Douglas Ridloff

Douglas Ridloff is a poet and visual storyteller creating original works in American Sign Language. He has gained national and international recognition, having performed in Jamaica, Cuba, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, the United Kingdom, and in such venues as the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum, SITE Santa Fe, CUNY Graduate Center, the University of Chicago and the Harvard/Radcliffe Institute. Douglas’s work has been featured in NBC News, Circa, HBO, Vice, CNN’s Great Big Story, and at TEDxVienna and TEDxUniGeneva.

In addition to developing and performing original ASL poetry and narratives, Douglas has been an active promoter of ASL literature. He serves as the executive director of ASL SLAM, a monthly open mic event at the Nuyorican Cafe, whose events amassed an international following when hosted online in 2020-21.

As another means of promoting ASL to wide audiences, he has worked as an ASL Consultant for film and TV, including programs such as A Quiet Place 1 & 2, Marvel’s Eternals, Saturday Night Live, Hawkeye, and Only Murders in the Building. He is currently working as a Consulting Producer for Marvel’s ECHO.