Shaylee Mansfield

Shaylee Mansfield was born deaf on April 6, 2009,[1] to Sheena McFeely, a former actress,[2] and Manny Johnson, who have the aforementioned condition and run ASL Nook, a website and YouTube channel that teaches people American Sign Language (ASL).[3] Her younger sister, Ivy, is hearing.[2][4] They grew up in Austin, Texas.[5] Mansfield began signing Christmas stories on ASL Nook at age four with The Nightmare Before Christmas. At five, she performed How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; E! praised it: "We can't remember the last time a holiday story made us smile so much. ... [I]t's mostly because she is so into how she tells the story. She is so expressive with her sign-language and facial expressions."[6] In 2015, she enacted Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, to the delight of HuffPost; the aggregator again commended her retelling of The Polar Express, calling it "beautiful ... like you've never seen before".[3] Many of her videos went viral, much to Mansfield's surprise, who had believed it was impossible for deaf videos to do this.[5]

After seeing the ASL Nook episode demonstrating Disney-related signs, a casting director contacted Mansfield and her family about becoming a part of the company's Unforgettable Campaign, which honors events within the Disney parks and resorts.[5] They went to Disneyland to make an "Unforgettable Stories" video for the park; the family met a Minnie Mouse, who had recently begun learning sign language. The video went viral, garnering, as of April 2016, 11 million views and becoming the second most-watched of Disney's ads.[7] The family then appeared in documentary film Born This Way: Deaf Out Loud.[2][5]

Mansfield was suggested to an agent by a friend from Los Angeles for a role in Disney's Christmas film Noelle. The agent arranged to meet with her, but only on that particular day. Mansfield had two hours to prepare her lines before the audition; she was eventually cast in the role.[5] Noelle was released on November 12, 2019, to mixed reviews.[8] In July 2019, she was announced to have joined the cast of Netflix's Feel the Beat,[9] her first main role. This made her one of the youngest deaf actresses to play a main role in a feature film. The production hired multiple ASL interpreters and coaches to ensure accuracy.[5]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mansfield criticzed Instagram for a lack of captioning, preventing her and others from understanding their "favorite people" in videos.[4][10] Her video, posted on Twitter, was liked and retweeted thousands of times.[4] She implored Instagram's chief executive officer, Adam Mosseri, to add auto-captioning to the network.[10] In 2021, Mansfield appeared as Peyton, the deaf daughter of Kim (Amy Smart) and Brad (Peter Facinelli), in 13 Minutes. The Hollywood Reporter praised her "very natural screen presence".[11]