animated show Ni Hao, Kai-lan [2] that Nickelodeon is showing. What other live or animated Asian American characters are there out there for children's programming?
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