Age: 54
female
Stephanie D'Abruzzo (b. December 7, 1971) has been a Sesame Street puppeteer since 1993. In that time she has performed a myriad of background characters, and recorded vocals for a number of songs, including "Sing" (EKA: Episode 3981) and "Brothers and Sisters" (EKA: Episode 4056). Her major characters of note have included Elizabeth, a loud but cheerful little girl; Lulu, a curious monster (whom D'Abruzzo helped to develop[1]); and most recently in Season 34, Baby Bear's little sister, Curly Bear. D'Abruzzo first made contact with the Muppets through David Rudman. Rudman informed D'Abruzzo that The Jim Henson Company was having a huge casting call for female performers. She went to New York to auditioned, made all the cuts, but was only place in a talent pool that would not necessarily guarantee her future work. A few months later, she went back to participate in a month-long workshop in New York and slowly started becoming a Muppet Performer on Sesame Street. Her first day of performing was November 3, 1993 in episode 3162 where she played Monster #3.[2] D'Abruzzo has performed and voiced nearly 200 characters for various projects including Oobi (playing Uma and Inka), Bear in the Big Blue House,Donna's Day, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Binyah Binyah!, The Puzzle Place, Rory's Place (for which she co-wrote a pair of episodes with husband Craig Shemin), Sheep in the Big City and The Book of Pooh (playing the inquisitive bird Kessie). Despite her extensive work with the Muppets, D'Abruzzo first gained greater recognition as an original cast member of the puppet musical Avenue Qwhere she originated the characters of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut. Her performance garnered her a 2004 Tony nomination, a Theatre World Award, a special Outer Critics Circle Award (for Outstanding Ensemble and Puppet Artistry), as well as a 2003 Drama Desk nomination for the show's Off-Broadway run. In December 2005, D'Abruzzo ended her run with the project after more than two and a half years to pursue roles in I Love You Because, and worked with Bobby Lopez again on the studio album for the Walt Disney World stage show Finding Nemo: the Musical (as Sheldon and Deb). Her previous stage credits include Skitch Henderson's New Faces of 2004 at Carnegie Hall, Carnival and Chess. D'Abruzzo's television credits outside of her work as a puppeteer include an appearance on the musical episode of Scrubs and as a commentator on I Love the 70s: Volume 2. As a voice actress, she was heard in the Mo Willems animated series Sheep in the Big City (as Lady Richington, Swanky, and Lisa Rental). In 2013, she performed in the direct-to-DVD release Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map (as puppeteer and voice of Velma and Shirley).
Stephanie D'Abruzzo
Grizzabella
for Grizzabella in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
Suggested by julianrojas
The film begins with Bert and Ernie introducing the film. As the story opens, Elmo is playing with his fuzzy cotton blue blanket in his bedroom. After spilling juice on his Blanket, he takes it to the laundromat and has it washed and dried. Elmo then makes music with the laundry equipment, but Big Bird, the Count, Rosita, Baby Bear, and Prairie Dawn hear it unexpectedly. When he is about to take his Blanket home, Elmo encounters his friend Zoe, who is feeling depressed because her father, due to having to work, cannot take her to the zoo, so Elmo decides to cheer Zoe up by imitating some zoo animals. When Zoe sees Elmo's Blanket, Elmo refuses to share it with her, resulting in a tug of war that rips Elmo's blanket. Upset at this, Elmo declares that Zoe is no longer his friend. Suddenly, Telly inadvertently takes away the blanket while rollerskating right out of control. This then leads into an epic chase around Sesame Street. Telly bumps into Ruthie, who is holding a plate of glasses, and Elmo ends up knocking Ruthie's glasses over, angering Ruthie in the process. Telly then hits Cookie Monster at the revolving door of the Furry Arms hotel, which makes Cookie cry, "Owwww!" Grover comes across a customer, who is calling for him, while Elmo wants Telly to give Blanket back. Grover hears Elmo cry out, and turns into Supergrover, and flies to get the blanket, but crashes. Finally, the blanket accidentally lands in the hands of Oscar the Grouch, who drops it in his trash can after sneezing into it. Elmo dives into the bottom of Oscar's trash can, where he finds his Blanket snagged on a door. Elmo attempts to retrieve it, but Oscar pops up and says, "Hey, Elmo! Have a nice trip! Heh! Heh!" Elmo and Blanket are both teleported through a colorful, swirling tunnel to Grouchland, a city filled with Grouches, stinky garbage, and Huxley, a mean, immature and greedy man with unusually large eyebrows, who steals anything he can