Actor Lauren Ridloff, who made her acting debut with Children of a Lesser God and earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway performance as Sarah Norman in the Kenny Leon-directed revival, will appear in the upcoming season of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Ridloff will play Connie, a deaf survivor who uses her senses to perceive potential conflict. A former Miss Deaf America, Ridloff will be the first deaf actor on the zombi-apocalypse series as it gears up for its ninth season.
A former teacher and a mother of two, Ridloff agreed to meet up with Leon to educate him about Deaf culture and teach him a bit of American Sign Language. After working together for a year, Leon asked Ridloff to read the part of Sarah in a reading for Children of a Lesser God with Joshua Jackson tied to the project. The production bowed on Broadway earlier this year.
READ: THE FULL STORY OF LAUREN RIDLOFF’S WILD RIDE FROM STAY-AT-HOME MOM TO TONY NOMINEE