Danny Woodburn
Actor and Disability Advocate
“Anyone with opportunity and power to help or lift-up those who are marginalized and educate those who are not, is accountable to the collective consciousness of responsible humanity and more importantly their own conscience”
We are proud to induct Danny Woodburn into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.
A veteran of over 30 films (Mirror Mirror, Watchmen, Death to Smoochy, TMNT). He is perhaps best known for Mickey Abbott, Kramer’s volatile friend on NBC’s Emmy-winning, history-making show, Seinfeld, but to date has more than 150 television appearances in regular and recurring roles on some of televisions best loved shows; Bones, Tracy Takes On¦, Murder She Wrote, Becker, Charmed, Baywatch, Crash & Bernstein, Passions and The Bold and the Beautiful to name a few.
As an advocate, Danny has used his recognizability to raise awareness of the need for inclusion and understanding of people with disability, as a speaker, author, teacher, advisor and entertainer working with studios & networks (CBS, 20th Century Fox, NBC Universal, Amazon, Netflix), industry established institutions: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, co-developer / negotiator SAG-AFTRA/AMPTP Disability Task Force, USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Variety Inclusion Summit, Media Access, ReelAbilities Film Festival, ACLU Summer Advocacy Institute, Lights Camera Access 2.0, TCM Projected Image, Casting Society of America, UCLA Disabilities Studies Conference; organizations: Ruderman Family Foundation, National Organization on Disability, Disability Rights Legal Center, American Association of People with Disability, California Respectability Coalition, Starkloff Institute and current co-producer of the “ADA Lead On” events series that has employed nearly 100 disabled exist during the pandemic.
He is the co-author of the first White Paper on “Employment of People with Disabilities in Television” with the Ruderman Family Foundation
In Hollywood, Danny has been a key player in the changes happening right now in the industry. If a network or studio has change their view of disability, there is a good chance that Danny had a hand in it.
AWARDS
Temple University Alumni Achievement Award 2001
Disability Rights Legal Center’s DREAM Award 2009
Screen Actors Guild Harold Russell Award 2010.
Media Access The Norman Lear-Geri Jewell Lifetime Achievement Award—2016
In addition to being co-vice chair of the SAG-AFTRA PWD Committee
He serves on the Ruderman Family Foundation International Council on Disability
The ReelAbilities Film Festival Steering Committee
The National Disability Theater Company