TV Dramas and Comedies Where Disabled Characters Are Played by Disabled Actors
The principle purpose of storytelling and characterisation is to help us learn about each other, and broaden our perspective of what it is to be human. This is not possible if the range of characters we are watching are not reflective of the breadth of diversity within society.
Creativity is all about interesting choices, and disability can be a very interesting choice for either a storyline or a character, regardless of whether disability is part of a storyline or an incidental device that adds depth and subtext.
This is a list TV shows since the year 2000 that have represented disability in an authentic and compelling way. This could be part of a storyline, a way of adding sub plot through the attitudes of the other characters towards an individual, or if disability could simply be incidental to the story adding richness and authenticity to the characters. After all 20% of people have some sort of disability so it's interesting that they make up less than 0.2% of the characters in the drama we watch.
Behind every disability there is a story, which makes the missed opportunity seem even greater.
There are many examples where casting or portrayal have bordered on the offensive, and these are not included here.
All the disabled characters in these shows have been played by disabled actors.
Creativity is all about interesting choices, and disability can be a very interesting choice for either a storyline or a character, regardless of whether disability is part of a storyline or an incidental device that adds depth and subtext.
This is a list TV shows since the year 2000 that have represented disability in an authentic and compelling way. This could be part of a storyline, a way of adding sub plot through the attitudes of the other characters towards an individual, or if disability could simply be incidental to the story adding richness and authenticity to the characters. After all 20% of people have some sort of disability so it's interesting that they make up less than 0.2% of the characters in the drama we watch.
Behind every disability there is a story, which makes the missed opportunity seem even greater.
There are many examples where casting or portrayal have bordered on the offensive, and these are not included here.
All the disabled characters in these shows have been played by disabled actors.
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- CreatorDavid SimonStarsDominic WestLance ReddickSonja SohnThe Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.
- StarsArthur HughesAnthony BoyleRuby Ashbourne SerkisDuring the dissolution of the monasteries in the Tudor era, Matthew Shardlake is sent by Thomas Cromwell to investigate the death of a commissioner in a remote town of Scarnsea.
- StarsBrenda BlethynJon MorrisonRiley JonesWith her caustic wit and singular charm, DCI Vera Stanhope leads her team as they face a series of captivating murder mysteries set against the breathtaking Northumberland landscape.
- CreatorVince GilliganStarsBryan CranstonAaron PaulAnna GunnA chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with a former student to secure his family's future.
- CreatorChris Van DusenStarsNicola CoughlanLuke ThompsonRuth GemmellThe eight close-knit siblings of the Bridgerton family look for love and happiness in London high society.
- CreatorJonathan KasdanStarsRuby CruzEllie BamberTony RevoloriTwenty years after vanquishing the wicked queen Bavmorda, the sorcerer Willow Ufgood leads a group of misfits on a dangerous rescue mission into the unknown.
- CreatorDavid BenioffD.B. WeissStarsEmilia ClarkePeter DinklageKit HaringtonNine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros, while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia.
- DirectorAkaash MeedaStarsJack CarrollZak Ford-WilliamsRuben ReuterComedy short about three disabled teenagers from Huddersfield who must catch the same mobility bus to school each day.
- CreatorJonathan BrackleySam VincentStarsLeila FarzadAndrew BuchanSamuel Edward-CookA corrupt police detective has a painful moral awakening and decides to put right 20 years of wrongdoing.
- CreatorMarion DayreStarsAlaqua CoxChaske SpencerTantoo CardinalMaya Lopez must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots, and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward.
- StarsDani HarmerMontanna ThompsonBen HansonTracy Beaker is a 10-year-old girl who has been placed in a children's home. Tracy makes new friends along the way and causes mischief wherever she goes.
- StarsSarah RaysonStacy LiuKia PeggIn a children's home known as the "dumping ground", the children have many fab, fun-filled adventures together as they grow up in foster care.
- CreatorNeil DruckmannCraig MazinStarsPedro PascalBella RamseyBrendan RozarioAfter a global pandemic destroys civilization, a hardened survivor takes charge of a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity's last hope.
- StarsPooky QuesnelCraig CashDylan BradySpin-off series following the first year of marriage for the characters from The A Word (2016). Young couple Ralph and Katie face the domestic challenges faced by all newlyweds, but with the added fact that they have Down's Syndrome.
- CreatorLaurie NunnStarsAsa ButterfieldGillian AndersonNcuti GatwaA teenage boy with a sex-therapist mother teams up with a high-school classmate to set up an underground sex-therapy clinic at school.
- CreatorLoren MclaughlanAmy RobertsStarsLiam McMahonClaire CooperAdam LittleA working class family in 1890s Yorkshire move from a grimy fish dock to a vast country estate.
- StarsBabou CeesayNatalia TenaAmanda AbbingtonThe adventures of Professor Wolfe Kinteh, a crime scene investigator in the north of England.
- StarsGenevieve BarrDouglas HenshallDervla KirwanAn eighteen-year-old struggling to integrate into a hearing world following cochlear implantation witnesses the murder of a police officer. The subsequent investigation unravels a net of police corruption.
- CreatorWarwick DavisRicky GervaisStephen MerchantStarsWarwick DavisRicky GervaisStephen MerchantThe show centers on Warwick Davis in his day-to-day life, complete with the frustrations he faces.
- CreatorAdam KayStarsBen WhishawAmbika ModRory Fleck ByrneSet on Labour Ward with all its hilarity and heart-lifting highs but also its gut-wrenching lows, the show delivers a brutally honest depiction of life as a junior doctor on the wards, and the toll the job can take back home.
- CreatorSydney NewmanStarsJodie WhittakerPeter CapaldiPearl MackieThe further adventures in time and space of the alien adventurer known as the Doctor and his companions from planet Earth.
- CreatorTim RenkowStu RichardsStarsTim RenkowSharon RooneyRob J MadinTim has cerebral palsy, which means that people judge him, and his crumpled tissue of a body. But usually they judge him wrongly. Because what they don't realise is that inside that severely disabled, fragile body is a bit of an asshole.
- CreatorHeidi ThomasStarsVanessa RedgraveLaura MainJenny AgutterChronicles the lives of a group of midwives living in East London in the late 1950s to late 1960s.
- CreatorZal BatmanglijBrit MarlingStarsBrit MarlingJason IsaacsScott WilsonHaving gone missing seven years ago, the previously blind Prairie returns home, now in her twenties with her sight restored. While many believe she is a miracle, others worry that she could be dangerous.
