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Meet TJ, the Filipino muppet on 'Sesame Street'!
Did you know there is now a Filipino muppet on "Sesame Street"? His name is TJ and he's created by Fil-Am animator Bobby Pontillas.
On social media, Bobby shared a sketch, a photo, and, a video of TJ and said "I had the amazing opportunity to work with the geniuses at the Sesame Workshop to create a Filipino muppet for Sesame Street!"
"Meet TJ!" Bobby added. TJ is handsomely brown with a side-swiped emo-inspired-looking haircut and dons a yellow and orange striped hoodie.
According to the Oscar-nominated animator, he based TJ off his "lifelong friends’ kids, Max and Mateo."
"I was blessed to collaborate with master puppeteer Louis Mitchell, the loveliest human on earth," he added.
In the video that Bobby shared, TJ could be seen hanging with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn and other puppets, talking about confidence, which also happens to be Sesame Street's word of the day.
And when Kal asked TJ how he shows his confidence, TJ talked about learning Tagalog and the special role of his lola.
"I'm learning Tagalog — it's a language my filipino family speaks. I'm confident because I can always ask my lola for help when I don't know a word," he said, putting Filipino culture front and center.
Cool right?
In his post, Bobby expressed his "maraming salamat" to Rosemary Espina Palacios, Sesame Workshop’s Director of Talent Outreach, Inclusion, and Content Development, "for masterminding this and bringing me along."
He also thanked puppeteer Yinan Shintu "for bringing TJ to life" and the rest of the Sesame Street crew "for making this happen!"
As we like to say: Mabuhay Bobby! Mabuhay TJ! Mabuhay Sesame Street!
— LA, GMA Integrated News
