John Tartaglia born 16 February 1978John Tartaglia is an American singer, actor, dancer, and Muppeteer.
He joined Sesame Street's puppetry team at the age of 16 part-time, performing as a right hand and many minor characters, including Phoebe and being the backup for Kevin Clash's Elmo. He performed Ernie for the second season of Play with Me Sesame and Oscar the Grouch for Sesame Street 4D. He became a full time part of Sesame Street at the age of 18.
John created and puppeteered the roles of Princeton (the recent college grad) and Rod (the closeted Republican-investment banker) in the Broadway musical Avenue Q, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 2004. He lost that award to Hugh Jackman (for his performance in The Boy from Oz), but Avenue Q won three Tonys that night, including Best Musical. He ended his run on Broadway on January 30, 2005.
He reprised his roles as Princeton and Rod in the Las Vegas sit-down production of Avenue Q, until December, 2005. Tartaglia joined the cast of Beauty and the Beast as Lumiere in November 21, 2006. He planned to stay with the show until it closed in July, but was replaced in early June 2007 by David Devries.
John is now working on his own television show for Playhouse Disney entitled Johnny and the Sprites as creator, executive producer, and star.
He recently played the roles of Pinocchio and the Magic Mirror in Shrek the Musical, another musical in which Tartaglia also performed all of the puppets in the show. After a try-out in Seattle the show landed in New York at The Broadway Theatre beginning in December 2008. He performed in the show until August 2009 and was replaced by Wicked star, Robb Sapp. He returned to the show in December 2009 where he stayed until its closure on January 3, 2010.