20 in their Twenties 2021

Thanks to a recent role, Jessy Yates is now officially a professional New York actor. She recently appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit—a series known for casting successful actors early in their career. Getting there has taken Yates years of training and self-reflection, as she sought balance between being a disability advocate and an actor.

Yates has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. She acted as a kid but decided to go to college for directing. At New York University, she tackled her disabled identity. She decided to direct shows that explore the physical world of disability, but she had no one to cast.

“If I wanted to be the person I cast,” she said, “I had to make sure I was good enough for the job.”

She applied and was admitted to the Yale School of Drama. The dean, realizing the school would have a lot to learn, helped create a scholarship for her. Yates has pushed the school and her classmates to make spaces and work accessible. She hopes that her experience influences how they include disabled actors at the school’s now-accessible repertory theaters—and in their future work, on the sets of the television shows where Yates hopes to work.

Correction, June 29, 2021: Yates is 27, not 29 years-old.