“Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” (2025) is a biographical documentary about Sonia Manzano, the actor who played Maria in “Sesame Street,” a television series for children that aired on PBS from November 10, 1969 until it moved to HBO on January 16, 2016 and ended on September 11, 2025 and will resume airing on Netflix on November 10, 2025. Maria was a character on the series from 1971 to 2015. After Mister Rogers, most of the characters from “Sesame Street” are beloved, especially Maria. Director Ernie Bustamante, a writer on “Alma’s Way,” Manzano’s animated children’s television series, makes a poignant and stunning feature debut that should be a hit for fans and anyone who can relate to a Bronx Nuyorican girl defying the odds to change lives and become a pioneer in the televised education industry.
“Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” is mostly told in Manzano’s words in interviews that range from exclusive sit downs to casual on the go while jetting to award ceremonies and other special events. The narrative starts with her childhood in the Bronx to the present day. Manzano is still a magnetic presence, and it would be easy to watch and listen to her for hours since she is frank and beautiful. When she is not onscreen, by using the conventional technique of using montages of photographs, headlines, archival footage from news programs, “Sesame Street,” and so much more, Bustamante brings these stories to life.
Bustamante also gets creative and uses “Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” as a platform to partially adapt Manzano’s 2017 memoir, “Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx.” He frames those sections as if the audience was watching a black box theatrical play with Grisselle Escotto as Sonia, Misha Gonz-Cirkl as her mother, Angelo Cern as Emilio Delgado, who played Luis, Maria’s husband, Andrew Delman as Jon Stone, an Emmy Award winning producer, and Jillian Dunn as a writer on the show. When Manzano tells a childhood or fictional story, illustrator and graphic designer Jeffrey Aviles animates the action with a colorful palette that is ready for prime time.
Bustamante projects nine lessons on screen at different points in “Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” using a black background and white letters. These lessons can be derived from each segment’s story, which makes the movie feel like educational content for adults. Manzano is goals for anyone so if this technique is not mirrored in her memoir, she may have a future career in self-help for underrepresented readers or a chance to revamp her memoir for a new edition. They are great lessons, but her stories are more memorable than the actual wording of the lessons so the spirit of the lesson may have more impact than the segment division, which is not needed but nice to have.
The way that Bustamante indicates the year and location of the story is creative and aesthetically matches the place and era. For instance, “1964 Manhattan” is illustrated to look like a Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s subway sign. “1950 South Bronx” looks like a scrapbook. These designs are evocative of the tone and visual theme of the stories and did not have to rise to the same level of poignancy as Manzano’s stories, but they do. Bustamante’s attention to detail proves that he is ready to think creatively about how to depict long form content in a documentary for not dropping the ball and just relying on realistic footage. “Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” would have still worked without this work, but those touches make it special and set up the viewer to start looking for tissues, especially if you are a New Yorker. The nostalgia hits hard without obtrusive or feeling artificially stylized.
“Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” is told mostly told in chronological order. In addition to Manzano, Bustamente interviewed Manzano’s admirers and/or people who have a personal relationship with Manzano. It is an impressive list of people. US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a friend, fellow writer and collaborator as daughters of the Bronx who still support their community. Stephen Schwartz appears to share his insight about Manzano’s work on “Godspell” (1971), but most moviegoers may know him better for writing the hit musical “Wicked” (2003), which is currently a cinematic sensation. Andrea Pinkney, Manzano’s editor at Scholastic, clearly admires her writer, and her interview reveals that Manzano is a multihyphenate who made time to uncover a talent as a writer of children’s books, novels and the aforementioned memoir.
Carmen Osbahr-Vertiz, a puppeteer who played Rosita on “Sesame Street” since 1991, discussed how Manzano conveyed the historicity of her job to elevate it even further than just an opportunity to work with Jim Henson. Ryan Dillon has played Elmo since 2013 and may be her biggest fan. Actor Alison Bartlett worked on the children’s show from 1987 through 2021, was a young cast member when Manzano was well established as Maria and talks about the evolution of their professional relationship. Bartlett asked Manzano, “How do you know when to quit?” Manzano replied, “Never. You just put it somewhere else.” Head writer Norman Stiles is notable for writing about death in a way that kids could understand, which gave an opportunity for Manzano to reveal her acting skills. Her thespian muscle gets taken for granted because most viewers thought that she was playing herself. If you can survive this section without weeping, you should go to the doctor immediately to check your heart.
Bustamante devotes a part of “Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” to honor Delgado, which may dilute the Manzano hagiography, but considering that the film is also about the role of Latin and Hispanic people in media, it is a germane detour. Carol Delgado, Emilio Delgado’s widow, had a bemused response to the entire world believing that Maria was her husband’s wife, and mistook Carol for being the mistress. Not many people can be a work wife without being disrespectful, but Manzano succeeded.
The bookends of “Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon,” especially at the end, are filled with praise from everyday people at their jobs and famous actors at the Imagen Awards. Liza Colon-Zayas from “The Bear” and “Allswell in New York” (2024) credited Manzano for being an influence and role model. Edward James-Olmos, a fellow icon, also notes Manzano’s impact on history. Denise Rosario Adusel, the executive director of the Bronx Children’s Museum, who speaks three languages, also cited Manzano as an inspiration in addition to a museum founder.
If you are unfamiliar with Manzano and “Sesame Street,” “Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” is a great way to understand why she is such an impactful figure. At my big age, I am today years old when it occurred to me that Maria is not a real person, but a character. Manzano’s willingness to talk about the divide between origins and present accomplishments made me realize that even as we were too old for “Sesame Street,” Manzano could have helped ease the transition to every stage of adulthood. Cinema’s celebration of sensitive theater kids is at an all-time high this year, and Manzano was the ultimate one. Most hagiography is exaggerated or seems like whitewashing, but for Manzano, she probably deserves even more accolades.
