CODA Star Troy Kotsur Becomes First Deaf Actor to Receive Individual SAG Award

On Sunday night, the actor won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

Troy Kotsur is a legend in the making.

On Sunday, the CODA star became the first deaf actor to receive a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, bringing home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

“I’ve been a [SAG] member since 2001, so now I feel like I’m finally part of the family,” Kotsur told the audience through an ASL interpreter. “I know you all are artists, and I know you all know what it’s like to be a starving actor.

Back then, I used to sleep in my car, I slept in my dressing room backstage, I couch surfed. All of that, you feel me, right? So thank you so much.”

In CODA, Kotsur plays the deaf father of an aspiring singer (Emilia Jones). He was also nominated for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast with his co-stars. From providing closed captioning and ASL interpretation services to “believing in us deaf actors and casting us authentically,” Kotsur thanked distributor Apple TV+ for “all of their support and access.”

As per Ew, the SAG Award win for Kotsur should bode well for his Oscar chances: Daniel Kaluuya won the supporting SAG Award for Judas and the Black Messiah last year, and then went on to win the Academy Award in the same category.

Kotsur is nominated at the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, making him the first male deaf actor to ever be nominated. (His CODA costar Marlee Matlin was the first deaf person to ever be nominated and to win an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God in 1987.)

Ben Affleck for The Tender Bar, Bradley Cooper for Licorice Pizza, Jared Leto for House of Gucci, and Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog was among the other nominees.