Ryan Dillon has been puppeteering since he could hold his arm up. Inspired by the Muppets™ since childhood and encouraged by his family and teachers, Dillon built and performed his own characters, performing shows wherever he could. In his senior year of high school, he was asked to join the cast of Sesame Street, and has been performing with the “longest street in the world” for the past 11 years. In addition to performing Elmo, Dillon has played numerous chickens, birds, frogs, monsters, foods and other colorful characters. He also played Cooper Monster and Paul Ball for the interactive series Sesame Street TV for Xbox Kinect. Ryan's work as Elmo can be seen all over television and the internet, with appearances on such shows was "Good Morning America", "Today", "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", among many many others. The new CBeebies and Sesame Street co-production, 'The Furchester Hotel" has Ryan busy in England as well. When he's not working on the Street, Dillon performs in national commercials and other television series including work for The Jim Henson Company and Disney's Muppets. He is also a professional puppet designer and builder, specializing in television style puppets as well as his new venture - stop motion puppetry. Ryan also writes, directs, designs and performs in his own web-based puppet and comedy content including DillonGale, a podcast and web-series created with his creative partner Mark Gale. .