Sonia Manzano, María on "Sesame Street", To Receive Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy

Sonia Manzano, also known as María on the long-running PBS series "Sesame Street", will receive the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ 43rd annual Daytime Emmys on Sunday, May 1, 2016 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in Los Angeles, California.

Manzano, a former HOLA Award honoree, retired after almost 45 years of being on the show last summer; during her tenure on the program, she has shared in 15 Emmys for her work as a writer on the groundbreaking public television show. She was also nominated twice for Daytime Emmys in the category of Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series.

"Sonia not only brought the life events of marriage, having a baby and being a mother to viewers young and old, she also brought a seldom-seen diversity, a Latin role model, unlike anything on television at the time." –BOB MAURO, President of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences

A community activist and author, Manzano wrote a memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx, that was published in August by Scholastic Press. For more information, click here or here.