Jane Aaron

Jane Aaron was a filmmaker, children’s book illustrator and animator best known for her work on PBS’s classic children’s program Sesame Street.

Collaborating with Christopher Cerf, whom she also worked with on the PBS series Between the Lions, Aaron mixed live-action footage with animated images. On Sesame Street she instructed young viewers with almost 200 animated shorts on subjects such as the letter “X” and the numbers 1 through 20. She also contributed to many “Elmo’s World” segments. Along with animator Joe Laudati, she often used stop-motion photography to animate numbers, letters and, in one notable case, three dancing yaks.

Her work was also featured on MTV, Nick at Nite and the Learning Channel, and she collaborated on children’s programs for the Success for All Foundation. In 1986 some of her short films were shown as part of a New American Animation program at Film Forum in Manhattan.

As a book illustrator, Aaron collaborated with the writer Oralee Wachter on Close to Home and No More Secrets for Me. She also wrote and illustrated the children’s series When I’m…, which included the titles When I’m Afraid, When I’m Angry and When I’m Sad. The books were later adapted into an animated film series for HBO Family.

Aaron died June 27, 2015, in New York City. She was 67.