Ozzie Alfonso - President

Ozzie began his television career at Sesame Street during its first innovative seasons. There, he worked his way up to Director. Seven seasons as a Senior Producer, Principal Writer and Director of the acclaimed PBS series 3-2-1 Contact won him recognition as one of the nation’s top producers of science and family programming. He has produced and directed various PBS and network specials and series including You Can't Grow Home Again, on the vanishing rain forest, The Rotten Truth, on the garbage problem and the Emmy Award winning NBC special on baseball, The Game and Its Glory starring Donald Sutherland. He has won a Peabody Award, for I Have Aids: A Teenagers Story, and several Emmys, including one for "Outstanding Direction in a Children's Series.” Ozzie was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. when he was ten. He's married and the father of a 16 year old son. He's a private pilot and would rather be flying when he's not writing or directing.

PERSONAL DATA:

As President of Terra Multimedia, Ozzie is Executive Producer of all our productions. In that role he's responsible for the creative and production quality of all our work, as well as heading development of new projects. He was Co-Executive Producer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics  in the production of a broadcast pilot science series for 8 to 12 year olds entitled "Technical Difficulties." Ozzie is currently developing projects of personal interest for numerous outlets. He also wrote and directed two live-action and animated projects on dental hygiene for Colgate-Palmolive Company. With his wife, teacher/writer Maura Gouck, he has recently adapted and directed Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and "Julius Caesar" as three minute animations to be released as part of Scholastic's "Read 180."

3-2-1 CONTACT - (1981-1989)

Senior Producer, Writer, and the Director of this award-winning science and technology series for eight years. My work took me to Malaysia, Japan, Greece, and France. For the last three seasons I was the series principal writer. My work as Director and Writer has been acknowledged by Emmy awards and nominations. "3-2-1 CONTACT" was nominated several times as "Outstanding Children's Series" and was selected as one of the top ten shows of the 80s by "People" magazine.

AMIGOS - (1989-1990)

Writer of this instructional television series produced by the University of Tennessee aired over PBS. AMIGOS teaches Spanish as a second language to a target audience of school children in grades K through 2.

SESAME STREET - (1971-1979)

OTHER CREDITS

DIRECTOR (selected works)

WHAT KIDS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SEX & GROWING UP - Director of this 60 minute primetime special first aired nationally in the Spring of 1992.

THE ROTTEN TRUTH -- Director of this PBS prime time special on the garbage problem (1990). Currently a best selling home video.

SHALOM SESAME -- Director of comedy segments featuring Joan Rivers, Itzhak Perlman, Alan King, David Brenner, and others of this home video series.

YOU CAN'T GROW HOME AGAIN -- Director and field producer of this one hour PBS special on the vanishing rain forests.

SESAME STREET IN PUERTO RICO -- Directed this Emmy-nominated PBS nighttime special shot entirely on location in Puerto Rico (1979).

THE GAME AND ITS GLORY -- Directed Donald Sutherland in this prime time NBC Special about the history of baseball. Winner of an Emmy as Outstanding Sports Special (1982).

BIG BIRD IN CHINA -- Second Unit Director, Associate Director of this ninety-minute special for NBC, shot in China. Winner of an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program (1983).

NICKELODEON -- Produced and directed a series of shorts for this children's cable channel during it's formative stage in 1979.

CARRASCOLENDAS -- Associate Producer and Director of this bilingual PBS series for children (1974).

SCRIPT CONSULTANT

THE BASEBALL BUNCH -- Developed the original scripts for this weekly half- hour syndicated series for teens, produced by Major League Baseball Productions.

EDITOR

SESAME STREET -- Post Production Supervisor. Was responsible for the technical quality and pace of this show from 1971 to 1980.

CHRISTMAS EVE ON SESAME STREET -- Associate Director/Editor of this Emmy award-winning PBS special, directed by Jon Stone.

TEACHER/LECTURER

Currently an Adjunct Professor of Television Production at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at St. John's University.

U.S. State Department (USIA) - Member of the Indo-U.S. Subcommission on Education and Culture. Participant in a number of workshops aimed at teaching the techniques of science television production to Indian producers and directors.  Sent to Lima, Peru, to lecture producers and directors on the techniques of film and television production.