TUESDAY, OCT. 14 at 8:00PM

For more than 30 years, Marlee Matlin has captivated audiences on stage and screen. She won an Academy Award for her acclaimed performance in 1986’s Children of A Lesser God, which made her the youngest Oscar winner to receive the Best Actress award and the first Deaf actor to ever win an Oscar. Since then, she has given memorable film and television performances, including those in The West Wing, The Practice, and the Academy Award-winning film CODA. Matlin shares her story in her native American Sign Language in American Masters – Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, premiering Tuesday night on APT and the PBS App.

Featuring archival footage and interviews, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore follows Matlin’s life from her own perspective, starting with her childhood in Illinois and through her growing stardom, including her turbulent relationship with co-star William Hurt and her struggle to overcome addiction. The film also features never-before-seen home video from her longtime interpreter and producing partner Jack Jason, showing Matlin on the sets of some of her most notable work, including the hit series Seinfeld. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, features interviews with Matlin’s closest family, friends and colleagues, including Henry Winkler, Lauren Ridloff, Aaron Sorkin, Randa Haines, Troy Kotsur, Sian Heder, Liz Tannebaum and John Maucere.

Born and raised in Morton Grove, Illinois, Matlin became the only Deaf person in her family at 18 months old. She fell in love with acting at a young age – at 7 years old, she made her stage debut in an International Center on Deafness and the Arts (ICODA) children’s theater production of The Wizard of Oz. During one of her ICODA productions, Matlin met actor and mentor Winkler, who encouraged her to pursue acting. A few years later, Matlin auditioned for what would be her award-winning, breakthrough role as Sarah Norman in the film adaptation of Children of A Lesser God.

After winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, Matlin was catapulted into fame as one of the first prominent Deaf actors in Hollywood. She used her platform to champion disability rights in front of Congress and was instrumental in the enactment of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990, which required new television sets sold in the United States to be built with closed-caption technology. Matlin continues to shine on screen and advocate for more Deaf actors and accessibility in Hollywood. Most recently, Matlin starred in the 2021 film CODA, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.