Joshua Dela Cruz from Blue’s Clues & You discusses being the first Asian American Children’s show Host .

The actor Joshua Dela Cruz is binging a fresh, New perspective to television as the first Asian American host of Blue’s Clues & You.

Dela Cruz became the host of the groundbreaking update Nickelodeon series Blue’s Clues & You in 2019 . Launched in 1996 , Blue’s Clues is an exploratory series that allows the host to examine life through the lens of his dog Blue. The series weaves live action with information cartoons as worlds collide during the host’s busy day, the mailbox sing , salt and pepper skates dance and a handy dandy notebook help the Blue and the host uncover the clues during the day.

What did take so long to see an Asian American as a children’s show host?
Children’s programming dawned with shows like howdy doody followed by series like Romper Room , the clown and show Nearly every series lacked diversity until Sesame Street arrived in 1969 . The cast featured puppets who interacted with the children and adults on the show, which also included several people of color.

But diversity wasn’t as widespread in Children’s programming until recently. Dela Cruz he isn’t sure why it took until 2019 to feature an Asian - American as the host. But he’s thrilled to be paving the way for others . You know, everything comes at its own time, he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet . It very funny watching old movies and tv shows and then realizing how it wasn’t diverse at all , outside of even bit parts .

It’s very surprising, even today, whenever movies come out and it’s a little like. you scratch your head and are like , oh we’re still doing this. But I think a lot has to do with the creative team.

Creative teams are becoming more diverse
Dela Cruz points out that as creative teams become more diverse, the roles they write are for a wider demographic. He credits creators Angela Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson for their ability to bring more diversity to children’s programming. “ because they’re the ones bringing in the diversity “, he says And there like they don’t even get the opportunity to be looked at.
But l think the diversity that in the creative team really helps more us forward and more us along, he continues “ and what more there’s lack of good material out there, people will stop seeing a Filipino guy to black woman , and just start seeing actor . A good actor.
Dela Cruz is optimistic that programming is trending toward diversity. Thankfully it is getting better and it is progressing he says, but even before diversity was really a hit, Nickelodeon was really the most the most diverse channel I had ever seen. As for as cartoon like, hey Arnold ! Was a much closer description of what New York City looked like. If you even compare that with a was more diverse than that, which was really important for me growing up to see that And so l’m just so excited and l’m so honored that l get to be in this role.