Color of Hockey: Woodard, 10-year-old deaf player, nominated for Emmy Award

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Keivonn Woodard, a 10-year-old deaf player from the Bowie Hockey Club in Bowie, Maryland, who was nominated for a 2023 Emmy Award for his role in the HBO hit “The Last of Us.” The award in his category will be presented in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Keivonn Woodard was just another player at the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association camp in Chicago in June.

Well, almost.

“The kids at the camp were, like, ‘He’s an actor, he’s on TV, but, he’s just like me,’” AHIHA president Kevin Delaney said.

Keivonn, a 10-year-old hockey player and novice actor from Maryland, has gotten a lot of double-takes and accolades since his appearance in the HBO hit series “The Last of Us.”

The forward for the Bowie Hockey Club in Bowie, Maryland, is poised to gain even more attention if he wins a 2023 Emmy Award in the best guest actor in a drama series category for playing Sam Burrell in the postapocalyptic zombie fungus thriller adapted from the popular “The Last of Us” video game.

He’ll be at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Show in the Peacock Theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Saturday (Jan. 6) with other nominees in his category and waiting to hear who’s the winner of the prized trophy.

The other nominees are “The Last of Us” co-stars Murray Bartlett, Lamar Johnson and Nick Offerman; and James Cromwell and Ariyan Moayed for the HBO series “Succession.” “The Last of Us” actors are among 24 Emmy nominations for the show.

Keivonn, nicknamed “Hollywood” by his Bowie teammates and coaches for his enthusiastic goal celebrations, made history as the youngest person to be nominated in the guest actor category.

He said receiving an Emmy would be a milestone that draws attention to the deaf community. About 70 million people worldwide are deaf, according to the World Federation of the Deaf.

He said winning the award would also be a nice tribute to his father, Dwayne Woodard, an Eastern Athletic Association of the Deaf championship basketball player who died of cancer on Feb. 18, 2021.

“I would feel that it’s just a big accomplishment,” Keivonn said. “I mean it would be big-time, especially making history.”

Delaney said Keivonn just being considered for the award has had an impact in the deaf and hard of hearing hockey community.

“It gives kids his age something to strive for themselves,” said Delaney, who is the deaf/hard of hearing representative in USA Hockey’s disabled hockey disciplines.

“For the deaf hockey community, it gives a little bit more awareness to deaf hockey.  People think it’s something different than regular hockey. No, deaf kids play hearing hockey.”

Keivonn landed the “The Last of Us” role after he and his mother, April Jackson-Woodard, sent an audition video to the show’s creators, who changed the Sam Burrell character from hearing in the video game to deaf in the series to highlight people with disabilities.

But they had to find a Black male actor between 7 and 12 years old who was fluent in American of British sign language. So series co-creator Craig Mazin put out a casting call on Twitter, the social media platform now called X, which caught the attention of friends of the Woodard family.

Keivonn’s life has been a whirlwind since the series and the Emmy nomination.

His performance in the series led Subaru of America to cast and star him in a 30-second television commercial titled “A Beautiful Silence” that first aired in August. It features a father and son signing as they drive and tour through Yosemite National Park.

The Critics Choice Association presented Keivonn with its Rising Star Award at its “Celebration of Cinema & Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements” event on Dec. 4 for his role in “The Last of Us.”

Keivonn also has a lead role in “Fractal,” a science fiction short that was in post-production before the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike, which was settled in November.

Hockey has kept him busy, too. He worked out on the ice with Washington Capitals players at their practice facility in February and taught forward Alex Ovechkin, his favorite player, how to sign his nickname, “Ovi,” in ASL.

“Obviously, the (Emmy) nomination was nice,” Keivonn said with a smile. “But ... meeting Ovechkin was nice, too.”

The Capitals have helped Keivonn on his hockey journey through a 2023 grant to the Bowie club from the Washington Capitals and Monumental Sports & Entertainment Impact Fund that helps cover the cost of an ASL interpreter who is on the bench for his games and practices.

When Keivonn traveled to Chicago for the weeklong AHIHA camp in June it was the first time he skated with other deaf and hard of hearing players.

“Some people knew how to sign and there were some people who were hard of hearing that mostly read lips,” Keivonn said. “There were some people I taught a little bit of sign (language) to, so that was an interesting experience.”

Keivonn said he likes acting but remains steadfast in his desire to become the first deaf Black player in the NHL, preferably for the Capitals.

“Of course, I’d love to be able to do both," he said, "but still being a hockey player is what I want to do.”