Top 50 Popular Visibly Disabled Actors
Over 7% of the population in the UK and US has a visible disability. This can be that they are a sign language first speaker, they have a limb difference, a physical disability or they are of short stature.
Up until recently very few disabled people could access training to become actors, and even though nearly 0.03% of all actors have a visible disability, most of the disabled roles are given to mainstream actors, and disabled actors are shut out of the possibility of playing other role.
This is called "cripping-up."
Cripping-up is the act of casting an actor without a visible disability into a role which is scripted as having visible disability, or is about an historical figure who is know to have had a disability being played by someone without a disability.
The term is from the audience's perspective where the visibly apparent disability is mimicked by an actor who who does not have a physical, sensory or communication disability. This does not include disabled actors being cast in roles with different conditions to their own, or the practice of transposing their condition in to a role because they have a "lived experience" of what it is to experience prejudice as a disabled person.
Despite the barriers the industry has created for actors with visible disabilities, there are still some that are still so full of belief and love for the profession that they persevere and breakthrough, there are others that became disabled during their careers.
Here are 50 actors, many who have striven to break through the prejudice, and some who were already established in the industry but who have become disabled because of age, illness or injury.
Up until recently very few disabled people could access training to become actors, and even though nearly 0.03% of all actors have a visible disability, most of the disabled roles are given to mainstream actors, and disabled actors are shut out of the possibility of playing other role.
This is called "cripping-up."
Cripping-up is the act of casting an actor without a visible disability into a role which is scripted as having visible disability, or is about an historical figure who is know to have had a disability being played by someone without a disability.
The term is from the audience's perspective where the visibly apparent disability is mimicked by an actor who who does not have a physical, sensory or communication disability. This does not include disabled actors being cast in roles with different conditions to their own, or the practice of transposing their condition in to a role because they have a "lived experience" of what it is to experience prejudice as a disabled person.
Despite the barriers the industry has created for actors with visible disabilities, there are still some that are still so full of belief and love for the profession that they persevere and breakthrough, there are others that became disabled during their careers.
Here are 50 actors, many who have striven to break through the prejudice, and some who were already established in the industry but who have become disabled because of age, illness or injury.
List activity
3.6K views
• 221 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
- 50 people
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marissa Bode is a Los-Angeles-based disabled actress who has been acting since age eight in a number of plays and musicals. "Little Shop of Horrors", "The Diviners", "Peter Pan" and "Mary Poppins" are just a few notable performances. She has also trained in the arts and studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. In addition, Marissa's self-written, self-directed, self-produced short film "You're Adorable" was accepted into the 2021 Wisconsin Film Festival. When she's not acting or creating films, Marissa enjoys painting and cooking.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
Ruth Codd was born on 13 June 1996 in Wexford, County Wexford, Ireland. She is an actress, known for The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), The Midnight Club (2022) and Small Town, Big Story (2025).- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Peter Dinklage is an American actor. Since his breakout role in The Station Agent (2003), he has appeared in numerous films and theater plays. Since 2011, Dinklage has portrayed Tyrion Lannister in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011). For this role, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (four times) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2011.
Peter Hayden Dinklage was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to Diane (Hayden), an elementary school teacher, and John Carl Dinklage, an insurance salesman. He is of German, Irish, and English descent. In 1991, he received a degree in drama from Bennington College and began his career. His exquisite theater work, which brilliantly expresses the unique range of his acting qualities, includes remarkable performances full of profoundness, charisma, intelligence, sensation, and insights in such plays as "The Killing Act," "Imperfect Love," and Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country," as well as the title roles in William Shakespeare's "Richard III" and in Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."
