Black Deaf actress in new Spider-Man PS5 game
A Black Deaf female actress, Natasha Ofili, known for her role in “The Politician,” and “Mather,” has a character in “Spider-Man: Miles Morales” video game on PlayStation 5.
She is an animated character named Hailey Cooper. The Los Angeles Times said the character is deaf, a skilled street artist, and a community organizer.
Marvel Entertainment released a clip of the video game two weeks ago.
The game was officially released on November 12 and a game reviewer posted a clip of Ofili’s character.
In the game, the Spider-man character, Morales, learned ASL from a fictional school.
Ofili told the LA Times that when she saw herself in the trailer, she felt very honored and said that her character looks like her. She explained to the LA Times that this is groundbreaking for the Black deaf community.
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LA Times said motion capture technology was used to create the animations and that Spider-man’s signs were from TJ Fortson, a hard of hearing actor.
The company that made the game is Insomniac Games and LA Times said that they hired a group of deaf-culture consultants including Joshua Castille.
Jade Bryan posted on Twitter that she worked with the game as a research and development consultant.
Insomniac Games tweeted an image of the Hailey Cooper character as a feature in its fictional “Daily Bugle” newspaper. It describes her as hearing impaired.
Someone replied that the game should use “Deaf” not “hearing impaired.” Insomniac Games replied that it was an oversight on their part and apologized for missing it.
LA Times said Marvel has been trailblazing to be more inclusive and Ofili is now the first Black Deaf actor to appear in a Playstation video game. We want to extend her a congratulations, and the same goes to the other deaf actors and consultants behind the scenes. If you have PS4 or PS5, be sure to grab a chance to get that game!
LA Times Feature: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-11-20/miles-morales-spider-man-video-game-natasha-ofili-hailey-cooper
Marvel Trailer: https://bit.ly/365AR07
Game Reviewer Clip: https://bit.ly/375FbvL
Jade Bryan Tweet: https://twitter.com/DeafShowRunner
Insomniac Games Tweets: https://bit.ly/39gh0xm