Ozzie Alfonso was born in Havana, Cuba, he came to the US at age 10.
In the 1970s he started as Editor of “Sesame Street”, soon he was an Associate Director, and finally a Director for the series, including some prime time specials. The 1980s found still at Sesame Workshop as Senior Producer, Director, and Writer of the science series “3-2-1 Contact”. In the 1990s He directed several home videos for “Sesame Street”, as well as the classroom version of “3-2-1 Contact”.
Ozzie Alfonso was the director and one of three Senior Producers of 3-2-1 Contact from season 2 to 8 when the series stopped production. He was also one of the writers for the series from season 3 through 8. Following production of the daily series, Alfonso was the director of all the 3-2-1 Contact Specials, and 3-2-1 Classroom. His work at 3-2-1 Contact garnered two Emmy Awards – for cinematography (contributing cinematographer), and for outstanding directing.
Prior to joining 3-2-1 Contact, Alfonso was a contributing director for Sesame Street where he started in the series second season as post-production supervisor and video editor. He was nominated for a nighttime Emmy for his directing in “Sesame Street in Puerto Rico”. He left Sesame Street in 1979 and returned to the Children’s Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop) to work in 3-2-1 Contact. After leaving Sesame Workshop, Alfonso freelanced as director and writer of numerous specials for PBS, Nickelodeon, and NBC.
From 1991 until 2008, Alfonso headed his own video production and consulting company, Terra Associates, now “Ozzie Alfonso Media” (www.ozziealfonso.com) and is currently a professor at St. John’s University in Queens, New York where he teaches several courses on media, television production, and writing. He is still an active director/writer working on selected projects.
Recent projects include: outreach videos for the Episcopal Church; annual fund-raising videos for The Robert Louis Stevenson School, NYC; producing & directing a series of 30 and 15 second PSAs for the National Hispanic Family Health Helpline for national distribution in English and Spanish – TV, Radio, Web.
He lives in New York with his wife, teacher and children book author, Maura Gouck, and son, David.
Awards.
WFUV
16th Daytime Emmy Awards
United States Information Agency.
Agencies/Various/InternetPhotos/YouTube/TheCubanHistory.com
The Cuban History, Hollywood.
Arnoldo Varona, Editor.