Nyle DiMarco was born on May 8th of 1989 in Queens, New York. You may have seen his beautiful face around social media. You may have also seen him almost anywhere since he has become quite the star. He’s a huge advocate for the deaf community, and he gained a huge following and built his platform after winning Cycle 22 of America’s Next Top Model. Since winning, he has used his platform to become the voice of the Deaf community. Rightfully so, he wants the United States and the rest of the world to become a much more accessible place for Deaf people and for other people with multiple types of disabilities.
Nyle attended the Maryland School of the Deaf and went on to attend and graduate from Gallaudet University with a BA Degree in Mathematics. Fun fact: Gallaudet is the only university exclusively for Deaf individuals. His initial intentions were to become a Math teacher, but he found himself in the spotlight after he was scouted (through social media!) and landed a spot on America’s Next Top Model. After winning, he had a few minor acting gigs in independent movies, TV shows, and music vdieos. He starred as Ben Genovese in This Close, Doug in Difficult People, and as Garrett Banducci in Switched at Birth.
He has used his platform to bring awareness to the Deaf culture and community.
Find the ability in a disability.
— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) July 3, 2016
He uses his social media pages, especially Twitter, to narrate the hardships that he faces as a Deaf man. DiMarco recently writing about his experience in a United Airlines flight.
My 5hr flight had no subtitles and now my final leg is being delayed twice. I want to cry on @united’s wheelchair that I never asked for
— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) March 22, 2019
One of his many hopes is that one day movie theaters will become more accessible to deaf people by including captions in their films instead of having them use a device that almost always has difficulties and doesn’t seem to work all the time.
?? I’ve been waiting impatiently for @JordanPeele’s #UsMovie to come out on iTunes with captions.
(I’m not going back to movie theaters only to experience inaccessibility) https://t.co/w3l0oHMcho
— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) March 23, 2019
All in all, Nyle is doing an important job in being the voice of the Deaf community. He could’ve done nothing with the huge platform he gained and I am happy and proud that he has turned into an activist for the Deaf community. We need to actively work for the world to become a more aware and empathetic place for people who have disabilities.
You can check out his YouTube Channel, through which he makes videos about basic sign language among other things.