Person

Person of New York

KOTSUR Troy

KOTSUR
Troy

Actor

  • Date of Birth: 24 July 1968
  • Age: 58 years old
  • In the rating: #548 Actor

Connections 5

Content

Biography

Troy Michael Kotsur is a deaf American actor best known for his supporting role in the 2021 film CODA, for which he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won the Gotham Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

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

Early life and education

Kotsur was born in Mesa, Arizona on July 24, 1968 to Jodee 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. The 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 Fin'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. Since then he has had television and film roles.

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 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".

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

Personal life

Kotsur is married to actress Deanne Bray.

Rating GlobalNY.biz

Mentions in the news View all

Mentioned together View all

Born in one day View all

Astrological profile CALCULATE

Date of Birth 24 July 1968
Age 58 years old

Profile statistic

mentions
views

Quotes

All

John Mulaney Mocks TV Gender Disparity During 2026 Emmys Best Actor Intro

MULANEY John
MULANEY John

A man's man can be wearing the best clothes, drinking the finest wine, sitting with the most beautiful woman in Las Vegas, but if he doesn't treat everyone around him with respect and class, he's not a real man's man. He's just a jabroni in a good suit

Chris Olsen Addresses Meghan Trainor Feud Rumors and Friendship Status

OLSEN Chris
OLSEN Chris

There is currently no beef

John Malkovich Wins Best Actor at Venice Film Festival Amid Oscar Buzz

MALKOVICH John
MALKOVICH John

I am humbled to be chosen for this award, which has been given to so many wonderful actors over the past 83 iterations of the Venice Film Festival

Jimmy Kimmel Slams FCC ‘Threats’ as White House Fires Back

KIMMEL James
KIMMEL James

This is yet another attack on free speech, something that has become all too familiar for us at the show, for us in the country

BBC Line of Duty star Martin Compston teases new series and says 'this is the end'

COMPSTON Martin
COMPSTON Martin

It's for Jed to say, it's not for me to say whether the show will ever end but I think it's fair to say that this is the end of the story arc that's been building since series one. Everything will come to a head on this one.