Shaylee Mansfield
Mansfield smiling in an interview with DeafNation
Mansfield in 2020
Born
Shaylee Ava Mansfield

(2009-04-06) April 6, 2009
Burbank, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active2013–present
Websiteshayleemansfield.com

Shaylee Ava Mansfield (born April 6, 2009)[1] is an American actress. Mansfield, who is deaf, first gained recognition by making YouTube videos in which she told Christmas stories in American Sign Language. Mansfield appeared in an "Unforgettable Stories" video[lower-alpha 1] advertisement by Disney Parks, in which she met Minnie Mouse, who was learning sign language at Walt Disney World. The video quickly went viral and became one of Disney's most-watched advertisements.

Mansfield made her acting debut in 2019 in Disney's Noelle. The following year, her request for automatic captioning on Instagram drew attention from several media publications and became popular on Twitter. She received further recognition for her roles in the films Feel the Beat (2020) and 13 Minutes (2021). In 2022, for her performance on Madagascar: A Little Wild, Mansfield possibly became the first deaf actor to be credited alongside the "audible" voice actors for her "sign over" performance in an animated production.

Life and career

2009–2018: early life and YouTube videos

Shaylee Mansfield was born deaf in Burbank, California in 2009.[2][3] Her parents—former actor Sheena McFeely and Manny Johnson[4]—are also deaf and run ASL Nook, a website and YouTube channel that teaches American Sign Language (ASL).[2] Mansfield has a younger sister, who is able to hear.[4][5]

Mansfield appeared on ASL Nook from 2013 until 2019.[3] She began signing Christmas stories on the channel at age four with The Nightmare Before Christmas. At five, she performed How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; E! stated: "We can't remember the last time a holiday story made us smile so much ... mostly because [Mansfield] is so into how she tells the story. She is so expressive with her sign-language and facial expressions."[6] In 2015, she enacted Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. HuffPost called her 2016 retelling of The Polar Express "beautiful ... like you've never seen before".[2]

At a Disney park in 2013, Mansfield met a staff member dressed as Tinker Bell who could sign. Three years later, due to this event, Disney flew the Mansfield family to Disneyland. At the park, the family filmed an "Unforgettable Stories" advertisement,[lower-alpha 1] in which they met an actor dressed as Minnie Mouse who had recently begun learning sign language. The video went viral, garnering, as of April 2016, 11 million views and becoming the second-most-watched of Disney's advertisements. Adweek highlighted its inclusivity as a major factor in its success.[7] The Mansfields also appeared alongside two other predominantly deaf families in the documentary film Born This Way Presents: Deaf Out Loud,[4][8] which aired on A&E on September 12, 2018.[9] The New York Times's Margaret Lyons described it as earnest and the families featured as "incredibly compelling, thoughtful and telegenic".[8]

2019–present: acting debut

In 2019, Mansfield made her acting debut as Michelle, a homeless, deaf girl, in the Disney+ film Noelle.[10] Despite the film's mixed reception,[11] the role was, according to Variety, helpful to Mansfield's career.[10] In July 2019, Netflix announced Mansfield had been cast in its film Feel the Beat,[12] which received ambivalent reviews.[13] In 2021, Mansfield appeared as Peyton, the deaf daughter of Kim (Amy Smart) and Brad (Peter Facinelli), in 13 Minutes; The Hollywood Reporter said she had a "very natural screen presence".[14]

Mansfield met Delbert and Jevon Whetter, deaf consultants for the animated series Madagascar: A Little Wild, at a panel for RespectAbility; following the panel, Mansfield's mother asked whether the show needed a deaf actor.[15] After having a familiarization meeting with DreamWorks, Mansfield was quickly offered a role in the series.[16] Because of the earlier relationship between Mansfield and the Whetters, Mansfield did not go through the regular casting procedure for A Little Wild. The show's original intent to depict a boy was adjusted to a girl, who was named and modeled after Mansfield.[15][17] She was able to choose her own interpreter, which she stated enabled her to "focus on delivering [her] best performance".[15] The animators based the character's actions on her signs using a video reference.[17] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mansfield was required to work via Zoom. Jevon said: "We had to really slow it down to be extremely clear, and give various angles of the lines so that the animators can see where the hand shapes and hand movements should be".[15] Mansfield made a guest appearance in the episode "Gloria's Got 'Em All", which was released on streaming services Hulu and Peacock on January 13, 2022; she is credited for her signed performance in the episode alongside the voice actors, which may be the first such credit for a deaf actor.[17]

In 2023, Mansfield portrayed Ollie Nicoletti in ABC's drama series The Company You Keep.[18] In a review, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times praised her performance as "instantly endearing".[19] The show was canceled after one season.[20][21]

Advocacy

During her YouTube career, Mansfield aimed to encourage children and families to learn ASL. Through her performances as an actor, she works to demonstrate authenticity to the deaf community and raise awareness about ASL.[22] She uses her social media as a platform to teach others about sign language and raise awareness.[23] In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mansfield posted a video on Twitter criticizing Instagram for a lack of captioning; in it, she said she and over 400 million other deaf or hard-of-hearing people are unable to understand videos with sound.[5][24] Her video was liked and retweeted thousands of times.[5] Mansfield asked Instagram's chief executive officer, Adam Mosseri, to add automatic captioning to the network.[24] In May 2021, Instagram released a sticker[lower-alpha 2] that automatically transcribes speech in Instagram Stories.[26][lower-alpha 3]

