Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin
Matlin has primarily worked in television, as she has found more roles for deaf actors. She played Joey Lucas on the political drama series The West Wing (2000–2006), appeared in the drama series The L Word (2007–2009) and Switched at Birth) (2011–2017), and voiced Stella in the animated sitcom Family Guy (2012–2021). She made her Broadway debut in the 2015 revival of Spring Awakening). For her role in the coming-of-age film CODA) (2021), she won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Marlee Matlin
Outside of acting, Matlin is a prominent member of the National Association of the Deaf), and her interpreter is Jack Jason. She has published four works and won recognitions for her advocacy. A documentary about her life and work, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, was released in 2025.
Early life
Matlin was born in Morton Grove, Illinois, on August 24, 1965, to Libby (née Hammer; 1930–2020) and Donald Matlin (1930–2013), who was an automobile dealer. Matlin lost all hearing in her right ear and 80% of the hearing in her left ear at the age of 18 months due to illness and fevers. In her autobiography I'll Scream Later, she suggests that her hearing loss may have been due to a genetically malformed cochlea. She is the only member of her family who is deaf. She has a sense of humor about her deafness: "Often I'm talking to people through my speakerphone, and after 10 minutes or so they say, 'Wait a minute, Marlee, how can you hear me?' They forget I have an interpreter there who is signing to me as they talk. So I say, 'You know what? I can hear on Wednesdays.'"
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