Meet 29-year-old Megan Piphus Peace from Nashville, Tennessee, who has gained national recognition as the first Black female puppeteer on the long-running television program Sesame Street. She was first introduced to puppetry at the age of 10 after attending a puppetry conference in Illinois with her Vacation Bible School Teacher.
Megan says that she grew up watching shows like Sesame Street and Lamb's Chop Play Along and that her sincere interest in the craft allowed her mom to see how passionate she really was. Because of this, her mom supported her and bought her VHS tapes of ventriloquists to study. She also bought her dolls and puppets so that she could practice.Megan's lifelong dream came true when she auditioned to train as a puppeteer on Sesame Street and recorded her first episode in September 2020 playing the role of Gabrielle, a 6-year-old muppet character. It was then that she made history as the first black female puppeteer to ever work on the show.
As a young person growing up, Megan also performed in front of many audiences across the nation including on The Tonight Show and America's Got Talent. When she was 15, she even appeared on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Her first ever performance was for Kindergarten students at her school when she was in the sixth grade. “I realized what an impact the writing could have on the audience, and that every age could learn something from the show,” she told MyVU News. “From then on, my goal was to have a theme, like perseverance, woven into every performance.”
In addition to being an entertainer, Megan has also worked as a real estate acquisitions analyst that performed financial underwriting and modeling for over 30 million square feet of developments and acquisitions valued at more than $5 billion.
Follow her on Instagram @MeganPiphus or visit her official website at MeganPiphus.com
