The Awards

Co-host

Marilee Talkington

Marilee Talkington is an actor, writer, creator, and disability advocate whose nearly three-decade career spans Broadway, film, television, motion capture, and voiceover. She originated the role of Morgan Le Fey in Aaron Sorkin’s Camelot on Broadway, and her screen credits include Apple TV+’s SEE and Extrapolations, NBC’s New Amsterdam, CBS’s CIA, FBI: Most Wanted, and the Lionsgate/Miramax film The Home. As far as she knows, she is the only legally blind actor in the world to have worked across all of these entertainment mediums while legally blind. 

Her impact reaches well beyond the stage and screen. Marilee founded Access Acting Academy (AC3), the first professional acting studio built specifically for blind and low-vision performers. And she currently narrates the Guggenheim Museum’s Mind’s Eye program, bringing visual art to life for blind and low-vision audiences. Marilee has also advised organizations including Google and Amazon on accessible design.

Her work has earned the Helen Keller Achievement Award, the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, and a MacDowell Fellowship, and her advocacy has taken her to the White House as part of the SAG AFTRA National PWD committee. 

You can find Marilee at www.marileetalkington.com

Co-host

Ben Mehl

Ben Mehl is an actor and educator based in New York City. On screen, he is best known for playing Dante Ferguson on Netflix’s You and for his starring role in Hallmark’s My Christmas Guide — two roles in which he brought his lived experience with vision loss to his characters. Additional screen credits include The Good Wife, and independent films Viral Beauty, The Fly Room, and Off Duty.
On stage, Ben has performed with organizations including The Public Theater, Red Bull Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. He received his MFA in Acting from New York University, where he later taught and directed in the Graduate Acting Program. He has taught at acting programs throughout New York and currently serves as Head of Movement for the Acting for Film program at New York Film Academy. Ben is a member of The Actors Center and volunteers with The 52nd Street Project.

Producer

Doug Roland

Doug Roland is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who is fortunate to be returning as producer for the AD Awards Gala for the fifth time. Doug’s work has led to collaborations with many organizations in the disability space, notably creating screening events and speaking at conferences, institutions, and schools around the world to foster conversation about important social issues.