grab, including Elmo's blanket. Wanting his blanket back, Elmo begins a journey through Grouchland. A kind-hearted Grouch girl named Grizzy tells Elmo that his blanket is in Huxley's house at the top of the faraway Mount Pickanose, but also warns Elmo that he may never make it there. Feeling that Grizzy is right, Elmo becomes discouraged. However, a green plant named Stuckweed, encourages Elmo that he will make it and that he just has to take his first step into the journey, and Elmo sets out on a quest to get his Blanket back. Meanwhile, the Sesame Street residents are informed of Elmo's absence and go to Grouchland to find him, with help from Oscar. When Big Bird and Zoe find a Grouch police officer and ask him for help, the entire group ends up arrested and put in jail as the police officer informs them that it is against the law to ask for help in Grouchland. Meanwhile, when Huxley is informed of Elmo coming to retrieve his Blanket, he has his trusted sidekick, Bug the bug, and his minions, the Pesties, trap Elmo in a tunnel. However, Elmo gets out with the help of fireflies. Upon noticing that Elmo is still coming, Huxley has Bug and the Pesties pose as construction workers, set up a fake construction zone, and misdirect Elmo into a nearby garbage dump, where he is forcibly brought before the Queen of Trash for trespassing in her kingdom. At first she assumes that Elmo might be in league with Huxley, Elmo denies this, but then, he remembers that he refused to share his blanket with Zoe, and feels ashamed. The Queen gives him what she believes is an impossible test by requesting that he blows a raspberry for her, in a set time of 30 seconds. By getting help from the audience, Elmo succeeds at this and the Queen allows him to continue on his way to Huxley's house. Left with no other remaining options to stop Elmo, Huxley sends his humongous chicken to confront Elmo, as the chicken mistakes Elmo for a worm. However, Elmo successfully convinces the chicken that he is not a worm, but this only prompts the chicken to toss Elmo far away, leaving Huxley to conclude that he defeated Elmo. Resting on a rock, Elmo realizes that night has come, and begins to give up on getting his Blanket back. Meanwhile, Grizzy sneaks into the jail where she informs Elmo's friends that he went to Huxley's house. Oscar is convinced to help set things right as well as admitting that Elmo is his friend. He then convinces the police officer as well as all of the Grouches of Grouchland that the only way they can finally stop Huxley from stealing any more of their trash once and for all, is if they swallow their pride and work together. The police officer releases the Sesame Street residents and the Grouches aid them to go to Huxley's house to fight for their trash and rescue Elmo. A caterpillar wakes up Elmo the next morning on the rock. He gives Elmo advice to look inside himself and he'll see that he has what it takes to be brave. Taking the caterpillar's advice, Elmo makes it to Huxley's house before Huxley has the chance to make Elmo's Blanket "his" blanket. However, Huxley sends the Pesties to stop Elmo from making his getaway, but Elmo evades the Pesties by jumping into a nearby laundry basket, and Huxley foils Elmo's getaway himself, by grabbing the basket with a remote controlled claw while Elmo is in it, intending to rubber stamp "MINE" on him. Just as Elmo is about to face the fate of never seeing his friends again, the Sesame Street and Grouchland citizens appear in time to rescue Elmo, and the Pesties flee in a panic. However, Huxley takes Elmo's Blanket again in all the chaos, and it is suddenly sucked it up with the vacuum cleaner nozzle on the front of Huxley's helicopter, as Elmo intentionally falls and launches the basket over Huxley's shoulders, incapacitating him. Promptly, everyone sees Bug at the controls of the helicopter with Elmo's Blanket, and Huxley demands it back. Bug refuses, as he has been sympathetic to Elmo, and gives Elmo back his Blanket. Elmo is hailed a hero by the Sesame Street and Grouchland citizens, while Huxley, shocked at being betrayed by his own sidekick, unsuccessfully tries to apologize to Bug for being greedy and selfish, promising to give back everything that he stole. Happy to have finally gotten his Blanket back, Elmo returns to Sesame Street with his friends, where he apologizes to Zoe for not sharing his Blanket and hurting her feelings. He then allows her to hold his Blanket and she happily accepts his apology, agreeing that they can permanently resume their friendship. Elmo then says goodbye to the audience and thanks them for helping before going to dance with his friends, while Bert and Ernie congratulate the audience for playing along and head home as the film ends, but Bert briefly stays to look at the credits, only to leave when Ernie tells him that it is time to feed his pigeons.
