Nitya Vidyasagar

Nitya Vidyasagar plays Leela, a young Indian-American woman who runs the local laundromat on Sesame Street. She will make her debut on the show in Season 39.

Vidyasagar was born in Oman, moving to India when she was a year old, and to the United States when she was twelve. She speaks Hindi and Telugu as well as English.

The part of Leela wasn't originally written with an Indian-American actress in mind. "It was incidental," Vidyasagar says in an article in India West. "The casting notices said nothing of ethnicity." As the first major Indian-American character on the American Sesame Street, Vidyasagar is looking forward to bringing awareness of Indian culture to the Street: "This is a big deal for me, and for the Indian-American community... and it shows that India has a growing place in the world profile."