Mary O’Connor
After graduating from high school, Mary O’Connor moved from Massachusetts to Santa Barbara, California. She answered an ad for an open movie audition and snagged her first acting job in the feature film “The Bet.”. She then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career in films. In 2014, she suffered a rare spinal cord stroke while surfing resulting in being paralyzed from the waist down. She has not let this derail her from her dream of being a working actress and continues to make incredible progress in her recovery.
She talks about her story to inspire others and to bring awareness to the disappointing lack of representation of disabled individuals in the film and television industries.
Mary now walks with a cane and is studying acting with James Franco at his Studio 4 School in Los Angeles.
