Millicent Simmonds

Millicent "Millie" Simmonds (born 2002/2003) is a deaf American actress who starred in the 2017 drama film Wonderstruck and the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place. For Wonderstruck, she was nominated for several awards for best youth performance.\n', ' Simmonds is a native of the US state of Utah. She lives in Bountiful, Utah. She has four siblings; two older and two younger than her. At twelve months old, Simmonds lost her hearing due to a medication overdose. Her mother learned American Sign Language and taught the family so they could communicate with her. When Simmonds was three years old, she started attending the Jean Massieu School of the Deaf, where she participated in its drama club. After completing sixth grade, she mainstreamed at the Mueller Park Junior High School in the fall of 2015. She has performed at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, and her sole film experience before Wonderstruck was a deaf student\'s short, "Color the World". Simmonds has a cochlear implant.\n', ' Simmonds, who read the deaf-themed juvenile novel Wonderstruck when it was published in 2011, received news of open casting for the film adaptation (released in 2017) from her former drama teacher and auditioned for a role in the film. She competed with over 250 others. When she won the role, she moved to New York City with her mother and her younger siblings to film Wonderstruck. She used American Sign Language interpreters to communicate on set and also received a tutor to continue schoolwork while filming. Vanity Fair's Charles Bramesco said of her casting, "A Utah native without any major film credits to her name, young Simmonds is expected to make quite a splash both as a new face in the industry as well as an icon for deaf and otherwise sensory-disabled actors." When Wonderstruck premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Associated Press\'s Jake Coyle said Simmonds\'s screen debut was "hailed as a breakthrough". Simmonds was subsequently nominated for several awards for best youth performance (see accolades). The Associated Press also recognized Simmonds as one of eight actors who were Breakthrough Entertainers of 2017.\n', '