Frankie Cordero
| Frankie Cordero | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 15, 1982 Chicago, Illinois |
| 🏫 Education | University of Connecticut |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Notable work | Sesame Street |
Frankie Cordero is an American puppeteer, best known for his role of Rudy in Sesame Street. He also puppeteered in Fraggle Rock: Rock On!, Donkey Hoodie, Oobi, and various other projects.
Early life[edit]
Frankie Cordero was born in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in the neighborhoods of West Humboldt Park and Logan Square. Then he moved to Oak Park, IL where he attended Oat Park and River Forest High School. Puppetry is something he always wanted to do. His mother and father, who was a magician, always supported his early love for theater and puppetry which led him to join the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild. He later attended the University of Connecticut where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Puppet Arts.
Career[edit]
While growing up Cordero didn’t see many characters like him on television shows. It wasn’t until he saw Sesame Street that he would see diversity in a cast. There he was able to relate to the characters on the show because he saw actors who were like his mother. Ever since then the Jim Henson Company became a big inspiration for him because of the diversity shown on their shows. He liked that as a young latino kid he could finally see people who were like him on popular television shows. This inspired him to become someone that young latino kids could look up to even if he was behind a puppet. Cordero started his puppetry career at 10 years old when he would perform one-man hand puppet shows around the Chicagoland areas. He continued to perform these shows through high school and during college breaks. His first professional television gig was puppeteering for Sesame Street on their float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2000. His first speaking role was for the show Oobi where he played Papu. He then went on to work on Jack's Big Music Show, Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times, Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon, and Julie's Green Room, and CSI: Las Vegas. He has also performed several projects for Spiffy Pictures which is a Chicago based company. Some of his most famous work has been done for Sesame Street where he does the role of Rudy. Before developing his own character on Sesame Street he would be a background puppeteer and he would also help puppeteer characters like Rosita, Zoe, Cookie Monster, and Telly. It wasn’t until 2017 that Rudy became a permanent character on Sesame Street. With Rudy, Cordero was able to include his bilingual background and parts of his childhood into his puppeteering. Some of the shows he has worked on are When You Wish Upon A Pickle: A Sesame Street Special, Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, The Not Too Late Show with Elmo, and Abby’s Amazing Adventures. Frankie Cordero has also puppeteered for tours. He has toured with groups like Blair Thomas & Co, Walking With Dinosaurs- The Arena Spectacular, and Dramaton Theater. he has performed extensively in New York City theaters. Besides working on shows he has produced commercials for Comedy Central, McDonalds, Hasbro, Playskool, Reese’s, Brisk Iced Tea, AT&T, Motorola, Jolly Rancher, IBM, NatGeo, Michael Kors, Discover Card, Target, and Mitsubishi. Some of his most recent work include Fraggle Rock: Rock On! where he took on the role of voicing Wembley Fraggle and Donkey Hodie where he voiced the Purple Panda. Apart from puppeteering he is also a director, producer, and editor for videos. Cordero has produced and collaborated with artists like Tally Hall, Julia Nunes, and the Gregory Brothers. He created a studio called Frankenstudio which is located in New York with his partner Ken Berman and composer Devin Shepherd. The three of them together bring in their creative styles to create unique video productions which range from humorous to grotesque or lighthearted to profound. Frankenstudio also works on creating puppets and craft pieces for production use. Even though they are a new company the studio has already made several theatrical productions, music videos, commercials, pilots, and more.
Awards[edit]
In 2002 and 2004 he won the Jim Henson Memorial Prize in Puppetry. In 2004 he also won the Kevin Clash Scholarship for Puppeteers of Color. In 2015 Cordero won the Armstrong Vine Award in comedy.
References[edit]
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