Ernie

Ernie is an orange Muppet on the television program Sesame Street. Ernie was created and voiced by Jim Henson. Steve Whitmire has voiced Ernie since 1993. Now, he is voiced by Peter Linz. He is Bert's best friend. They live together.

Ernie
Sesame Street character
First appearance	Sesame Street Test Pilot 1 (July 21, 1969)
Voiced by	Jim Henson (PC games) Steve Whitmire (video games)
Performed by	Jim Henson (1969–2014) Steve Whitmire (1999) John Tartaglia (2003) Billy Barkhurst (2014–2017) Peter Linz (2017–present)
Information
Aliases	Caveman Ernie, Sir Ernie, John Adams, Old King Cole, Robin Hood, Tweedle Dum, etc.
Species	Muppet
Gender	Male

Ernie is the more active and funny kind of guy. He looks like an orange football with horizontal stripes on his shirt. He laughs differently than anyone else and really likes to sing.

Ernie was first seen with Bert in the test episodes of Sesame Street in 1969. His voice at that time was more similar to Rowlf the dog than Kermit the Frog. He had purple and yellow stripes on his shirt and a purple nose instead of the red and blue stripes and red nose he has now. His shirt and nose were changed in the second year of the program. In the third year, his eye focus got better.

Bert is Ernie's and roommate. He is more grumpy, but still likes Ernie.