American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by employing both manual and nonmanual features. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.
Marlee Matlin is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Deaf West Theatre is a non-profit arts organization based in Los Angeles, California, US. It is most well known for its Tony Award-nominated productions of Big River and Spring Awakening.
The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967. It is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original works. NTD productions combine American Sign Language with spoken language to fulfill the theatre's mission statement of linking Deaf and hearing communities, providing more exposure to sign language, and educating the public about Deaf art. The NTD is affiliated with a drama school, also founded in 1967, and with the Little Theatre of the Deaf (LTD), established in 1968 to produce shows for a younger audience.
Alexandria Jane Krystel Wailes is an American deaf actress, dancer, director, and educator. She utilizes the languages of English and American Sign Language and is known for her work with Deaf West Theatre. She is both an LA Ovation nominee and a Tony honoree recipient for her work in musical theatre.
Russell Wayne Harvard is an American actor. He made his feature film debut in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007), playing opposite Daniel Day-Lewis as his adopted son, H.W. Plainview. In the 2010 biopic The Hammer, he portrayed deaf NCAA championship wrestler and UFC mixed martial arts fighter Matt Hamill. Harvard also won acclaim Off Broadway in 2012 as Billy, the deaf son in an intellectual, though dysfunctional, hearing British family, in Tribes by Nina Raine. For his interpretation, he won a 2012 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance and nominations for Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor. He played Mr. Wrench in the first and third seasons of the television series Fargo.
Chuck Baird was an American Deaf artist who was one of the more notable founders of the De'VIA art movement, an aesthetic of Deaf Culture in which visual art conveys a Deaf world view. His career spanned over 35 years and included painting, sculpting, acting, storytelling, and teaching.
Nyle DiMarco is an American model, actor, and Deaf activist. In 2015, DiMarco was the winner of The CW's reality television series America's Next Top Model in season 22, becoming the second male winner and the first Deaf winner. In the following year, he and professional dance partner Peta Murgatroyd were the winners of the ABC televised dance competition Dancing with the Stars in season 22.
Warren Snipe, also known by stage name Wawa, is an American deaf writer, rapper, actor and performer. He was featured in the R&B artist Maxwell's "Fingers Crossed" lyric video and has completed an album called Deaf: So What.
Bruce Michael Mackintosh Hlibok was an American deaf actor.
Britt Benae Stewart is an American professional dancer. She is currently a professional dancer and choreographer on Dancing with the Stars.
CODA is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Sian Heder. An English-language remake of the 2014 French-Belgian film La Famille Bélier, it stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, the child of deaf adults (CODA) and only hearing member of her family, who attempts to help her family's struggling fishing business while pursuing her aspirations to become a singer.
Troy Michael Kotsur is an American actor. Born deaf, Kotsur made his acting debut in the late 1980s working with the National Theatre of the Deaf. His television debut was in a 2001 episode of Strong Medicine and his film debut was in the 2007 thriller The Number 23.
The thirty-first season of Dancing with the Stars premiered on Disney+ on September 19, 2022, and concluded on November 21, 2022. This season marked the first live competition show to air on the streaming platform and the first season to not air on ABC. Tyra Banks returned as host, while season 19 champion Alfonso Ribeiro joined as co-host.
Gilbert Eastman was an American educator, actor, playwright, author, and television host. He acted in American Sign Language (ASL) plays and wrote many of them. Eastman taught and performed at the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD), while writing and performing in many of their plays. In 1993, he won an Emmy Award for co-hosting the show Deaf Mosaic.
James "Joey" Caverly is an American actor who has been deaf since birth.
Sandra Mae Frank is an American actress. She is known for performances in theatre, films and TV series.
Dorothy Chiyoko Sueoka Casterline was an American deaf linguist known for her contribution to A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, considered a foundational work of sign language linguistics.
Flash Before the Bang is an upcoming American sports drama film written and directed by Jevon Whetter about a deaf track and field team from Oregon in the 1980s. The film stars Russell Harvard, Daniel Durant, Grace Byers and Alaqua Cox.
