Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Sesame Street
Topics: US News, Racism, Film and TV
Tom Wood
Sesame Street has introduced the first Filipino-American character in the history of the show, bringing in a muppet called TJ.
TJ represents the latest diverse move from the hugely popular kids show, joining Ji-Young, the first Asian-American puppet on the show, who was introduced back in 2021.
TJ made his first appearance in a recent segment, appearing alongside Ji-Young and Grover – a veteran character representing the blue furry creatures of the world – and actor Kal Penn, a star of House and the Harold and Kumar film series.
You also might remember that Penn became a staffer for Barack Obama during his time in the White House, too.
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Penn was teaching them about the word of the day, which on this occasion was ‘confidence’.
The actor said: "Confidence is when you believe in yourself and your abilities, or in the abilities of others.”
TJ explained how his confidence grew as he was learning Tagalog, one of the native languages of the Philippines, as well as talking about how he derives confidence from his family.
"I'm confident because I can always ask my lola [Tagalog for grandmother] for help when I don't know a word," he said.
The character was created by Filipino-American animator Bobby Pontillas, as well as puppeteer Louis Mitchell.
Pontillas shared some shots on Instagram in which he explained the inspiration behind TJ was the kids of some of his closest and dearest friends, called Max and Mateo.
TJ’s voice is provided by actor and puppeteer Yinan Shentu.
Pontillas wrote: “I had the amazing opportunity to work with the geniuses at the Sesame Workshop to create a Filipino muppet for @sesamestreet ! Meet TJ!
“For his look, I based him off of my lifelong friends’ kids, Max and Mateo, thank you for the inspiration lads.
“I was blessed to collaborate with master puppeteer Louis Mitchell, the loveliest human on earth.”
Rosemary Espinas Palacios, the director of talent outreach, inclusion, and content development at the Sesame Workshop, also shared a post on Instagram detailing how glad she was that TJ had arrived.
"Just in time for API Heritage Month to show the range in our diaspora,” she said.
She went on to say that she hopes the new character can help ‘unravel the model minority stereotype’, which is a damaging yet constant myth about the success of Asian Americans, ignoring that there are differences between the different Asian ethnic groups, as well as marginalising the role of racism in struggles of other minority groups.