Peter Dinklage received acclaim for his first film, Living in Oblivion (1995), in which he played an actor frustrated with the limited and caricatured roles offered to actors who have dwarfism. In 2003, he starred in The Station Agent (2003), written and directed by Tom McCarthy. The movie received critical praise as did Dinklage's work, including nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the Screen Actors Guild and Best Male Lead at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. One of his next roles was as Miles Finch, an acclaimed children's book author, in Elf (2003). Find Me Guilty (2006), the original English Death at a Funeral (2007), its American remake Death at a Funeral (2010), Penelope (2006), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) are also included in his brilliant work concerning feature films.
Dinklage's fine work in television also includes such shows as Entourage (2004), Life as We Know It (2004), Threshold (2005), and Nip/Tuck (2003). In 2011, the primary role of Tyrion Lannister, a man of sharp wit and bright spirit, in Game of Thrones (2011) was incarnated with unique greatness in Dinklage's unparalleled performance. The series is an adaptation of author George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and Dinklage's work in it has received widespread praise, highlighted by his receiving of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards (2011), The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards (2015), The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards (2018), and The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards (2019), as well as of the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Dinklage has voiced, among other characters, Captain Gutt in Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and the Mighty Eagle in The Angry Birds Movie (2016), and starred in the comedy horror film Knights of Badassdom (2013) while his tour de force interpretations as a multifarious chameleon of substantial mastery and artistic generosity also include film and TV gems such as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Three Christs (2017), and I Think We're Alone Now (2018).- Zak was born near Manchester, England in 1999. Starting out as a member of the Summerseat Players Youth Theatre, Zak then became a member of the Manchester Royal Exchange Young Company for two years, before attending the Manchester School of Theatre, graduating in 2020. Zak's professional theatre work includes playing Joseph Merrick in the critically acclaimed touring production of The Real and Imaginary History of the Elephant Man (2023) and various roles in Mark Gatiss' adaptation of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (2022) at the Nottingham Playhouse and Alexandra Palace. Zak's audio work includes the BBC Radio dramas Letter to Louis and Tinsel Girl, and Zak is the voice of the Thimble series of children's audio books. Zak's on-screen work include titles produced for BBC Studios, Paramount, Netflix, ITV, Sky Drama, Channel 4 and Channel 5, including the BAFTA winning short comedy Mobility (2023), Bridgerton (2020), Better (2023) and The Hardacres (2024) (2024). Zak has cerebral palsy and is an ambulant wheelchair user.
- Ruth Madeley was born on 4 August 1987 in Westhoughton, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Don't Take My Baby (2015), The Rook (2019) and Nightsleeper (2024).
- Actress
- Producer
Millicent (Millie) Simmonds is a BAFTA nominated American actress from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania best known for Wonderstruck (2017), A Quiet Place (2018), A Quiet Place Part II (2020), and Helen & Teacher. She made her Broadway debut in 2023 starring opposite Laurie Metcalf in Levi Holloway's Grey House, directed by Joe Mantello.
