After his big win at the Academy Awards this year, CODA star Troy Kotsur has just secured his next major role. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the actor has just been cast in the lead of an untitled sports drama series based on the true story of the 2021 Cubs Football team. Kotsur will portray the coach who had helped a Deaf team through an undefeated season to go on and compete in the California State Championship game.
Via Disney+, the series “not only recounts the historical undefeated football season but is a groundbreaking story about the Deaf community, both on and off the field. Playing mostly hearing teams, the Cubs passed and ran through their league surprising everyone but themselves. Their success captured the hearts of the entire nation … The series portrays students, teachers, and families, the challenges they face and the successes they achieve in this world. The writing and production team, both in front of and behind the cameras, will include artists from the Deaf community.”
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In addition to starring, Kotsur will executive produce alongside his Oscar-winning CODA co-star Marlee Matlin, showrunner Kevin Falls, writer-director Ron Shelton, and pilot co-writer Ben Shelton, as well as Bert Salke, Gary Foster, Russ Krasnoff, Rainn Wilson, Jack Jason, Bill Horberg, and Christina Lurie. California School for the Deaf alumnus John Maucere is co-producing and serving as a consultant.
Troy Kotsur Won an Oscar for CODA
Apple TV+
In March, Troy Kotsur became the first Deaf man to win an acting Oscar based on his performance in CODA. The film, directed by Sian Heder, is a remake of the French-Belgian movie La Famille Belier. It follows the only hearing member of a Deaf family who struggles with helping her family’s struggling fishing business while pursuing her own dreams of becoming a successful singer. The film was a big hit with critics and viewers on Apple TV+, earning Kotsur the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor along with garnering Oscar wins for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
“This is amazing to be here on this journey,” Kotsur said in his acceptance speech when winning his Oscar. “It’s really amazing that our film CODA has reached out worldwide. It even reached all the way to the White House.”
After joking about how he was told by Marlee Matlin to behave himself around the president of the United States, Kotsur added, “I really want to thank all of the wonderful Deaf theater stages, where I was allowed and given the opportunity to develop my craft as an actor.”
Prior to CODA, Kotsur had appeared in movies like The Number 23, Universal Signs, and Wild Prairie Rose. He also directed and appeared in the film No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie. His upcoming Cubs Football series won’t be his first time at Disney+ either as he had a role in The Mandalorian’s first season. That followed roles in other TV shows like CSI: NY, Scrubs, and Criminal Minds.
