Natasha Ofili

Natasha Ofili,

First-generation American actress with Sierra Leonean heritage, Natasha Ofili became deaf at 18 months old and built a career defined by breaking barriers for Black Deaf performers. A United States Artists honoree, her work spans gaming, television, independent film, and live performance. Best known for voicing Hailey Cooper in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and her role as Principal Karen Vaughn in The Politician.

Natasha Ofili’s Place in Video Game and Representation History

When Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales launched in November 2020, it quietly made history – not through its combat systems or open-world design, but through a single supporting character named Hailey Cooper. Voiced by Natasha Ofili, Hailey became the first Black Deaf woman portrayed in a video game, and the performance drew immediate attention from the gaming and disability communities alike. Three years later, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 pushed that legacy further by giving Hailey her own playable side mission, “Graffiti Trouble,” where players experience the world through her perspective – navigating sound and communication entirely on her terms.

The Politician and a Screen Presence That Turned Heads

Before the Spider-Man games, Ofili’s first major screen credit came through Ryan Murphy’s Netflix satirical drama The Politician, where she played Principal Karen Vaughn. Oprah Daily highlighted her alongside other newcomers as performers who managed to command the screen against a cast of established veterans. The role signaled something clear – her ability to hold a scene had nothing to do with hearing, and everything to do with craft. That attention opened doors quickly, leading to a voice role in Amazon Originals’ animated series Undone and the short film Aimee Victoria, which screened at 18 film festivals across the country.

The Spider-Man Games and the Character of Hailey Cooper

Hailey Cooper, as written and performed across both Insomniac games, is a street artist and community activist in East Harlem – a close friend of Miles Morales whose communication through American Sign Language, visual art, and text messages is woven directly into the game’s design. Ofili’s performance earned the 2024 Game Accessibility Conference award for Best Representation, recognizing the portrayal of Hailey as the first Black Deaf playable character in the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 game. The award acknowledged not just a milestone in representation, but genuine craft in making a character feel authentic to Deaf experience within an action blockbuster.

Beyond Gaming – Filmmaking, Coldplay, and Advocacy

Ofili’s ambitions extend well past performance. In 2021, she wrote, produced, and acted in the short film The Multi, largely drawn from her own life, which premiered at both the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival and the Toronto Black Film Festival. Her creative reach expanded into music in 2024, when she served as Creative Director and lead performer for Coldplay’s music video for “feelslikeimfallinginlove” – the lead single from their album Moon Music – in collaboration with director Ben Mor and Pulse Films. That video, which integrated sign language throughout its visual concept, earned two MTV VMA nominations for Best Rock and Video for Good and accumulated over 41 million views on YouTube. She also performed ASL alongside Mickey Guyton’s rendition of “God Bless America” at the Women’s Singles final of the U.S. Open.

A Life Shaped by Deafness and Storytelling

Ofili’s mother immigrated from Sierra Leone to the United States, making Natasha a first-generation American. At 18 months old, a high fever left her deaf – and growing up as the only deaf child in her family shaped her relationship with imagination, solitude, and self-expression from an early age. Libraries and stories became central to how she processed the world. That background feeds directly into the kinds of characters she pursues and the projects she develops – ones that treat Deaf perspective not as a dramatic limitation to overcome, but as a full and distinct way of experiencing life. Through her production company NIOVISION Productions, she continues writing and directing work aimed at exactly those narratives.