Not long after Kevin Clash first put Elmo on his right hand and created a billion-dollar, pre-school phenomenon, he left something behind — a daughter.
Shannon Clash, now 19 and starting her freshman year at college, is — in so many ways — Elmo’s little girl.
And therein lies a tale.
Clash, 51, is the subject of a new movie, ”Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey,” that opens this weekend. The movie is the story of the one of the era’s biggest stars — who has never heard of Elmo? — who has remained all but anonymous.
Now, he is starting to talk about his life’s work — and what it has cost him personally.
Shannon’s mother and Clash have been divorced for most of his daughter’s life.
Shannon lived and grew up in Virginia while Clash was in New York — “Sesame Street” is taped in Astoria, Queens — or traveling the world as Elmo.
“I remember when she was just learning how to talk, and I got on the phone with her, and she just went off on me,” he told The Post.
“She was yelling at me — like, ‘How dare you be away’ — and that just crushed me.
“All I kept saying was ‘Shannon, I am sorry.’
“Sometimes, I am in another country and sitting there having a really sweet conversation with a child and thinking, ‘I wish I could be with Shannon right now, having this time.’ ”
The Elmo phenomenon took its toll on Clash’s marriage to Shannon’s mother, Genia, whom he’d been dating since both were 19. They met when she was studying to become a nurse, and he was building puppets in the bathroom of her college dorm.
“I was this backwoods homeboy,” he says.
“After getting a job on ‘Sesame Street,’ I started coming up to New York. I was never home any more. So it really took its toll.
“When you are really obsessed with what you do, sometimes people fall along the wayside, unfortunately.”
The couple still maintain what Clash calls a “brother-sister” relationship and share parenting duties.
“When she was 16 or 17, Shannon wrote me this e-mail that said: ‘In a couple of years, I am going to be going to college, and I really want to spend time with you before that,’” Clash says.
“So I went to [Sesame Workshop]and I said ‘I love what I do, but I am going to be taking some time to work things out with my daughter.’”
Now, he is back in her life and playing a familiar father role in the sometimes inexplicable relationship between mother and daughter — buffer.
“Her and her mom butt heads about clothes,” he says. “But, for some reason, Shannon and I connect on that.
“So, it works really well,” he says, “I go school shopping with her.”