Keivonn Woodard

ACTING FOR REPRESENTATION

- Megan McCluskey

WHEN KEIVONN WOODARD FIRST APPEARS AS SAM BURRELL IN the fourth episode of HBO's postapocalyptic epic The Last of Us, he's holding a gun and gesturing for quiet by lifting a single finger to his lips. During the original 2023 run of the series' first season, that seconds-long scene was enough for fans to spend the next week buzzing in anticipation of seeing more of Sam, an 8-year-old survivor of the show's zombie fungus pandemic who, like Keivonn himself, is Deaf.

"I received so many positive comments," Keivonn, now 11, tells TIME through an American Sign Language interpreter. "People were really looking forward to my second episode."