Emily Perl Kingsley

Illustration by Bill Williams from What Do You Do?

Emily Perl Kingsley is a writer who joined the Sesame Street team in 1970, and has been writing for the show ever since.

Her son, Jason, was born with Down Syndrome in 1974. She wrote a widely read article on the subject, "Welcome to Holland," in 1987, and has been an activist for children with special needs for over 30 years.

Her son's story became the topic of an hour-long NBC special in 1977, titled This Is My Son, and Jason co-wrote the book Count Us In: Growing Up With Down Syndrome. By 1981, the duo was making over 100 appearances a year for various groups. Though Kingsley had written scripts for disabled children in the past, her experiences with Jason increased her desire to mainstream the use of different kinds of people, including Jason himself in occasional segments, guest stars like Itzhak Perlman, and the integration of Tarah Schaeffer as a full cast member:

“No one looked like my family. They were all so healthy, so perfect. I felt totally isolated, like I had just disappeared. It was something I wanted to change.”

Kingsley has written over 20 children's books, hundreds of Sesame songs, and two Sesame home video releases (Elmo Learns to Share and Elmo Says BOO!). She writes for other companies as well, and recently contributed to two Disney Interactive CD-ROMS.

She has won 12 Emmys and 9 nominations through her work with Sesame Street, three EDIs (Equality, Dignity, Independence Award) and a Grand EDI from Easter Seals, and an award from the National Theatre of the Deaf.

Kingsley recently began a more direct foray into puppetry when she performed her piece In A Contemplative Fashion at 2006's O'Neill Puppetry Conference, with puppeteers Amanda Maddock, Ryan Dillon, Lorraine Gilman, and Stefano Brancato.

Credits

Television & Videos

• Sesame Street: Writer (1970-present)
• Elmo Learns to Share: Writer
• Elmo Says BOO!: Writer
• Five Sesame Street Stories: Video adaptation

Books

• Big Bird Follows the Signs
• The Sesame Street Book of Fairy Tales
• The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover
• The Little Red Hen
• Farley Goes to the Doctor
• The Great Cookie Thief
• Big Bird and Little Bird's Big & Little Book
• The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook
• The Sesame Street Pet Show
• The Sesame Street Circus of Opposites
• What Do You Do?
• Everyone Makes Mistakes
• I Can Do It Myself
• A Baby Sister for Herry
• The Sesame Street Treasury
• A Sitter for Baby Monster
• The Songs of Sesame Street in Poems and Pictures
• The Sesame Street Library
• Big Bird's Busy Book
• Cookie Monster's Storybook
• The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook

Song Credits

• "A Cookie Is a Sometime Food" (with Michael Renzi)
• "Addition" (parody of "Tradition")
• "Antarctica!" (with Christopher Cerf)
• "Anybody Who Loves to March in a Parade March" (with Michael Renzi)
• "Barn in the USA" (with Christopher Cerf)
• "Brush Your Teeth" (with Sam Pottle)
• "City-Country Song" (with Sam Pottle)
• "Counting Is Wonderful" (with Sam Pottle and David Axlerod)
• "Happy Birthday To Me" (with Jeff Moss)
• "High, Middle, Low" (with Jeff Moss)
• "I'm Cold" (with Joe Raposo)
• "It's Mine" (with Michael Renzi)
• "No Matter How You Count Them" (with Jeff Moss)
• "Number of the Day Waltz" (with Tony Geiss)
• "One to Five"
• "The Song of The Count" (with Jeff Moss)
• "Wavin' Goodbye to You With My Heart" (with Lee Pockriss)
• "Words That Start With U"

Note

On some early records, she is credited as Emily Kaplin.

External Links

• Journey of Hearts
• "Welcome to Holland"
• Vault.com article
• Creative Parents interview