Troy Kotsur

Troy Kotsur (born c. 1968) is a deaf American actor.

Kotsur was born and raised in the city of Mesa, Arizona. He has been deaf since his birth. He went to Gallaudet University to major in Theater from 1987 to 1989. Additionally, he attended Mesa College, Pierce College and American River College to study acting and was an intern at KTSP-TV in Phoenix, Arizona working as an editor, researcher and interviewer.

He married fellow deaf actress Deanne Bray. On September 8, 2005 she gave birth to daughter Kyra Monique Kotsur.

Theatre roles: Troy has been involved with many Deaf West shows, including the 2003 Broadway revival of Big River as Pap/The Duke. He has performed principal roles in Orphans, Medea, Equus and Sleuth with Bernard Bragg and Romeo and Juliet, Verona Circus and Mice and Men. He traveled coast to coast in the US with the National Theater for the Deaf, as well as in Northern Ireland and South Africa.

Also, Troy was a guest artist performing at California Arts Institution in Valiance as Hamlet and the ghost in Shakespeare's Hamlet Project, translated from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night English to concepts in American Sign Language at Yale University in 1999. In productions at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix he was Johnny Merrick in The Elephant Man and the defense attorney in The Night of January 16.

He recently received two awards from Los Angeles Weekly and the 8th annual Artistic Director Achievement Award, Valley Theater League of California for the leading actor in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. He was nominated for his leading role in A Streetcar Named Desire by the Los Angeles Drama Circle Critics award, as well. He has been nominated by Los Angeles Ovation for Featured Actor in a Musical in Oliver! performed at the Deaf West Theater. While at Gallaudet University, he was awarded Best Actor for his role as Sepp Schmitz in The Firebugs and as Kurt Paxton in In a Room Somewhere.

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