This past summer, thousands of the world’s best disabled athletes competed on an international stage in Paris at the Paralympic Games. While the Paralympics has provided athletes with disabilities the opportunity to showcase their physical capabilities since 1960, disabled actors have often struggled to find opportunities to capture spectators’ attention with their talents.
However, opportunities to be on stages and screens are expanding thanks to many who stand up for marginalized groups. One such person is Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick, who in 2022 began her own casting company, DPD Casting, with the following mission: “We believe in manifesting change in how the real world is reflected in today’s media by advocating for and elevating underrepresented and misrepresented communities.”
Born into a family of advocates, Demchick grew up observing her mother working as a speech pathologist and her uncle serving as one of the top experts at the National Center for Learning Disabilities. “I grew up around a lot of laryngectomies and a lot of people who had strokes because my mom brought me to all of her nursing homes when she was working and didn’t have child care,” Demchick remembers.
She was also surrounded by inclusion throughout her education. Demchick went to a high school for performing arts, and one of her classmates was Zack Gottsagen, an actor with Down Syndrome whose breakout role was in the film “The Peanut Butter Falcon.”
“I’m not someone who stays quiet if I think something is an injustice or unfair,” Demchick said. “I decided I needed to be a part of the change.” In 2015, Demchick officially became a part of the revolution as a member of the Casting Society of America (CSA) Diversity Committee, and today serves as a Board Member and Co-Vice President of Advocacy.
Demchick is determined to flip the script. She expresses that the change in the industry should not only be reflected by the actors and actresses who perform, but also in the training that casting directors receive. “Something that’s really important to me is that all of my peers understand how you ask for an accommodation, why you ask for an accommodation, what an accommodation does. [An accommodation] makes something better as opposed to just taking away.”
As Demchick recalls, “You look at 20 years ago, you know, there were [disabled] people that would be in a movie here or there…but there really weren’t a lot of examples. And now you can name people [with disabilities] that make a living acting.”
One young actor in particular, casted by Demchick, stole the spotlight as Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol” on Broadway in 2019—Sebastian Ortiz.
“When I met [Ortiz], he was adorable,” Demchick recalls of the actor, who has cerebral palsy. “I saw that he had that potential, and he kept training. He’s a really hard worker…and when he’s on set, he is magical.”
Ortiz, indeed a talented actor, sees himself in superheroes like Spiderman. “I’m somewhat like them. Because, like me, they are different; they go through differences not everybody has and they get judged because, they’re different and that people don’t know what their life is like, so they’re basically living like a double life. Usually, like, half human, half superhero. And sometimes, I feel like that. I’m living a double life. I feel like I’m half human, half superhero. But, I get bullied for thinking that… But I know that I’m amazing and those characters inspire me to be who I am and they are brave, strong, and awesome.”
And Ortiz knows he will always have support from his family in the face of those who don’t see just how awesome he truly is. “My mom and my sister and my dad always tell me: Sebastian, don’t listen to them.”
Ortiz’s star continues to rise, as he can be seen in photoshoots for French Toast Adaptive and commercials for Montefiore Hospital. Demchick is excited for more of the world to see in Ortiz what she already does: “He’s a kid star who just so happens to have a disability!”