Ali Stroker
Ali Stroker is an actor, born 1987.
The record is the headline and it is worth stating plainly: Stroker is the first actor who uses a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage, and the first to be nominated for and to win a Tony Award. The win came in 2019, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, for Oklahoma!. Before that she reached the finals of the second season of The Glee Project in 2012, guested on Glee the following year, and played Anna in Deaf West Theatre's 2015 revival of Spring Awakening.
The screen record is a different shape: mostly television, mostly supporting. She is Chuck in Ozark, Claudia in the 2022 thriller Echoes, Wendy in Faking It, Tamara in Ten Days in the Valley. Running alongside it is a substantial children's voice career, Sunday in Big City Greens, Daisy in Alice's Wonderland Bakery, Gliderbella in Firebuds, Amy in Big Nate, which is where a trained musical voice tends to find steady work.
The gap between the two halves is the interesting thing. The stage gave her a Tony and a permanent entry in the record books; television has mostly given her guest arcs and animation booths. A 2026 film, Office Romance, is listed with her as Maggie. She is also credited as an author, which an acting filmography does not capture.
Movies (2)
TV (10)
Where to start with Ali Stroker
Her defining performances are on a stage, so nothing here will show you what the Tony was for. Given that, Ozark is the sensible first stop: the part is not large, but it puts her in the best-made show she has been near, and her scene work holds up next to that cast. Echoes gives her far more room, a twisty Netflix limited series where Claudia carries real plot weight, and Ten Days in the Valley is the one to pick if you want her in straight drama.
If you came for the voice, Big City Greens is the sharpest-written of the animated shows, with Alice's Wonderland Bakery and Firebuds aimed younger. The Glee Project is the origin document, competition television with all of that format's problems, but it is where the run started.