CELEBRITY PROFILE
“CODA” Star Troy Kotsur Finally Gets His Big Break and Wins an Oscar
UPDATE: At last 50-something Deaf actor/director lands a lead role in mainstream Hollywood film and earns high praise including a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award
I have been following Troy Kotsur's acting career for close to 20 years — since I first interviewed him for a newspaper article when he was directing high schoolers at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont in a play titled “The Three Musketeers, All Swash, No Buckle.”
In March 2002, Troy was in his mid-30s, wiry, and ruggedly handsome, and a veteran stage performer.
In my piece for the local Fremont paper, I wrote: “Kotsur, who grew up in Mesa, Arizona and attended Gallaudet University before becoming an award-winning actor at Deaf West Theatre…says this [directing high schoolers in the comedy] is a real challenge because he is ‘used to working six days a week for four to six hours a day when rehearsing a professional production. With the students, they don’t have a lot of experience and can only rehearse four days a week, three hours a night.’”
