Stephanie D'Abruzzo is best known for her Tony nominated debut performance as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the Tony-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. In addition to her Tony nomination, she also received a Theatre World Award, and a special Outstanding Ensemble & Puppet Artistry Award from the Outer Critics Circle, as well as a 2003 Drama Desk nomination for her work in Avenue Q’s Off-Broadway run. She has also graced the New York stage in Tomfoolery, The Mad Show, It Must Be Him, Stuffed and Unstrung, Don’t Say Another Word, Plaisir D’Amour, Austentatious, Kiss and Makeup, I Love You Because, Carnival (Encores!), Encores! 10th Anniversary Bash, and the Theatreworks/USA limited NYC run of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Other Story Books. Outside of New York, her credits include [title of show] at St. Louis Rep, two benefit performances of The Guys in Lakeland, FL, and the world-premiere of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical at the Kennedy Center, where she originated the role of the pre-verbal toddler Trixie. She has also performed in dozens of staged readings and workshops, including the very first presentations of Avenue Q. Her vocal performances are captured on the Grammy-nominated Original Broadway Cast Album of Avenue Q, the original cast recordings of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical and I Love You Because, and the live benefit recording of Avenue Q Swings.
Stephanie made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Pops in Skitch Henderson’s New Faces of 2004, and has performed in two star-studded concerts honoring Stephen Sondheim’s 75th birthday in 2005: Children and Art: Stephen Sondheim’s 75th Birthday Gala and Stephen Sondheim’s 75th: the Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. In addition, she made her solo cabaret debut at the famed jazz club Birdland in 2005, and has also performed at Caroline’s, Town Hall, and a number of Broadway and New York area theatres for countless benefits and concerts, including Sondheim Unplugged, the Atrainplays XXI and XXII, More Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds, and the Actor’s Fund concert of Chess. She has also appeared more than a dozen times in Gravid Water at Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre.
Stephanie made her prime-time television debut sans puppet as the guest star of the much-hyped musical episode of the NBC series Scrubs, and can be heard on the iTunes exclusive soundtrack. She returned to Scrubs twice during its brief ABC run, as a cameo in “My Finale”, and as a Muppet patient in “My ABC’s” that featured characters from Sesame Street.
A native of McMurray, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh), Stephanie attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where she studied Radio/TV/Film production. While at Northwestern she received a National College Television Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Freeform, her original half-hour puppet comedy. After graduating in 1993, she began working with the Jim Henson Company as a Muppet Performer. Since that time she has puppeteered and voiced more than 300 characters for film and television.
Stephanie has spent 19 seasons as a Muppet Performer on the Emmy-winning Sesame Street, where she currently lends her talents to Curly Bear, as well as a myriad of walk-on characters on the street, and also brings life to countless inanimate objects on Elmo's World. She can also be heard in many animated and Muppet inserts on Sesame Street, including “30 Rocks,” “Preschool Musical,” and “G!” (the Glee parody) and her vocal performance with R.E.M. on their “Furry Happy Monsters” is featured on the Songs From the Street: 35 Years of Music box set. In addition, she performed the short-lived recurring characters of Elizabeth and Lulu for several seasons and voiced an assortment of plasticine characters in Bert & Ernie’s Great Adventures, as well as Super Fairy in Abby’s Flying Fairy School. Stephanie played Uma and Inka on the acclaimed Noggin preschool series Oobi, and she also played a Muppet Ann Curry when the Muppets took over the Today show. She has performed on Jack’s Big Music Show (guest-starring with Jon Stewart), Bear in the Big Blue House, Donna's Day, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Binyah Binyah!, The Puzzle Place, dozens of home videos, the television specials When Families Grieve, Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times, Muppets: Letters to Santa, Elmo’s Christmas Countdown, Elmo's Magic Cookbook, Elmopalooza and CinderElmo, as well as the 1999 feature film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. She can also be heard on the Grammy-winning recordings of Elmo in Grouchland and Elmopalooza.
As a voice-only talent, her credits include The Wonder Pets!, Proof of Life on Earth, Sheep in the Big City and The Book of Pooh, as well as a myriad of promos and commercials, video games and interactive products, demos, and narration for more than a dozen Scholastic children’s read-along books on CD, including Miss Spider’s Tea Party, Clifford the Big Red Dog and seven other Clifford titles. She can also be heard on the souvenir album for the Finding Nemo attraction at Walt Disney World. Her many promotional television appearances range from morning fare like Today, The View, and Live With Regis and Kelly to the syndicated game show Pyramid, where as a celebrity player she helped her contestants win $20,000. She also expounded on pop culture in VH1’s I Love the 70s Part II, I Love the 80s 3-D, and I Love the Holidays.
A former Burger King Employee of the Month, Stephanie D’Abruzzo has spent more than a third of her life residing in New York City with her husband of sixteen years, Emmy-nominated producer and writer Craig Shemin.
