Sandra Mae Frank

Sandra Mae Frank is an American actress working in film, television, and theatre. Born on March 21, 1990, in Louisville, Kentucky, Frank lost her hearing at the age of three and performs primarily in American Sign Language. She attended the Louisville Deaf Oral School, now called Heuser Hearing Institute and Learning Academy, and later duPont Manual High School, where she participated in a Youth Performing Arts School production of Crimes of the Heart. She earned a degree in Theatre Arts from Gallaudet University in 2013.

Frank made her Broadway debut in 2015, portraying Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening, a production that featured both deaf and hearing actors, among them Marlee Matlin. The role made her the only deaf actor, as of June 2025, to perform a lead role in a Broadway musical. She delivered her performance through sign language in coordination with a hearing singer, and director Michael Arden noted that Frank brought depth and historical understanding to the character of Wendla Bergmann. The following year, Frank played Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof at the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, another mixed deaf and hearing production, and returned to that same stage in 2018 for a production of Fun Home.

Her film work includes the 2018 horror film Soul to Keep, the 2019 science-fiction film Multiverse, in which she played Amy, a student involved in experiments connecting different versions of the universe, and the 2019 romantic Christmas film Season of Love. She was cast in 2022 for the 2023 film The Silent Hour, playing the role of Ava alongside Joel Kinnaman, Mekhi Phifer, and Mark Strong.

On television, Frank made a guest appearance in season one, episode nine of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, playing a deaf student named Abigail who sign-sang Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" in ASL while a cello replaced the vocal track. In 2021, she joined the NBC drama series New Amsterdam as Dr. Elizabeth Wilder, a deaf oncologist working alongside Dr. Goodwin, played by Ryan Eggold. She entered the show as a recurring character in season four and was elevated to the main cast in season five, remaining with the series until its conclusion in January 2023. Marlee Matlin appeared in a guest role during the run, marking a second collaboration between the two performers.

Beyond performing, Frank has pursued directing and advocacy work. In 2022, she co-directed a production of The Music Man at the Olney Theatre, a role for which she received a Helen Hayes Award in 2023. That same year, she played the title role in a mixed deaf and hearing production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, staged by Zach Theatre in cooperation with Deaf Austin Theatre, earning a B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical. Also in 2022, Frank performed the ASL synchronization of the national anthem and "America the Beautiful" at Super Bowl LVI in Inglewood, California. She serves as production manager at the Deaf Austin Theatre in Austin, Texas, and has written about deaf representation in the arts for the Washington Post, using the hashtag DeafTalent to advocate for deaf actors to be cast on equal footing with hearing actors.