Marlee Matlin's Household Is One With "NO Barriers"

Hollywood today is more diverse than it ever has been. Audiences are seeing a greater variety of perspectives in movies, thanks to a push for representation.

But while there's been an effort for greater inclusivity in recent years, some actors have been making inroads in the industry for quite some time.

Marlee Matlin was only 21 years old when she won the 1987 Academy Award for her lead role in Children of a Lesser God, and made history as the only deaf actress to ever win an award in the category. While she's been able to sustain an extremely successful career for decades since her big win, Marlee is also a happily married woman with four kids.

So, who are her children? Keep reading to learn more about the CODA actress's personal life.

Marlee Matlin met her future husband, Kevin Grandalski, on the set of NBC’s Reasonable Doubts, in which she played Assistant District Attorney Tess Kaufman opposite Mark Harmon's Detective Dicky Cobb.

Kevin works with the Burbank Police Department, and on that fateful day, he had been assigned to provide security and traffic control on the set of Marlee's police drama series.

“I saw him, and I was hooked! It must have been the uniform,” Marlee once joked, per Oregon Jewish Life Magazine. The couple were married by both a priest and rabbi in the yard of Marlee’s close personal friend, Happy Days actor Henry Winkler. Marlee and Kevin went on to have four beautiful children.

Sara Rose Grandalski, Marlee and Kevin’s oldest, was born on January 19, 1996. In a happy coincidence, Sara was born on the same day that Marlee's character, Laurie Bey, also gave birth on Picket Fences.

Since Marlee is deaf, all her children grew up learning American Sign Language and their household uses a mixture of sign and speech. As the actress told Verywell Health in 2020, her daughter Sara’s first word was the sign for “telephone,” which she made at just 6 months old. “This is a household that speaks and signs so there are NO barriers,” Marlee explained.

Marlee and Kevin’s second child, son Brandon Joseph Grandalski, was born on September 12, 2000. His Instagram is set to private so we don't know a lot about him, but these days, he’s a student at Marquette University’s “LA Experience” for Digital Studies students, in which students get to meet and learn from alumni who are successfully working in the entertainment industry.

The couple’s third child, Tyler Daniel Grandalski, was born on July 18, 2002. Tyler’s Instagram is pretty sparse, but it appears he likes fashion. As of April 6, 2021, he committed to attending San Diego State University in the fall.

The youngest of the Matlin-Grandalski clan is daughter Isabelle Jane Grandalski, who was born on December 26, 2003.

It’s clear that Marlee dotes on her baby girl. On Isabelle’s most recent birthday, the actress posted a carousel of sweet pictures along with the caption, “I’m the LUCKIEST mother in the world to have a daughter like you … Dad and I are over the moon that you are in our lives.”

Sounds like the Matlin-Grandalski family is just as adorable as you’d imagine.