She is also the author of the novel The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (2014). The book has been adapted as a stage play. Her children's book No Dogs Allowed was published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2004. Manzano is the author of a novel, children's books, and a memoir. She has also appeared in multiple films, including Death Wish, Firepower, Night Flowers, Wonder Woman in Cheetah on the Prowl, Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, The Guitar, Dumped!, Missing Grandma, and Godmothered, and television programs, including BJ and the Bear, Law & Order, and Law & Order: SVU. She has written for the Peabody Award-winning children's series Little Bill, and has written a parenting column for the Sesame Workshop web site called 'Talking Outloud'. She has performed on the New York stage, in The Vagina Monologues and The Exonerated. Manzano did, however, later reprise the role of Maria in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration. On June 29, 2015, it was announced that Manzano would be retiring from the show after 44 years. Manzano joined the production of Sesame Street in 1971, where she eventually began writing scripts for the series.
