Natasha Ofili from 'Miles Morales' and 'Spider-Man 2' on Working as a Deaf Black Actress in Video Games and Music Videos – The Nerds of Color

Natasha Ofili is a deaf black actress who plays Hailey Cooper in the film Miles Morales And Spider Man 2 Video games from Insomniac Games. My conversation with Natasha and ASL interpreter Gabriel can now be seen on the NOC YouTube channel.

Recently, Natasha collaborated with Coldplay on her video for “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” which heavily incorporates sign language into the visual concept. She also completed the ASL alongside Mickey Guyton's performance of “God Bless America” ​​for the women's singles final at the recent US Open. She also talks about developing personal film and writing projects that relate to the perspective of a deaf person.

Hailey is one of the first characters Miles meets in the opening sequence of Spider-Man: Miles Moralesa game that enveloped us in the splendor of New York street life during the isolated winter of 2020, when the COVID pandemic was at its peak. In Spider-Man 2, In the solo side mission “Graffiti Trouble”, Hailey is the playable character, which is a fairly unique experience in video games as she is deaf and communicates primarily through sign language, phone texts, and visual art. She doesn't fight symbiotes or anything like that, but the audio and visual design is particularly immersive in this mission, and “Graffiti Trouble” is ultimately one of the more emotional sections of it Spider Man 2.

If you're interested in another superhero-themed interview that features the experiences of deaf people and an ASL interpreter, feel free to check out my conversation with Marvel's Echo lead Alaqua Cox where she tells us at shows others how to sign “Daredevil.” Oh man, I wanted to ask Natasha if the signature for Miles' “Venom” powers is different than that of Venom, the symbiote monster. Well, I'm sure it will come up again in the natural course of things.

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