Troy Kotsur

Troy Kotsur is the first deaf male actor, and the second deaf actor, to receive an Oscar. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his breakthrough role in the movie CODA (2021). Kotsur is also the first deaf actor to win and be nominated for a SAG Award in an individual acting category. Prior to his role in CODA, Kotsur appeared on TV series such as Criminal Minds and acted in numerous theatrical productions, including an American Sign Language adaptation of Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn on Broadway. He is married to fellow performer Deanne Bray, with whom he has one daughter. Kotsur said he hopes his success inspires young deaf and hard-of-hearing people to pursue their dreams.

Troy Kotsur was born to Jodee and Len Kotsur in Mesa, Arizona, on July 24, 1968. Kotsur's mother realized he was deaf when he was 9 months old. His parents and brothers learned ASL to communicate with him.

Growing up in Mesa, Kotsur played basketball and watched episodes of Tom and Jerry because they didn't rely on verbal language. When he was 8 years old, he fell in love with Star Wars and its visual storytelling. The movie sparked an early desire within Kotsur to become an actor.

Kotsur attended the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf before switching to Westwood High for his last two years of high school. At Westwood, he performed a pantomime skit that received a standing ovation and solidified his belief that acting would be his career.

In 1987, Kotsur started at Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University, a college for the deaf and hard of hearing. He studied theater but left before graduating to pursue acting.

In 1994, Kotsur moved to Los Angeles, where he found more opportunities on stage than in film and TV. He spent two years with the National Theatre of the Deaf and went on to appear in more than 20 Deaf West Theatre productions. The Los Angeles-based theater company showcased Kotsur in plays such as Of Mice and Men, Cyrano, Spring Awakening, True West and A Streetcar Named Desire. In Streetcar, Kotsur played Stanley Kowalski and opted to use his voice to shout the show’s iconic line, "Stella!"

In 2003, Kotsur starred on Broadway in an ASL production of Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. He played Huckleberry Finn's drunkard father, Pap, alongside a hearing actor.

Kotsur appeared on TV in episodes of Criminal Minds, Scrubs and CSI: New York; and in independent films such as Wild Prairie Rose. He directed No Ordinary Hero: the SuperDeafy Movie and children's plays at Deaf West Theatre. Directing was an initial career choice for Kotsur, but he felt Hollywood would have been even less accepting of a deaf director and focused on performing instead.

Additionally, Kotsur was cast as a Tusken Raider in a 2019 episode of The Mandalorian. Kotsur, who came up with his own sign language for the role, was the first deaf actor to appear in a Star Wars production.

Though Kotsur regularly found work as an actor, it wasn't an easy career path for him. He was often rejected for roles. "I really struggled," he said in a 2022 interview. "I would take whatever job I could no matter whether it was small or large."

In CODA (2021), Kotsur portrayed fisherman Frank Rossi, a deaf man who can't understand why his hearing daughter, who translates the hearing world for him, wants to sing. The movie's title stands for Children of Deaf Adults, a reference to hearing children who grow up in households where ASL is the primary language.

CODA's producers wanted to hire a well-known hearing actor until the director shared Kotsur's audition. Kotsur was pleased that the film allowed him to work with other deaf actors. He shared the screen with Daniel Durant, who played his son, and Marlee Matlin, who played his wife. Emilia Jones portrayed his character's hearing daughter.

CODA presented Kotsur the opportunity to act with Marlee Matlin, whom he viewed as a mentor. Seeing Matlin win an Oscar in 1987 for Best Actress in her debut film “Children of a Lesser God” helped encourage Kotsur to pursue his own acting career. (Matlin was the first deaf performer to be nominated for and win an Academy Award.) The two first became acquainted when Matlin attended some of Kotsur's Deaf West Theatre productions.

While making CODA, Kotsur got to know the fishing community and daily routine of his character and adjusted his sign language to reflect that of a fisherman who wears heavy gloves. After production wrapped, it took months before he was willing to shave off the bushy beard he'd grown for the role because he still felt attached to the character.

Since CODA's release, Kotsur has been lauded for his performance. He became the first deaf actor to receive an individual nomination for a SAG Award, then won the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role. (A video of Kotsur falling off a chair after learning he'd been nominated for a BAFTA went viral online shortly after the announcement.). He then went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Kotsur is currently working on Flash Before the Bang, a movie about an all-deaf track team at the Oregon School for the Deaf that won a state championship in 1986. It will feature multiple deaf actors.

