TL Forsberg, Rainbow Award

TL Forsberg, affectionately billed as “the Deaf Lady Gaga,” is an internationally celebrated artist, activist, and cultural disruptor whose work dismantles inherited narratives around identity, power, and belonging. An American Ambassador on Disability, TL’s life and artistry are featured in the award-winning documentary See What I’m Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary. She is widely known for her role as Olivia on ABC/Disney’s Switched at Birth and her work on VH1’s SuperGroup. 

Her critically acclaimed solo show, The Book That Won’t Close: Confessions of a Love Addict, earned widespread recognition and numerous accolades, including the Encore Award at the Santa Monica Playhouse (year), Best of Fest at the Whitefire Theatre SoloFest (2019, 2020), a Diversity Scholarship at the Hollywood Fringe Festival (2021), a Top of the Fringe nomination (2021), the Best of the Broadwater Award (2021), the Producer’s Encore Award (2021), and the Namba Arts Solo Splash Award for cultural relevance and female empowerment (2021).

TL toured internationally for over a decade as a Deaf singer and performer, opening for Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos, composing music for major Deaf arts festivals and films, and writing the theme song for the Miss Deaf International Pageant, earning global recognition including a Deaf Pearl Award in 2012, the Christine Daniels Trans Ally Scholarship in 2016, and the American Ambassador of Disability Grant from Israel’s Shekel Disability Festival (2016). 

Her newest solo work, Between Two Worlds: Chronicles of the Not Deaf Enough Girl, confronts internalised hierarchy and exclusion while claiming unapologetic ownership of conscious identity, functioning as both a visceral solo theatre experience and a keynote platform, merging artistry, advocacy, and ministry. Critics hail her as “A master at unfolding societal taboos-a force to be reckoned with,”(Noho Arts) and warn that she is

“Forsberg is a performer who will shake you to your soul!“(Broadway World)

Beyond the stage, TL serves as a Creativity Doula, co-produces The Zero to Fierce Women’s Festival, and sits on the Hollywood Fringe Festival advisory board, advocating for fair and equitable practices in the arts.

She believes that “It’s by sharing our stories and witnessing each other’s diversities that we begin to build a new world, a world where hearts are open to inclusivity and difference, not out of fear, gatekeeping, or mere tolerance, but from a greater capacity to honor our own diversity from within, and in learning to be with ourselves, we can learn to be with each other- A Radial Call to Inclusion.” TL lives in LA, with her partner Donavon and their non-binary cat, Victor-Victor Go-GO Boots! To learn more about her art and ministry, visit http://www.tlforsberg.com.