Troy Kotsur

Biography:

Troy Michael Kotsur is an American actor who was born on July 24, 1968. Kotsur, who was born deaf, debuted as an actor with the National Theatre of the Deaf in the late 1980s. In a 2001 Strong Medicine episode, he made his television debut. In the 2007 thriller The Number 23, he made his screen debut. Among his honors are an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe nomination. Kotsur was nominated for the Ovation Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in a 2012 production of Cyrano, following his Broadway debut in a 2003 revival of Big River.

He starred in and directed No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie (2013), and his cameo appearance in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019) brought him more recognition. Kotsur became the first male deaf actor and the second overall (after Marlee Matlin [a]) to win an acting Oscar for his critically acclaimed performance as a deaf father in the comedic drama film CODA (2021).