Norman Stiles

As the Head Writer for Sesame Street, Elmo, Count Von Count, and Telly Monster are just a few of the many vivacious personalities Stiles has contributed to children's educational television. Despite experimenting with stand-up comedy and show business, Stiles is best known for his role as Head Writer for Sesame Street. While supervising a staff of over 20 writers, he has guided the creation of over 2,000 scripts.

Stiles' first full-time comedy writing job occurred in 1968 when he joined the staff of The Merv Griffin Show. In 1970 he started writing for Sesame Street and was Head Writer by 1973. Two years later he moved to Hollywood to work with Mel Brooks. The two of them served as co-creators and co-executive script consultants of the ABC sit-com, When Things Were Rotten, a parody of the Robin Hood legend. Though this show was later cancelled, Stiles went on to co-produce and co-write episodes for numerous variety shows, feature films and situation comedies. He was the co-headwriter for The Captain and Tennille as well as The Frankie Avalon CBS TV Summer Show.

Stiles returned to Sesame Street in 1980 and has even consulted on its international co-productions in Israel, Portugal and Mexico to develop writing teams, characters and formats to fit their unique cultures. He has won 12 Emmy Awards, including one for his script exploring death on a pre-school level after the actor playing Mr. Hooper died. Stiles is also the author of several Sesame Street books, including Farmer Grover and The Count's Number Parade. In 1996, Stiles co-founded Sirius Thinking Ltd., an educational entertainment company. Together with WGBH, they have produced Between the Lions, a program designed to teach reading to children between the ages of four and seven. Stiles is the co-creator, co-executive producer, and head writer of this program, which was the 2002 and 2003 winner of the Parent's Choice award.