Ivy Austin


Ivy Austin is an American actress and singer known for her performances on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion and her Sesame Street voices. She also starred on Broadway as Raggedy Ann.
WWW Official Site

Biography

Early life and education

Ivy Austin is an alumna of NYC's High School of Performing Arts, has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Colgate University, and a Master of Science degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Manhattan College.

Career

Austin's stage career began with national tours of Hair in 1976 and They're Playing Our Song in 1979. She made her New York City Opera debut in 1982's Candide and remained on the guest artist roster through 1989. Other NYCO credits include Naughty Marietta, The Merry Widow, The Music Man, The New Moon, The Desert Song, South Pacific, and Sweeney Todd. Austin's Broadway debut in 1986 was as the starring role in the Joe Raposo/William Gibson musical Raggedy Ann: The Musical Adventure, directed by Patricia Birch.
In 1989, Austin performed "The Story of Gloria" on American Radio Company. According to Time Magazine, "The show's funniest sketch, a serial, produced a new star, actress Ivy Austin." She also played the crusty-voiced French lady Babette, and sang with Rob Fisher and The Coffee Club Orchestra.
Austin has recorded countless songs for Sesame Street, and is the voice of Sesame Street characters Cereal Girl, Hammy Swinette, Sublime Miss M, Soo-ey Oinker of The Oinker Sisters, and Gloria Esta-worm. As writer/producer, Ivy Austin created holiday programs for National Public Radio and a long-running concert series at The World Financial Center. Ivy Austin appeared in numerous television commercials and has an impressive list of theatrical and concert credits.
Austin is in her sixth year as a contributing lyricist and performer in The Thalia Follies, a political satire in on New York's Upper West Side.
Austin performs regularly at Symphony Space on WNYC radio broadcasts of Selected Shorts and Bloomsday, and has participated in years of "Wall-to-Wall" music marathons. She appeared in Wall-to-Wall Broadway singing "Adelaide's Lament". She has performed several plays with the Night Kitchen Radio Theater for XM Satellite Radio.

Selected credits

Discography

Filmography

Artistic direction and producing