Kotsur met Deanne Bray, a deaf actress, while performing with the National Theatre of the Deaf in 1993. They later worked together in different stage productions. The pair were friends at first but became romantically involved in 1997. Kotsur and Bray married in 2001. Bray starred in the TV series Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye which Kotsur had a recurring role in.

Kotsur and Bray have one daughter, Kyra, who is hearing and communicates in both English and ASL. Just like in CODA, Kyra is a musician. Kotsur has said he touches the piano and guitar as she plays to feel the vibrations of her music, an interaction similar to the one he shared with his onscreen daughter.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/movies/troy-kotsur-coda-oscars.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Kotsur

Troy Michael Kotsur (/ˈkɒtsər/; born July 24, 1968) is an American actor in theater, film, and television.

His supporting role in the film CODA (2021) earned him a number of accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award. He is the first deaf actor to win the latter three awards, and first deaf man and second deaf performer overall to win the former.

Kotsur also directed the feature film No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie (2013).

Early life and education

Kotsur was born in Mesa, Arizona, the largest suburb of Phoenix, on July 24, 1968, to JoDee (née True) and Leonard Stephen "Len" Kotsur, who was Mesa's police chief. When Kotsur was nine months old, his parents discovered that he was deaf, and they learned American Sign Language so the family could communicate. His parents encouraged Kotsur to play sports and to make friends with hearing children in their neighborhood. Kotsur attended the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf, where he first became interested in acting. He graduated from Westwood High School. In high school, his drama teacher encouraged him to participate in the senior variety show, and he performed a pantomime skit that was positively received and motivated him to pursue theater.

After Kotsur graduated from high school, he interned at KTSP-TV (now KSAZ-TV). While he had aspired to direct films, at the internship he assisted an editor and did not feel connected with people, recalling, "My directing dream poofed after I accepted the fact that I lived in a world that did not use my language." He then attended Gallaudet University from 1987 to 1989 and studied theater, television, and film.

Career

When Kotsur received an acting job offer from the National Theatre of the Deaf, he accepted it and left Gallaudet to tour with NTD for two years, performing in two plays. In 1994, he started working for the Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles, California, acting in and directing several productions. On stage, his roles included Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire, Lenny in Of Mice and Men, and Prince Hamlet in Ophelia.

In 2001, Kotsur and hearing actor Lyle Kanouse were cast together in a Deaf West Theatre production of the 1985 musical Big River. Kotsur and Kanouse both played Huckleberry Finn's father Pap, with Kotsur signing and Kanouse speaking and singing. Big River's success led to the play being performed at the Mark Taper Forum, then to a Broadway revival under Roundabout Theater Company and Deaf West at the American Airlines Theater in New York City. He also had a recurring role on Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, also working as an ASL specialist for the show.

In 2012, Kotsur starred in the play Cyrano, based on Cyrano de Bergerac and a co-production of Deaf West Theatre and The Fountain Theatre. The play, directed by Stephen Sachs, premiered in April 2012. Following Cyrano, Kotsur directed the feature film No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie, which premiered at the Heartland Film Festival in 2013.

In 2016 he starred in Deborah LaVine's independent feature, Wild Prairie Rose. The film won the Jimmy Stewart Legacy award at the Heartland International Film Festival.

In The Mandalorian, the Tusken Raiders use a sign language, and Kotsur was brought on to develop that conlang. He did not mention that he was also an actor for fear that it would come across as brown-nosing. But after they found out from his manager, he was cast to play the lead Tusken Raider.

In 2021, Kotsur appeared in the feature film CODA in a supporting role as the deaf father to a hearing teenage daughter. Director Sian Heder first saw his performances in Deaf West productions of Our Town and Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo and cast him as part of the ensemble. NPR reported that Kotsur's performance in CODA "awed both audiences and critics". For his performance in the film, Kotsur won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the second deaf actor, after Marlee Matlin (his CODA co-star) in Children of a Lesser God (1986), to win an Academy Award.

Kotsur is set to star in Flash Before the Bang, a sports drama television show with an all-deaf cast.

Personal life

Kotsur is married to deaf actress Deanne Bray with whom he has one daughter.

Filmography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Kotsur#Filmography

Accolades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Kotsur#Accolades