Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci (not to be confused with the artist) is a puppeteer and puppet builder who serves as one of the newest performers of Sesame Street. He was selected into an advanced puppeteer workshop with Sesame Workshop and has been performing on the show since its 54th season. Sebastiano was cast as the role of the first Italian-American Muppet, Joey who debuted in animated form before appearing in puppet form that season. Ricci also performs in the short-form series My Sesame Street Friends. In addition to Sesame Workshop, he also performed with The Jim Henson Company and Spiffy Pictures (assisting on Donkey Hodie). As for theater, he built the puppets for the Off-Broadway show Winnie the Pooh, as well as playing Tigger in recent years. On the website of Sebastiano Ricci, I saw pictures of him appearing alongside James Kroupa in his shop and was even on the set of The Wiggles. He sure is some lucky puppeteer to go all around the world and even go behind the scenes of the famous children band in Australia. Other new puppeteers he met on Sesame Street have included Brandon Smith, Leila Ghaznavi, Yinan Shentu, and Lindsey Briggs. I'm sure Sebastiano will continue to perform on Sesame Street for future seasons since he did a great job training in Sesame Workshop. Maybe Ricci will be a role model for other puppeteers to come and turn themselves into Muppet performers like him. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. As for right now, he's definitely a professional puppeteer and always will be in my opinion. Sebastiano Ricci, you're doing a great job at Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, and all of those other production companies too. Keep playing Joey because he's a Muppet character of your very own. I hope nobody confuses you with the dead Italian painter. Until then, keep up the wonderful puppet job Sebastiano. Welcome to the Sesame Street family Ricci!