Marlee Matlin

Personal context

Summary

Marlee Matlin is an actor known for Children of a Lesser God, The West Wing, and CODA. Her work often centers Deaf characters and communication access. For decades, she has advocated for Deaf and disabled people, testifying to Congress for deafness research, serving as an ACLU disability-rights ambassador and a Gallaudet University trustee, and pressing for captioning and authentic casting. She has said Hollywood’s diversity efforts often exclude disabled people and insisted that CODA use Deaf actors; her public record also includes support for Hillary Clinton in 2016.