Troy Kotsur is the breakout star of awards season.
After three decades working in theater, along with guest spots on TV series such as “Scrubs” and “The Mandalorian,” the charismatic deaf actor is finally getting his Hollywood moment in Apple TV+ dramedy “CODA” (now streaming). The feel-good film is nominated for three Oscars including best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Kotsur, who has dominated the category at other shows this year including the Critics Choice, Screen Actors Guild and British Film Academy awards.
He is now the front-runner to take the Oscar come March 27. If he wins, he’ll become only the second deaf performer to do so, after his “CODA” co-star Marlee Matlin’s historic 1987 best actress victory for “Children of a Lesser God.”
Kotsur, 53, has embraced the spotlight with ease: lighting up red carpets with his bold suits and genial smile and delivering hilarious, heartfelt acceptance speeches in American Sign Language.
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“To be honest, it’s not what I expected,” Kotsur says of his newfound celebrity via ASL translator during a recent video call. “I’m starting to understand what so many actors have to go through: a lot of interviews, a lot of wardrobe changes. I’m used to just going to Ross and now I have all these brands bringing me racks of clothing to try on, like Dior Men, Brooks Brothers, Hugo Boss. But it’s been really fun to dress up – it makes me feel like a new man.”
In “CODA,” which stands for “child of deaf adults,” Kotsur plays a working-class fisherman named Frank Rossi, whose hearing teenage daughter, Ruby (Emilia Jones), wants to pursue her singing dreams at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Frank, his wife Jackie (Matlin) and son Leo (Daniel Durant, who is also deaf) struggle to understand Ruby’s musical passion, and she wrestles with staying home to help run the family business.