Filmography

Filmography of Shaylee Mansfield
Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2018 Born This Way: Deaf Out Loud Herself Documentary; television film
2019 This Close Margaret Episode: "Frog of Truth"
2019 Noelle Michelle Streaming film
2020 Bunk'd Willow Episode: "My Fairy Lady"
2020 Feel the Beat Zuzu Streaming film
2021 13 Minutes Peyton
2022 Madagascar: A Little Wild Shaylee ("sign over") Episode: "Gloria's Got 'Em All"; streaming series
2023 The Company You Keep Ollie Nicoletti 7 episodes

Notes

  1. 1 2 As part of the "Unforgettable Happens Here" campaign, Disney released videos about families' experiences at Disney Parks.[7]
  2. ↑ On Instagram, stickers are customizable items that can be added to Stories; they include the weather, the day of the week, holidays, quizzes, and polls.[25]
  3. ↑ Instagram Stories are collections of pictures, video, and texts that form a slideshow gallery, which is available for 24 hours.[25]

References

  1. ↑ Shaylee Mansfield [@shayleemansfield] (April 6, 2023). "14 YEARS OLD. Born as one of the biggest baby and now, you're the smallest. But it's not the actual size that matters, it's the size of your spirit. A through and through Aries. You leave behind a trail of confetti from all of your party planning, food crumbs from cooking up a storm and baking sweets for others, giggles from your random jokes, and little notes of gratitude everywhere you go. When you give, it's boundless". Retrieved December 8, 2023 – via Instagram.
  2. 1 2 3 Charleston, Libby-Jane (December 21, 2016). "Adorable Seven Year Old Uses Sign Language to Read The Polar Express". HuffPost. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "About". ShayleeMansfield.com. Archived from the original on January 5, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Wallis, Jay (September 12, 2018). "Two Deaf Austin Families Tell Their Unique Story on Cable TV Special". KVUE. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Busu, Tanya (May 28, 2020). "The Pandemic Made Life Harder for Deaf People. The Solutions Could Benefit Everyone". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  6. ↑ Mullins, Jenna (December 12, 2014). "Adorable Little Girl Signs How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Makes Everyone's Heart Grow 3 Sizes". E!. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  7. 1 2 Cullers, Rebecca (April 12, 2016). "Minnie Mouse Learns Sign Language, and Disney Parks Suddenly Has Another Viral Hit". Adweek. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  8. 1 2 Lyons, Margaret (September 10, 2018). "Three Things to Watch This Week". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 2, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Born This Way on A&E". The Futon Critic. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 Appelbaum, Lauren (December 10, 2020). "Why Holiday Movies Should Be Inclusive of People with Disabilities (Guest Column)". Variety. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Noelle". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  12. ↑ Galuppo, Mia (July 26, 2019). "Descendants Star Sofia Carson to Lead Netflix Dance Movie Feel the Beat". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Feel the Beat". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Scheck, Frank (October 26, 2021). "13 Minutes: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 21, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  15. 1 2 3 4 White, Abbey (January 25, 2022). "How Madagascar: A Little Wild Breaks New Industry Ground for Deaf Representation". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  16. ↑ Mansfield, Shaylee (January 18, 2022). "Deaf Actress Shaylee Mansfield on Breaking Barriers, Starring in DreamWorks Madagascar: A Little Wild" (Interview). Interviewed by Pablo Chacon; Tammy Chan; Glen Walker; Courtney Friel. KTLA. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  17. 1 2 3 Knolle, Sharon (January 12, 2022). "Deaf Actress Makes History in Madagascar: A Little Wild Season 6". TheWrap. Archived from the original on January 13, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  18. ↑ "The Company You Keep". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  19. ↑ Roeper, Richard (February 17, 2023). "The Company You Keep: Milo Ventimiglia Lightens Up on a Slick, Breezy Con-artist Series". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  20. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie; Petski, Denise (May 12, 2023). "The Company You Keep Canceled by ABC After One Season". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
  21. ↑ Otterson, Joe (May 12, 2023). "Alaska Daily, Big Sky, The Company You Keep Canceled at ABC". Variety. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
  22. ↑ Sarto, Debbie Diamond (January 28, 2022). "DreamWorks Madagascar: A Little Wild: A Milestone for Deaf Representation". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  23. ↑ Sundriyal, Diksha (March 5, 2023). "Is The Company You Keep's Ollie Deaf in Real Life?". The Cinemaholic. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  24. 1 2 Katz, Sarah (June 19, 2020). "Twitter Just Rolled Out a Feature That's Inaccessible to Disabled Users". Slate. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  25. 1 2 Bradford, Alina (April 15, 2022). "Instagram Stories 101: Our Guide to Stickers, Effects, Key Settings and More". CNET. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  26. ↑ Wong, Queenie (May 26, 2021). "Where Clubhouse Truly Falls Short". CNET. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  27. ↑ "Frog of Truth". This Close. Season 2. Episode 5. September 20, 2019. Sundance TV.
  28. ↑ "My Fairy Lady". Bunk'd. Season 4. Episode 24. March 13, 2020. Disney Channel.
  29. ↑ Swann, Erik (April 17, 2022). "10 Amazing Examples of Deaf Characters Played by Deaf Actors in Movies and Television". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on May 11, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  30. ↑ Sarto, Debbie Diamond (May 12, 2022). "Mickey Mouse Funhouse Brings Welcome Inclusion to the Deaf Community". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  31. ↑ Ventimigilia, Milo (December 15, 2022). "Milo Ventimiglia on Why He Wanted to Play a Con Artist in The Company You Keep". Entertainment Weekly (Interview). Interviewed by Dan Snierson. Archived from the original on January 16, 2023. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
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