British and American Disabled and Neurodivergent Actors
561 items • Updated 4/17/2026
Established and emerging working disabled acting talent from both sides of the Atlantic. This list includes actors who are: visibly disabled, Deaf, vision impaired, hearing impaired, short stature, learning disabled or neurodivergent.
This list has been created to showcase disabled and neurodivergent talent.
Some facts and figures about on-screen disability casting:
0.3% of all actors have a visible disability.
Neurodivergence is a lot more common in the industry with many famous actors talking openly about their conditions. Ableism in the industry is more directed towards actors with physical disabilities or disabilities that are apparent to the audience. Historically visibly disabled actors have not been able to access formal training. Up until the last few years drama schools have actively excluded them, in the words of one school in The Stage, "why train people the industry does not want." Between 2019 and 2024, 0.15% of all roles in US movies and TV series are written as disabled and yet 80% of those roles are cast with non-disabled actors.
25 visibly disabled roles have been Academy Award winners but only two of them were played by visibly disabled actors.
Art does not reflect life. Less than 0.01% of mainstream roles are cast with a disabled actor, despite a study in 2019 showing that over 98% of all roles could be cast incidentally with a disabled actor. Very few roles could not be performed by someone with either a vision, hearing or physical disability.
Some facts and figures about on-screen disability casting:
0.3% of all actors have a visible disability.
Neurodivergence is a lot more common in the industry with many famous actors talking openly about their conditions. Ableism in the industry is more directed towards actors with physical disabilities or disabilities that are apparent to the audience. Historically visibly disabled actors have not been able to access formal training. Up until the last few years drama schools have actively excluded them, in the words of one school in The Stage, "why train people the industry does not want." Between 2019 and 2024, 0.15% of all roles in US movies and TV series are written as disabled and yet 80% of those roles are cast with non-disabled actors.
25 visibly disabled roles have been Academy Award winners but only two of them were played by visibly disabled actors.
Art does not reflect life. Less than 0.01% of mainstream roles are cast with a disabled actor, despite a study in 2019 showing that over 98% of all roles could be cast incidentally with a disabled actor. Very few roles could not be performed by someone with either a vision, hearing or physical disability.
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