Bio
Deanne Bray is a deaf American actress best known for playing the title role in the television series Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, from 2002-2005.
She has had guest starring roles on the television shows The Pretender, Ellen, Diagnosis Murder, Strong Medicine, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Rescue Me.
Bray has acted in the made-for-TV movies Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Lightning (1995) and L.A. Sheriff's Homicide (2000); and in the feature films What Do Women Want (1996), Last Mountain (2005) and Universal Signs (2007).
She is profoundly deaf in her right ear and has a 78 dB loss in her left. She can hear a little with her left ear if she uses a hearing aid, though the hearing aid doesn't give her full hearing.
She can read lips, sign ASL and speak, and thus considers herself bilingual: ASL and English. Her first deaf teacher was Lil Skinner at the age of three.
She has never been sad over her hearing loss, and finds it a challenge dealing with people who feel sorry for her because of her deafness. She finds herself often caught in the middle between hearing and deaf culture.
Those who are hearing question why others who are deaf don't speak as well as she does, and those who are deaf feel she does not embrace deaf culture. In her own words "I have the worst in both worlds, but I do have the best in both, as well."
She has hosted a show for the deaf community, Caption This, and teaches math and science to deaf and hard of hearing high school students. She has also established a literacy program, The Little Bookworm Club.
Bray has been married to deaf actor Troy Kotsur since 2001. The couple have one child, Kyra Monique Kotsur, who was born on 8 September 2005.