Millicent originally hails from Bountiful, Utah, and grew up performing and telling stories in American Sign Language. A self-described class clown, at the age of nine Millicent joined the drama club at her elementary school, where she fell in love with acting, playing Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2016 her drama teacher received an email with a casting call looking for a Deaf actress for the part of Rose in a film adaption of Brian Selznick's award-winning novel Wonderstruck. She quickly thought of Millie and encouraged her to try out. Millie, then twelve, sent in a one-take audition that brought the film's director Todd Haynes to tears, winning her what would become a stunning breakout role. Millicent and Wonderstruck debuted at Cannes and the New York Film Festival. She was named one of the Breakthrough Entertainers of 2017 by AP, and Time Magazine listed Rose as one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of the year. Millicent landed her next major film role as Regan Abbott in John Krasinski's horror-thriller A Quiet Place, working alongside Emily Blunt and Noah Jupe. Krasinski was adamant about casting a Deaf actress to play Regan, wanting to use accurate, researched American Sign Language with the help of Deaf ASL experts and advisers including Douglas Ridloff. Her experiences became resources and inspiration for the script, story, and sound design, and the film received an Oscar nomination in the latter category. A Quiet Place was a surprise critical darling, debuting at the South By Southwest Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation. In 2017, Millicent became the first Deaf actor nominated for a Critics' Choice Award with her work in Wonderstruck. She was nominated a second time only a year later, in 2018, for her critically acclaimed performance in A Quiet Place. In 2021, Millicent's reprisal of the character Regan in A Quiet Place's sequel outing earned her a historic BAFTA Rising Star nomination and the coveted Chainsaw Award. In 2021 Millicent took a major creative leap when she announced she would be both producing and starring as Charlie Serrano in an adaptation of the New York Times Best Selling novel True Biz Project by Sara Novíc. Millicent's prolific career has opened the door for new, authentic representations of Deaf American culture and the wider disability community in film, TV, and media. Millicent is one of five siblings and loves to spend time with her family and friends. An avid reader and writer, she enjoys the outdoors, rock music, spoon collecting, painting, and riding her motorcycle. She hopes to continue acting, writing, and filmmaking for as long as she can.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
English actor Warwick Davis was born in Epsom, Surrey, England, the son of Susan J. (Pain) and Ashley Davis, an insurance broker. Davis was born with the condition spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenital (SED), which caused his dwarfism. He was educated at City of London Freemen's School. When he was 11 years old, his grandmother heard a radio appeal for people under four feet tall to appear in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). A huge Star Wars fan, Davis auditioned successfully and was cast as an extra, playing an Ewok. Kenny Baker was cast as lead Ewok Wicket, but fell ill so George Lucas chose Davis to replace him. The film was a smash hit, and Davis went on to reprise his role as Wicket in further TV projects - The Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985).
Davis next big role came with a part specifically written for him, as the titular hero in Willow (1988). Other successes followed with roles in such projects as Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) and two distinctly different film series - the 'Harry Potter' and 'Leprechaun' film series. In 2006, he appeared in a cameo role in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's hit sitcom Extras (2005), which led to the pair writing a series specifically for Davis, the comic mockumentary Life's Too Short (2011).
Davis, along with his father-in-law Peter Burroughs, is also the director of an acting agency for very short and tall actors called Willow Management. He is married to Samantha Davis and they have a son and a daughter.- Actor
- Producer
In 2006 R.J. Mitte moved to Hollywood, California, with his family to support the foray of his sister, actress Lacianne Carriere, into print and commercial work. For fun, Mitte began training with Los Angeles talent manager Addison K. Witt in Sherman Oaks, Cal. And though many of the actors in the studio were working actors, Mitte was using acting as a means to build friendship with kids his own age while living in a new city. At the encouragement of Witt and talent agent Debra Manners of the Daniel Hoff Agency, Mitte began auditioning for commercials and TV shows like Grey's Anatomy (2005). Mitte tried his hand at background roles and became a regular student on the popular Disney show Hannah Montana (2006), later being romantically linked to the show's iconic star, Miley Cyrus.
Mitte was cast as Walt White Jr., a series regular, and character with cerebral palsy on AMC Network's Breaking Bad (2008). And though Mitte has a mild case of the same condition, he had to do what all actors do: research the character and even relearn many of the challenges he had endured as a child in order to convey a more pronounced version of CP. The Daily Advertiser, a Lafayette, La., newspaper learned of Mitte's work in Hollywood and featured him in an article, noting that R.J. was homegrown, and off to a great start in Hollywood.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Francesca Mills is an actress, most known for portraying a versatile range of memorable TV roles such as Cherry Dorrington in Harlots (2017), Earthy Mangold in Worzel Gummidge (2019) and Meldof in The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022). Francesca Mills was nominated for the 2016 Ian Charleson Award for her performance in Nikolay Gogol's "The Government Inspector" at Birmingham Rep Theatre. Her notable theatre credits, among others, also include Rory Mullarkey's play "Pity" at The Royal Court in 2018, Arthur Miller's "The American Clock" at The Old Vic Theatre in 2019, Francesca Martinez's "All of Us" at the National Theatre of Great Britain in 2022 (National Theatre at Home: All of Us (2022)) and her widely acclaimed interpretation of the title role in John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" at The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Shakespeare's Globe) in 2024, as well as her Shakespearean performances at Shakespeare's Globe as The Jailer's Daughter in William Shakespeare's and John Fletcher's "The Two Noble Kinsmen" (Shakespeare's Globe: The Two Noble Kinsmen (2018)) and as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2023. For her aforementioned performance as Hermia, Francesca Mills was also honored with first prize at the 2024 Ian Charleson awards.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Marlee Beth Matlin was born on August 24, 1965 in Morton Grove, Illinois, to Libby (Hammer) and Donald Matlin, an automobile dealer. She has two older brothers. Her family is of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent.
