Marlee Matlin Is a Grandma! Daughter Sarah Welcomes Baby Girl: 'No Way to Describe the Feeling' (Exclusive)
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Marlee Matlin shares a new photo of her first granddaughter with PEOPLE and says the love she's feeling is overwhelming
Leon Bennett/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
Marlee Matlin attends 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar PartyMarlee Matlin is officially a grandma!
The actress recently became a first-time grandmother after her oldest daughter Sarah Rose Grandalski welcomed her first baby in late April.
"There's no way to describe the feeling of becoming a grandparent for the first time," Matlin, 58, tells PEOPLE of granddaughter Brooklyn Rose Garriola. "The love for the child truly overwhelms you in the best way."
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Marlee Maitlin
Marlee Matlin with her first grandchild, Brooklyn Rose GarriolaIn December, the Oscar-winner announced that her daughter was pregnant with a baby girl in a cute Instagram video.
In the post, Matlin's 28-year-old daughter walked past her, and then the actress took her daughter’s wrist and pulled her closer, rubbing her growing belly. She then signed "It's a girl" in American Sign Language.
"We've been promoted to GRANDPARENTS!" she captioned the video.
Matlin and her husband, retired Burbank police officer Kevin Grandalski, married in 1993 at the home of Matlin's longtime pal Henry Winkler. She and Grandalski first met on the set of the police drama Reasonable Doubts. They share four children together: Brandon Joseph Grandalski, 23, Tyler Daniel Grandalski, 21, Isabelle Jane Grandalski, 19, and Sarah.
Matlin, who has been deaf since she was 18 months old after a childhood illness, previously opened up to PEOPLE about advocating for more inclusion of the deaf community in Hollywood.
Matlin said she wants to remind others to expand their mindset about what diversity and inclusion really mean.
"A lot of people forget that diversity also includes deaf and disabled people," she said.
"I'm still seeing lack of representation, whether you're talking about in magazines, or online, or on television, or in film."
When she was 21, Matlin became the first ever deaf actor to win an actor for her role in Children of a Lesser God.
When she was cast in the critically acclaimed film CODA in 2021, she said she wouldn't take the role if they cast a hearing actor for the main role. (The role went to deaf actor Tony Katsur.)
"I said I would walk off if they hired a hearing actor to play the deaf father," she told PEOPLE. "That's not something that I take for granted any longer. I was actually surprised that they listened."
She added, "I was really proud to be part of this very beautiful film. We want people to know there's a culture out there other than what the [hearing community] experiences, and it deserves respect and attention."
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