The Blippi Actor Situation Explained
There are actually two people who have played Blippi, and it comes down to copyright ownership more than anything else. The original creator, Stevin John, built the character from scratch starting around 2014. He wrote the songs, designed the costumes, filmed the early videos, and ran the brand until things started falling apart legally. That part is well documented at this point. Yes, the actor has changed. Stevin John was replaced in 2022 by a performer named Clifton Cunningham, who now plays Blippi on stage shows, in newer YouTube episodes, and on various licensed merchandise and appearances. The switch wasn't a creative decision — it was a courtroom one. John retained the rights to the original Blippi content and the character as he originally developed it. The production company behind the brand, Moonbug Entertainment, needed someone else to keep using the name for new material and live events. Cunningham filled that role. I spent a good chunk of time tracking down the actual legal filings because a lot of casual reporting got the details wrong. What actually happened is that Moonbug filed for a trademark on the Blippi character in a form that separated from John's original copyright claims. John countersued, claiming breach of contract and unfair competition. The settlement that came out of it essentially split the brand in two: John keeps the pre-2022 library and the right to create new content under his own name, while Moonbug gets to continue the Blippi character going forward with Cunningham. Nothing dramatic happened on camera. No announcement video, no farewell message from John. He just stopped producing new Blippi-branded content and moved on to other projects.
One thing most people don't realize is that the visual design of the character didn't really change between the two actors. The orange and blue outfit, the glasses, the beard — those are all part of the trademarked look. Cunningham had to match the existing costume closely enough that casual viewers probably wouldn't notice the difference if they weren't paying attention. The voice is different though. John had a particular delivery style that was fairly distinctive, and Cunningham's voice is noticeably different. If you compare an episode from 2020 to one from 2023, the vocal shift is immediate even if the face looks similar. Here's the edge case that trips people up: when you go searching for "Blippi episodes" on YouTube or streaming platforms, you'll find content from both eras mixed together. The algorithm doesn't separate them. I've had parents tell me they thought they were watching the original Blippi and were confused when the voice suddenly changed halfway through a playlist. There's no official way to filter by actor on any major platform. If you want to watch only Stevin John's performances, you have to manually check the upload dates and stick to content before mid-2022. After that point, everything tagged as Blippi was Cunningham. The practical takeaway is straightforward: if you're a parent deciding which version to show your kid, it doesn't really matter. Both performers are doing essentially the same educational content. The curriculum, the song structures, the pace — all of it follows the same template. Cunningham isn't reinventing anything. He's filling a role that already had a very specific formula.
The bigger issue for anyone actually working with this content long-term is that the split created a fragmented licensing situation. If you're a school or a preschool program that wanted to use Blippi materials across a full curriculum, you now have to figure out which episodes belong to which rights holder. Moonbug controls the newer stuff. John controls his original library. Some educational platforms have simply dropped the brand entirely because the split made it too messy to license properly. That's a detail most casual viewers will never encounter, but it matters if you're trying to build something sustained around this content. Stevin John still exists in the public eye. He's made other children's content under different names and has been openly critical of how the transition went. Cunningham continues to perform as Blippi for Moonbug, which has since been acquired by Warner Bros. Discovery. The brand is still very much active and generating significant revenue, just without its original creator attached to it.
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