Jessy Yates

Jessy Yates is a performer and Disability advocate from Cleveland, Ohio, now living and creating in New York City and New Haven, CT. She is currently* a MFA Acting candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she is the first wheelchair using student in the school's history. As a theatre actor she has performed at venues such as The Public Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ars Nova, and many more. Her show original work, You're Going to Hell if You Laugh, combines clown and burlesque to shed light on infantilizing stigmas that accompany moving through the world in a visibly disabled body. It has been seen on the main-stage at Dixon Place and at Prelude Festival 2017. When not performing Jessy writes and consults on Disability Justice. She has written pieces for Salon, Alternet, Variety and her storytelling spots have been featured on Lena Dunham's podcast Lenny Says. She has served on the NYC Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities Youth Council and acted as an ambassador to The Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Additionally, she is an original member of Disability/Arts NYC Taskforce, a group that advocates for the right of disabled artists to have access to cultural resources throughout the city. She is an alumnus of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and proud recipient of The Ruderman Foundation's full scholarship awarded to actors studying for an advanced career in the arts and media. *4/2021