Two mothers adopted Daniel and brought him up. His paternal aunt Lori Durant and subsequently her wife Mary Engels adopted him when he was a young child. Durant’s aunts were conversant in sign language. Their son couldn’t say much more than that.
Many practices later, Durant’s talent for telling tales started to focus. Daniel would stand by the campfire and tell ghost stories at retreats for Deaf children and their parents, where he observed various signing techniques and gained a better understanding of his culture.
Lori Durant and Mary Engels, Durant’s parents, were present at the Dancing with the Stars premiere to cheer on their son as he took the stage for the first dance.
According to Lori, the youngster has always believed in his abilities, and his parents are unbelievably proud of him. Mary said that, regardless of whether you’re deaf, or physically different, Durant transcends the categories that the world places individuals in.
His many classes for deaf actors demonstrate his enthusiasm for supporting the Deaf community. To enable the deaf to access gaming and e-sports, he founded the Deaf Gamers Network, where he frequently plays Rocket League.
Early Life & Childhood
As a full-fledged theater kid, Daniel had opportunities after transferring to Minnesota Academy for the Deaf in the seventh grade.
Durant, who had endured bullying due to his deafness and his two mothers, felt at ease in the Faribault school. But he struggled with creativity while attending Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
He then started creating poetry and performance films, which gained a following on YouTube and caught the eye of Los Angeles’ Deaf West Theatre.
Durant, who portrayed troubled adolescent Moritz in the Deaf West version of “Spring Awakening” that was brought to Broadway and featured a mix of hearing and Deaf artists, has made that location her creative home.
Although he currently resides in Duluth, his previous residences included California, where he played a recurring role on both Netflix’s “You” and also the ABC/Freeform series “Switched at Birth,” as well as Norway, where he performed in theater for seven months while learning Norwegian Sign Language.
In addition, it was there that he first got to know Marlee Matlin, an Oscar-winning Deaf actor who plays his own mother in “CODA.”
He Played Leo In CODA
Actor Daniel Durant of Duluth portrays Leo in the opening scene while working alongside his sister and father hauling fish in the rear of the family trawler off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
In the feel-good drama “CODA,” his sister Ruby, who plays the lead and titular child of Deaf adults, belts out big-voiced soul songs while she works and then acts as the Rossi family’s representative with the hearing community, particularly the middlemen of the local fishing industry, back on land.
Durant claimed that even though Heder is not Deaf, he recognized sincerity in her script and gave her credit for doing her studies. But a common filming rumor has it that the actors backed off when they saw how the living room was set up.
Leo, a powerful Deaf man who is standing on his own two feet and rolling up his sleeves, reminded him of himself, he claimed.
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