Russell Harvard

While several deaf actresses have made their mark on the U.S. entertainment industry, including Marlee Matlin, Deanne Bray, and Linda Bove, there have been few high-profile deaf actors. However, Anthony Natale and Howie Seago have now been joined by Russell Harvard, who is not only an accomplished stage and screen performer, but he also uses American Sign Language (ASL) to interpret music for those with partial and/or total hearing loss. Born to deaf parents, Harvard and his brother Renny attended the Texas School for the Deaf, where he appeared in plays like "The Monster Tree," "A Thanksgiving Dinner," and "The Prince Who Couldn't Talk." In 1999, he began studying at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., although he took a sabbatical to teach in an Alaskan deaf school with his mother. He finally graduated in 2008, by which time he had made his television debut in the 2006 "Silent Night" episode of "CSI:NY," played Jason Wittig's friend in the "Signage" segment of the gay portmanteau picture "S Is for Sexy," and made his feature debut as the adult H.W. in "There Will Be Blood," Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil!" Over the next couple of years, Harvard acted on stage in "Much Ado About Nothing," "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "Sleeping Beauty Awakes," before returning to cinema to play deaf Ultimate Fighting champion Matt Hamill in "The Hammer," Owen in Anup Bhandari's ASL short "Words," and Tim, the deaf target of a murderous neighbor, in "Claustrophobia."