Connie’s actor, Lauren Ridloff, wasn’t completely sold on acting at first. The “Walking Dead” star got her acting start as Dorothy in her high school’s production of “The Wiz,” then pivoted to cheerleading (via The New York Times). In 2000, after being crowned Miss Deaf America, Ridloff honed her hip-hop dance skills with the Deafywood troupe (per the Los Angeles Times). The Chicago native then moved to New York, where she taught kindergarten in Manhattan for nearly 10 years (via Essence).

Her Broadway breakthrough came unexpectedly. While on break from her teaching job to take care of her children, she was recruited by director Kenny Leon as a sign language tutor. He was directing a revival of “Children of a Lesser God,” a play in which a teacher at a school for the deaf falls for a janitor. While “Fringe” star Joshua Jackson was lined up for the male lead, Leon hadn’t cast the co-lead yet.

Ridloff blew him away at table reads, and it only made sense to cast the expressive, intelligent woman who’d taught him sign language for a year to play the part. The 2018 show, written by Mark Medoff, was Ridloff’s big break when it hit Broadway. (Marlee Matlin, another deaf actress, had won an Oscar for playing the same role in the film version in 1986.) Ridloff got rave reviews, won a Theater World Award, and scored Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Tony Award nominations for playing deaf janitor Sarah Norman.

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