First deaf male actor to win Best Supporting Actor

Troy Kotsur (USA) received a 2022 Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing Frank Rossi in the comedy-drama CODA (USA/France/Canada, 2021). Kotsur was the first male and the second-ever deaf actor to be Oscar-nominated in an acting category (Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor) after his CODA co-star Marlee Matlin (USA), who won Best Actress for her role as Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God (USA, 1986).

Kotsur’s nomination for Best Supporting Actor was announced on 8 February 2022. On 27 March 2022, at the 94th Academy Awards, he was hoping to break new ground by becoming the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar in either of the acting categories.

CODA (“Child Of Deaf Adults”) was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2022, but none of the acting categories featured the film’s cast other than Troy Kotsur, 53.

Major awards won by Kotsur in the first quarter of 2022 included Best Actor in a Supporting Role (75th British Academy Film Awards), Best Supporting Actor (27th Critics’ Choice Awards) and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (28th Screen Actors Guild Awards).