Beyond RJ Mitte: 5 stars who challenged disability stereotypes on screen, like the late Breaking Bad actor

RJ Mitte’s legacy was about more than playing Walter White Jr. in Breaking Bad. The actor, who had cerebral palsy, helped bring a disabled character to one of television’s biggest dramas without allowing his condition to define the entire role. He also used his public profile to advocate for greater inclusion in entertainment.

Following Mitte’s death at 34, his work offers a reminder that representation is not just about putting disability on screen. It is about who gets cast, whose experiences are understood and whether characters are allowed to be complicated, ordinary and fully human.

Here are five stars whose careers and creative choices have challenged disability stereotypes in Hollywood and India.

1. Marlee Matlin fought for Deaf actors to play Deaf characters in Hollywood

When Marlee Matlin won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God in 1987, she became the first Deaf performer to receive the honour. But her achievement was only one part of a much longer fight for authentic representation. Matlin has continued working across film and television, including in The West Wing and CODA. In the latter, she played a Deaf mother in a family drama featuring several Deaf performers. She also pushed for Deaf actors to be cast in Deaf roles, challenging the practice of treating deafness as something a non-Deaf actor can simply imitate.

Her career highlights a question that remains relevant across Hollywood: why should disabled performers have to fight for opportunities to portray experiences they know firsthand?

2. Troy Kotsur made Oscar history with CODA

Troy Kotsur’s performance as Frank Rossi, a Deaf fisherman and father in CODA (2021), brought Deaf culture and family life to the centre of a mainstream film. In 2022, Kotsur became the first Deaf man to win an acting Oscar, taking home the Best Supporting Actor award. The film also won Best Picture, marking a major moment for a production led by a predominantly Deaf cast.

What made CODA resonate was that it was not simply a story about disability. It explored family, independence, ambition and the tension between protecting loved ones and allowing them to find their own way. Kotsur’s achievement showed that Deaf performers could lead stories that connect with audiences well beyond the Deaf community.

3. Sudha Chandran rebuilt her dancing career after losing a leg

In India, Sudha Chandran’s journey challenged assumptions about disability long before conversations about representation became commonplace. A trained classical dancer, Chandran lost her right leg following a road accident as a teenager. She later returned to dancing with a prosthetic limb, rebuilding a career that went on to span films and television. Her experience inspired the Telugu film Mayuri (1985), in which she portrayed herself. Its Hindi version, Naache Mayuri, brought her story to a wider audience.

Chandran’s career is a powerful reminder that disability need not mark the end of an artistic ambition. Her work as a dancer and actor has continued beyond the story of her accident, giving audiences a fuller picture of her professional life.

4. Ravindra Jain showed what a blind composer could achieve

Blind from birth, Indian composer, lyricist and singer Ravindra Jain built a celebrated career in film music. His work included Chitchor, Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se and Ram Teri Ganga Maili, establishing him as a major creative voice in Indian cinema. Jain’s career challenged assumptions about the work a blind person could do in a demanding industry. His legacy rests not just on his disability, but on the songs, compositions and musical contributions that reached generations of listeners.

His story also broadens the conversation beyond acting: representation matters in the creative professions behind the camera and beyond the screen, too.

5. George Robinson challenged disability stereotypes with Sex Education

What happens when a disabled character is allowed to be difficult, funny, selfish and complicated, just like everyone else? Sex Education offered one answer through Isaac, played by George Robinson, a British actor who uses a wheelchair following a spinal cord injury. Introduced in the Netflix series’ second season, Isaac was far from a conventional feel-good portrayal of disability. He could be manipulative and divisive, making choices that frustrated viewers. But that complexity was significant: disabled characters are often expected to be endlessly brave, inspirational or morally flawless. Isaac was allowed to be imperfect.

Robinson’s casting also brought a wheelchair-using actor into a popular series where disability was part of a character’s life, rather than the only story worth telling about him.

Why disability representation still matters

These five stories show that progress can take different forms: disabled performers claiming space, artists building careers on their own terms and filmmakers challenging the assumptions audiences bring to disability.

RJ Mitte’s contribution belongs in that wider history. His work helped show that a disabled character could be more than a symbol or a lesson. He could simply be a person, with all the contradictions that make a story worth watching.

The next step for entertainment is to make such representation less exceptional, by creating more opportunities for disabled performers and telling stories that reflect the full range of human experience.

(With inputs from agencies)