Born in Morton Grove, IL; educated at William Rainey Harper College (criminal justice). Delicately pretty, spirited deaf actress who made a highly acclaimed debut in CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (1986) as a proud, angry deaf woman who refuses to learn to speak. Matlin next played Ed Harris's fiancée in Alex Cox's historical drama, WALKER (1987) and made her TV debut in the 1989 movie, "Bridge to Silence". In 1991 she was cast as a hearing-impaired, liberal assistant prosecutor in the TV series, "Reasonable Doubts" (1991-93) in a role originally written for a hearing actress. She enjoyed less success with a return to features in the derivative suspense thriller, HEAR NO EVIL (1993). Matlin has been nominated for Emmy® Awards for her performances in episodes of "Seinfeld", "Picket Fences", "The Practice" and "Law & Order: SVU". She continued her TV career with recurring roles on "The West Wing" (2000-2006), "My Name Is Earl" (2006-07) and "The L Word" (2007-08). Other notable credits include THE LINGUINI INCIDENT (1991), IT'S MY PARTY and SNITCH (both 1996), WHEN JUSTICE FAILS and IN HER DEFENSE (both 1998), FREAK CITY and "Where the Truth Lies" (TV, also exec. prod.) (both 1999), TWO SHADES OF BLUE (2000), ASKARI (2001), WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW!? (2004), WHAT THE BLEEP?: DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE (2006), and SILENT KNIGHTS (planned for 2008, also exec. prod.). Matlin is also a spokesperson for the National Captioning Institute. In 1995, she testified at a Capitol Hill hearing, and helped get a law passed that requires all TV sets 13 inches or larger to be manufactured with built-in chips to provide "Closed Captioning" on their screens. She is currently serving as the National Spokesperson for the largest provider of TV Closed Captioning, and has spoken on behalf of "CC" in Australia, England, France and Italy. Matlin also serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including Very Special Arts, the Starlight Foundation, as well as other charities that primarily benefit children. Matlin is the author of three books for children: Deaf Child Crossing (2002), and its sequels (both with Doug Cooney ) Nobody's Perfect (2006) and Leading Ladies (2007). A former live-in partner of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD co-star William Hurt, Matlin married police officer Kevin Grandalski in 1993. They have four children.  Best Actress 1986: CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD 1 nomination, 1 Award