Jonathan Meath

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title: "Jonathan Meath" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "television-producers-from-massachusetts", "santa-claus", "businesspeople-from-cambridge,-massachusetts", "phillips-academy-alumni", "tisch-school-of-the-arts-alumni", "1955-births"] description: "American TV producer (born 1955)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Meath" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American TV producer (born 1955) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Jonathan Meath
image	Jonathan G Meath portrays Santa Claus.jpg
caption	Meath as Santa Claus in 2010
birth_date
birth_place	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
resting_place_coordinates
education	Phillips Academy (1974)
alma_mater	New York University (1979)
employer	Andanzura
occupation
years_active
children	Amelia Meath
awards
website	meathmedia
::

| name = Jonathan Meath | image = Jonathan G Meath portrays Santa Claus.jpg | alt = | caption = Meath as Santa Claus in 2010 | birth_date = | birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | death_date = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | known_for = | education = Phillips Academy (1974) | alma_mater = New York University (1979) | employer = Andanzura | occupation = | years_active = | height = | title = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = Amelia Meath | parents = | relations = | callsign = | awards = | signature = | website = meathmedia | footnotes = Jonathan Meath (born September 16, 1955) is an American television producer and director. He was senior producer of the television game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? He also was a producer of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and the 1990s' remake of Zoom. In addition, he is notable for having a dual career as a professional Santa Claus. He made numerous appearances in various media as Santa, including on Good Morning America, at Radio City Music Hall with The Rockettes, on the cover of Boston Magazine, and on a Delta Air Lines' pre-flight safety demonstration.

Television career

Meath attended Phillips Academy and graduated in 1974 with the school's first co–educational class. He graduated from New York University in 1979. During the 1980s Meath worked at CBS, Business Times, The Creative Establishment, MTV Networks and Greenwood Productions in various capacities. During 1996–1998, he produced shows for the Jim Henson Company called The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. He produced for PBS 295 half-hour episodes of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, as well as 80 episodes of Zoom.

Career

Meath, whose beard and hair went white early in life, noticed that children sometimes called him "Santa". He is slightly overweight — he has described himself as an "organic Santa" — and his wife bought him a red suit. He attended schools to learn the craft of being a Santa.{{cite news |author=Santa Glen, secretary |title=Minutes of meeting |publisher=San Diego Chapter of F.O.R.B.S. |date=October 2010 |url=http://www.realsantasandiego.com/Minutes.htm |access-date=2010-11-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022231420/http://www.realsantasandiego.com/Minutes.htm |archive-date=2010-10-22 |author=Edward B. Colby |title=Town in the spirit: Dedham Square to be filled with song, shopping |publisher=Dedham Transcript |date=December 3, 2009 |url=http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/entertainment/x1945276785/Town-in-the-spirit-Dedham-Square-to-be-filled-with-song-shopping |access-date=2010-11-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721190925/http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/entertainment/x1945276785/Town-in-the-spirit-Dedham-Square-to-be-filled-with-song-shopping |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |author= Billy Baker |title= Real or fake beards? Santas split hairs |newspaper= Boston Globe |date= December 11, 2012 |url= http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/12/11/real-fake-beards-santas-split-hairs/cF6CTCSm5yqFVppfkDDjTN/story.html |access-date= December 12, 2012 |archive-date= December 15, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121215042900/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/12/11/real-fake-beards-santas-split-hairs/cF6CTCSm5yqFVppfkDDjTN/story.html |url-status= live |title= Santa in town for May Day parade |publisher= Seacoastonline.com |date= April 24, 2008 |url= http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20080424-LIFE-804240358 |access-date= 2010-11-13 |archive-date= 2012-09-27 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120927032403/http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20080424-LIFE-804240358 |url-status= live

Personal life

Meath has one child and lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His mother was activist and historian Mary Stewart Hewitt. He is the great great grandson of businessman and sportsman John Malcolm Forbes and the great great great grandson of railroad industrialist John Murray Forbes. and Sylvan Esso.

Awards

::data[format=table]

Year	Result	Award	Category	Notes
2005		Carnegie Medal	Excellence in children's videos	FableVision's The Dot{{cite news
	Daytime Emmy	Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series	Paz{{cite news	title= 32nd ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS
2001		Outstanding Children's Series	Zoom{{cite news	title= Outstanding Children's Series
2000		Zoom{{cite news	title= Outstanding Children's Series	publisher= Internet Movie Database
1997	1997		Emmy	Outstanding Children's Program
1996		Daytime Emmy	Outstanding Children's Series	Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
1993		George Foster Peabody Award	Excellence for overall show	Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
::

References

References

1. (2005). "Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video winners, 1991 to present". Association for Library Service for Children.
2. (2001). "Awards for Jonathan G. Meath". IMDb Internet Movie Database.
3. (2010-11-13). "Jonathan Meath". MeathMedia.
4. (26 March 2012). "Famous Folks from Cambridge". The Boston Globe and Boston.com.
5. Liam Murphy. (2009-10-23). "Jonathan Meath '74 Pursued Children's Television Production After Cultivating His Interests at PA". Phillips Academy.
6. (2010-11-13). "Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time". allgame.
7. Liam Murphy. (October 26, 2009). "Jonathan Meath '74 Pursued Children's Television Production After Cultivating His Interests at PA". The Philippian.
8. (2012). "Jonathan Meath". [[The New York Times]].
9. (2010-11-13). "Jonathan Meath". Yahoo! TV.
10. Alex E. Weaver. (December 7, 2012). "'The Harvard of Santa Schools': Tracking Kris Kringle to the Classroom". BostInno.
11. Rich Whittle. (December 12, 2007). "Swingin' Santa Finds Singing's Big Business". Boston Herald.
12. Mary Ann Georgantopoulos. (December 23, 2007). "Miracle on Mass. Ave.: City Santa takes suit seriously". The Boston Globe.
13. Win Rosenfeld. (December 25, 2007). "America's Next Top Santa". National Public Radio.
14. and ''[[Time (magazine). link. (2024-11-06 , Accessed Dec. 10, 2013)
15. (2011-10-12). "Why Should We Believe in Santa?".
16. (January 10, 2010). "Mary Stewart Hewitt". Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.
17. Lester, Paul. (2010-06-07). "New Band of the Week: Mountain Man". The Guardian.

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