Blue’s Clues Is Back!

For a guy who never planned to be an actor, Josh Dela Cruz has sure landed some cool roles.

Dela Cruz, who spent the past five years in the Broadway production of Aladdin, is the new host of Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues & You!, taking on the iconic role (and possibly the rugby shirt) that Steve Burns originated back in 1996.

If you grew up with Steve or his successor, Blue’s Clues & You! will feel instantly familiar. But the new version features some spiffy upgrades (including, yes, an updated Handy Dandy Notebook). And in keeping with its interactive design, when kids watch Blue’s Clues & You! in the Noggin app, they can interact with Josh, Blue, Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, Paprika, and all their friends.

We caught up with Dela Cruz while he was filming in Toronto to talk about Blue, his favorite apps, and his Filipino background.

Were you a Blue’s Clues fan growing up?
I watched all the time with my little sister. We didn’t have cable, but we went to my aunt’s house when my parents were running errands. When Saturday morning came, we’d watch and talk back to Steve and sing out loud. That’s when I started to find my voice.

What’s new in the world of Blue’s Clues?
Everyone’s been asking about the notebook. All my sister wanted for Christmas when she was little was a Handy Dandy Notebook. But of course we wanted to evolve, so we created a new kind of notebook that’s also a smartphone. We can get email and video calls, but we can also keep that functionality of drawing out our clues.

What apps are on your handy-dandy iPhone right now?
One of my favorites is Notability. I use that on my iPad Pro pretty much every day, to highlight scripts and make notes. I also love Lightroom and FaceTime, since I work abroad and away from my family these days.

How do the play-along videos in the Noggin app work?
When Blue’s Clues premiered, Steve was talking to you in your home, right? Now we have the ability put the whole show into the hands of kids and have them play along. So in the Noggin app, the show will begin as it usually does, then there’ll be different avenues: Kids can tap on parts of the room and things will happen, or they can tap on me and I’ll start laughing. There are all these Easter eggs that bring them to different games. The show was always meant to be something where kids could take the time to explore Blue’s world. Now they can do that in a whole new way.

You’re the first Asian American host of Blue’s Clues. What does that mean to you?
That’s important to me. Growing up, I never saw anybody that looked like me on TV, especially in this capacity. It leaves me very hopeful about the progress that we’re continuing to make together. That’s part of why the job means so much to me. It’s this full-circle journey, from a kid watching Blue’s Clues with his sister, not knowing he’d become an actor, to then having a chance to work for a show that’s impacted generations so positively. I’ve found that a good metric for my overall mood is if I sing to myself. And I do find myself singing, every single day.

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