Hometown Hero: Daniel Durant Returns to Duluth After ‘CODA’ Oscars Win

CODA took home 3 Academy Awards, including Best Picture -- the first film with a predominantly deaf cast to do so.

DULUTH, Minn.- City officials, educators, and members of the deaf and hard of hearing community welcomed back their hometown hero, Daniel Durant Monday after a historic win at the Oscars last week.

“Now therefore I, Emily Larson, Mayor of the City of Duluth, do officially declare April 4th, 2022 as Daniel Durant day in the City of Duluth,” Larson announced to the crowd at the DECC.

Before standing on the world’s biggest stage at the Oscars, Daniel Durant, 32, came a long way from being adopted as a baby by his moms here in Duluth.

He attended Lakewood Elementary, performed theater at the Depot, and attended the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) in Faribault.

“So, I’m thankful to the Duluth community for their support and being where I’m from and to start my life in Duluth with the support from my moms and the schools and the wonderful interpreters that I had, and in the deaf community here that I was able to take all of that and be who I am today,” said Durant, signing ASL interpreted by Doug Bowen-Bailey.

“So I feel like this celebration is really touching for me and I think it’s really celebrating the whole Duluth community as well,” he said.

And it seemed the whole Duluth community turned out to the DECC to welcome Durant back.

“Before you were the world’s, you were ours,” said Mayor Larson, “Duluth is so proud of you and thrilled that millions of people around the world know your work.”

In CODA, a girl named Ruby is the only hearing member in her deaf family who run a fishing business in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Durant plays her brother, Leo.

While Ruby wants to pursue a career in singing her family still needs a hearing member on board.

Durant said it was overwhelming being on stage with his acting heroes — Marlee Matlin, the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award in 1987, and Troy Kotsur, who won Best Supporting Actor this year — accepting the Academy Award for Best Picture.

But he’s proud of seeing where the film can take the deaf, hard of hearing, and Children Of Deaf Adults community in the future.

“So I look forward to having producers and directors and writers asking the team that worked on CODA, how did it work? How did you get the storyline to work as well as it did?” said the actor.

Growing up, Durant said he occasionally felt alone as a deaf child in mainstream education settings. “So now being back here I see, when there’s more awareness about deaf culture than it was during my time growing up.”

And even with a Best Picture-winning movie under his belt, Durant continues working one on one with deaf and hard of hearing children to help them accomplish the dreams he has continued making a reality.

“I work with a young boy in Eveleth who I look at and I see myself in him, he’s in a mainstream setting, and I just see him looking up to me now,” said Durant.

“And I think for other kids to have that role model right now is just really significant,” he said.

CODA is now playing at Marcus Theaters in Duluth and Hermantown on a limited run.

Later this week on FOX 21 members of the deaf and hard of hearing community here as well as educators at UMD and Daniel’s alma-mater Lakewood Elementary will share more on the impact Daniel, and CODA, have had here in the Twin Ports.