![]() ![]() It was around this time that Peace began thinking about college. At 15, she was even featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show’s “World’s Smartest and Most Talented Kids” episode. “From then on, my goal was to have a theme, like perseverance, woven into every performance.”Īs a teenager, Peace made appearances at daycares, schools, churches and festivals, both locally and out of state. ![]() “I realized what an impact the writing could have on the audience, and that every age could learn something from the show,” she says. Peace first performed at her elementary school for students from kindergarten through sixth grades. “What I consider the magic of ventriloquism is getting to share that experience with someone else and have them believe that our conversations are real,” she says. “She saw it as an opportunity for me to express myself.” Her mother even purchased a ventriloquist doll of Charlie McCarthy, the famously monocled, wise-cracking character created by entertainer Edgar Bergen, so Megan could practice in front of the mirror. “My mom was really supportive,” she says. “Performing was a creative outlet for me,” she explains, “because I could plan out what I wanted to share, as opposed to being forced to think of things to say.”Īfter the puppetry conference, Peace’s mother, Marsha, encouraged her daughter’s new passion, driving to public libraries all over Ohio to check out VHS tapes of ventriloquists for her to study. Taking inspiration from her father, Freddie, a talented singer and musician who’s also the lead pastor of her family’s church, Zion Global Ministries, Peace always has enjoyed singing and dancing. Peace describes herself as a shy child, except when she was on stage. ![]() Peace’s first true exposure to both art forms, however, came at age 10, when she accompanied her Vacation Bible School teacher Dorothy Smith and 19 other children on a weeklong excursion to Illinois for a puppetry conference. Like most young viewers, she “believed the characters were real and didn’t know that someone was operating them.” Peace traces her initial interest in puppetry and ventriloquism to watching TV programs such as Sesame Street and Lamb Chop’s Play-Along as a child. “The sets of Sesame Street are like walking into a fantasy. “I would have cried like a baby on the 123 steps if they had told me beforehand,” admits Peace, who plays the role of Gabrielle, a 6-year-old Black Muppet, on the show. In taping her first episode last September, she made history as the first Black female puppeteer to work on the show-a milestone she was not even aware of until afterward. Two years ago, Peace realized one of her lifelong dreams when she successfully auditioned to train as a puppeteer on Sesame Street. In addition to having worked in real estate investments, the Cincinnati native is an accomplished ventriloquist and puppeteer who has performed in front of audiences across the nation, including on The Tonight Show and America’s Got Talent. Her interest in the show, however, extends well beyond casual fandom. Like many young (and not-so-young) adults, Peace grew up watching the long-running television program Sesame Street on PBS. With its signature stoop, green double doors and old-fashioned lamppost, the iconic streetscape-which is actually housed within Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens-may be make-believe, but that’s why it’s so special to Peace and generations of children around the world. Yet there’s one New York City property that, modest as it is, she could never assign a price to: the two-story brownstone at 123 Sesame Street. After earning her master’s in finance from Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management in 2015, Peace had a successful career underwriting and financing billions of dollars’ worth of real estate deals, most recently as the director of residential development for Nashville-based Elmington Capital. Megan Piphus Peace, BA’14, MSF’15, knows a valuable piece of real estate when she sees one. ![]()
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