Elmo (Fictitious character)

Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/HBO children's television show Sesame Street.[2] A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prior to 2017) on Sesame Street, "Elmo's World", which is aimed at toddlers. He was most often puppeteered by Kevin Clash, but since his resignation in late 2012, he has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon.[3][4] Elmo is self-described as three-and-a-half years old and his birthday is on February 3.[5] Elmo characteristically avoids pronouns in reference to himself, instead referring to himself in the third person (e.g. saying "Elmo wants this" instead of "I want this").[6] Sesame Street staff writer Nancy Sans once described Elmo's origins: "There was this extra red puppet lying around and the cast would pick him up sometimes and try to create a personality, but nothing seemed to materialize."[7]


Elmo and Kevin Clash at 69th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2010
The character of Elmo was originally conceived as a supporting character and background character in 1979, first appearing in the Sesame Street song "We Are All Monsters", which first aired in a Season 11 episode during 1980. Elmo became a named and recurring character on Sesame Street (during the street storylines) sometime later that season, although he still appeared as a supporting character in segments in later episodes of the show at the time.