Photo Flash: Alan Muraoka and SESAME STREET Muppeteers Jennifer Barnhart and Kathy Kim Celebrate Year Of The Rat At The Met

Alan Muraoka and "Sesame Street" Muppeteers Jennifer Barnhart and Kathleen Kim delighted children and their parents as they shared traditions of the Lunar New Year in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium during two performances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Lunar New Year Festival celebrating the Year of the Rat on February 1, 2020. The trio posed with families in The Temple of Dendur after the performances.

The Lunar New Year: Year of Rat Festival celebration at The Met Fifth Avenue also included dance and music performances, artist-led workshops, and interactive gallery activities.

Alan Muraoka has played "Alan," the proprietor of Hooper's Store, for the past 21 years on the beloved children's television series "Sesame Street". The show features Alan, along with "Sesame Street" Muppeteers Jennifer Barnhart and Kathy Kim, in a high-energy sing-a-long featuring some of your favorite "Sesame Street" songs, learning how to say Happy Chinese New Year and count to ten in Chinese.

With "Sesame Street," Alan has performed concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and with the Boston Pops. He has appeared in seven Broadway shows; Aladdin, the revival of Pacific Overtures, Mail, Shogun: The Musical, My Favorite Year, the Tony-winning revival of The King and I (with Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy), and most notably Miss Saigon, where he played the lead role of the Engineer. His national tour credits include M. Butterfly, Miss Saigon, and two companies of the Lincoln Center production of Anything Goes. Regionally he was last seen in the Kennedy Center revival of Mame starring Christine Baranski and has performed at the Cincinnati Playhouse, Alliance Theatre, North Shore Theatre, Westport Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Festival, & the Minnesota Opera. He is featured in the films, It Could Happen to You, and Day of Independence, a film by Academy Award winning director Chris Tashima. Television credits include "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Louie," "30 Rock," "The Late Show With David Letterman," "Brotherhood," and "The Tonight Show". Mr. Muraoka is a graduate of UCLA, where he received the Carol Burnett Musical Comedy Award for performance. He was also the 2004 recipient of the APEX Inspiration Award and the FCC's 2007 Role Model of the Year Award.

Photo Credit: Lia Chang