alexander, a psychotherapist, author, and recipient of the helen keller achievement award. christine "coco" roschaert, director of the nepal deafblind project, kick-off speaker for deaf awareness week at the university of vermont, and participant in the gallaudet united now movement. catherine fischer wrote her autobiography of growing up with usher syndrome in louisiana, entitled orchid of the bayou. vendon wright has written two books describing his life with usher syndrome, i was blind but now i can see and through my eyes. christian markovic, and blind-deaf illustrator and designer; fuzzy wuzzy designs. john tracy, the son of actor spencer tracy and namesake of the oralist john tracy clinic. james d. watson, dna helix co-discoverer and nobel laureate, has homozygous ush1b mutations, according to his published genome. it is not clear why he did not develop the syndrome. this lack of genetic penetrance argues that expression of the phenotype of usher syndrome may be more complex than originally assumed. the israeli nalaga'at (do touch) deaf-blind acting ensemble consists of 11 deaf-blind actors, most of whom are diagnosed with usher syndrome. the theater group has put on several productions and appeared both locally in israel and abroad in london and broadway. katie kelly, a gold medal-winning paralympian. teigan van roosmalen, paraolympian. cyril axelrod, catholic priest. robert tarango, first deafblind person to star in a movie, in the role of artie in the oscar-nominated short film feeling through.