Marlee lost much of her hearing at the age of eighteen months. That did not stop her from acting in a children's theater company at age seven; she was Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz". Her deafness never held her back. As an adult, she said it so eloquently: "I have always resisted putting limitations on myself, both professionally and personally." Marlee studied criminal justice at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, and maintained her passion for acting after graduating. While performing on stage through Chicago and the Midwest, Marlee attracted notice for her performance in a production of the Tony Award-winning play "Children of a Lesser God" and was cast in the movie version Children of a Lesser God (1986). Although this was her movie debut, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. While shooting her next movie Walker (1987), in Nicaragua, large-hearted Marlee took time to visit both hearing and hearing-impaired children. She continued this tradition of visiting local children through her travels to Germany, England, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Canada, etc.
Her interest in the criminal justice field played a role in her on screen career; she portrayed an assistant D.A. on the television series Reasonable Doubts (1991), while off screen she married police officer Kevin Grandalski on August 29, 1993. The couple has four children: Sarah (born 1996), Brandon (born 2000), Tyler (born 2002), and Isabelle (born 2003). In 1994, Marlee was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Laurie Bey on the television series Picket Fences (1992). Marlee is also a spokeswoman for the National Captioning Institute. In 1995, she testified at a congressional hearing and helped get a law passed that requires all television sets 13 inches or larger to be manufactured with built-in chips to provide closed captioning on their screens; this was a godsend for deaf viewers.
Marlee serves as the national spokeswoman for the largest provider of television closed captioning, and has spoken on behalf of CC in countries such as Australia, England, France and Italy. She also serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including Very Special Arts, the Starlight Foundation, and other charities that primarily benefit children. As someone who loves children so much, it is only fitting that she has four of her own. Professionally, Marlee has even tried producing, being the executive producer for Where the Truth Lies (1999).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, England. His mother, Maura Patricia (Langmead), was a school secretary, and his father, James Curry, was a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain. Curry studied Drama and English at Birmingham University, from which he graduated with Combined Honors. His first professional success was in the London production of "Hair", followed by more work in the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Glasgow Citizens Repertory Company, and the Royal Court Theatre where he created the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show". He recreated the role in the Los Angeles and Broadway productions and starred in the screen version entitled The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Curry continued his career on the New York and London stages with starring roles in "Travesties", "Amadeus", "The Pirates of Penzance", "The Rivals", "Love for Love", "Dalliance", "The Threepenny Opera", "The Art of Success" and "My Favorite Year". He also starred in the United States tour of "Me and My Girl". He has received two Tony Award nominations for best actor and won the Royal Variety Club Award as "Stage Actor of the Year".
A composer and a singer, Tim Curry toured the United States and Europe with his own band and released four albums on A&M Records. In addition to an active movie and television career, he is a sought-after actor for CD-ROM productions. His distinctive voice can be heard on more than a dozen audio books, and in countless animated television series and videos. He lives in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
- Additional Crew
Annabelle Davis is known for Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) and The Dumping Ground (2013).- Cherylee Houston is known for Coronation Street (1960), I'm with Stupid (2005) and A Thing Called Love (2004).
- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Michael J. Fox was born Michael Andrew Fox on June 9, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to Phyllis Fox (née Piper), a payroll clerk, and William Fox. His parents moved their 10-year-old son, his three sisters, Kelli Fox, Karen, and Jacki, and his brother Steven, to Vancouver, British Columbia, after his father, a sergeant in the Canadian Army Signal Corps, retired. During these years Michael developed his desire to act. At 15 he successfully auditioned for the role of a 10-year-old in a series called Leo and Me (1978). Gaining attention as a bright new star in Canadian television and movies, Michael realized his love for acting when he appeared on stage in "The Shadow Box." At 18 he moved to Los Angeles and was offered a few television-series roles, but soon they stopped coming and he was surviving on boxes of macaroni and cheese. Then his agent called to tell him that he got the part of Alex P. Keaton on the situation comedy Family Ties (1982). He starred in the feature films Teen Wolf (1985), High School U.S.A. (1983), Poison Ivy (1985) and Back to the Future (1985).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Mat Fraser was born on 28 January 1962 in England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Unarmed But Dangerous (2009), American Horror Story (2011) and Helen of Troy (2003). He has been married to Julie Atlas Muz since 6 May 2012.- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Milly Shapiro is an American actress and singer. She starred in the 2018 horror film Hereditary and originated the role of Matilda Wormwood in the Broadway production of Matilda. She has also played Sally Brown in an Off-Broadway production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. In 2021 she co-created the band AFTERxCLASS writing and singing for the band.- Actress
- Music Department
- Director
Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and at Old Vic Theatre. She is a ten-time BAFTA winner including Best Actress in a Comedy Series for A Fine Romance (1981) in which she appeared with her husband, Michael Williams, and Best Supporting Actress in A Handful of Dust (1988) and A Room with a View (1985). She received an ACE award for her performance in the television series Mr & Mrs Edgehill (1985). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1970, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1988 and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2005.- Phoebe-Rae Taylor is known for Out of My Mind (2024), Good Morning America (1975) and Made in Hollywood (2005).
- Having grown up in Cambridgeshire and excelled at drama in school, Robinson went on to enroll as a Philosophy Undergraduate at the University of Birmingham, before putting his studies on hold after successfully auditioning for his breakout role as troublemaker Isaac, in Series 2 of the hugely popular show Sex Education, which launched on Netflix in January 2019.
Robinson quickly became popular with fans of the show for his portrayal of the playful, sarcastic Isaac, who, with his brother Joe, moves into the caravan park where Maeve lives. Masking his insecurities and a developing crush on Maeve with his razor-sharp wit and mischievous pranking, he soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with Maeve and Otis, throwing up some challenging moral decisions for Isaac.
Isaac was also Sex Education's first disabled, series regular, character, which emphasized the show's fresh approach to depicting a multiplicity of characters, backgrounds and stories.
Robinson was paralyzed in an accident during a school rugby match in South Africa in 2015, at the age of 17. - Actress
- Writer
- Actor
- Writer
Jack Carroll was born on 18 October 1998 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Mobility (2023), Coronation Street (1960) and Trollied (2011).- Alaqua Cox was born on 13 February 1997 in Keshena, Wisconsin, USA. She is an actress, known for Echo (2023), Hawkeye (2021) and Flash Before the Bang.
- Actress
- Writer
Amy Trigg grew up in Essex, England. She was the first wheelchair user to graduate from a performance course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Her acting credits include work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe, The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, BBC and Universal. As a writer, Amy's first full length play 'Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me' was joint winner of the inaugural Women's Prize for Playwriting 2020 (Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough) and premiered at the Kiln Theatre in May 2021.- Actress
- Writer
Lisa Hammond was born on 2 June 1983 in Chichester, Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Quills (2000), The Rubbish World of Dave Spud (2019) and Vera (2011).