Kevin Valdez Talks About His Upcoming Role in Little Voice

As someone personally affected by autism, actor Kevin Valdez talks about his role in the upcoming Apple+ TV show, Little Voice.

Kevin Valdez, himself on the autism spectrum, is at the center of a new coming-of-age drama that premieres on Apple’s streaming service titled Little Voice. The show follows Bess King, a young aspiring singer that’s working in the New York music scene trying to fulfill her dream of making it into the big thing.

Along with trying to break into the highly competitive music scene, Bess is also balancing a complicated love triangle, an alcoholic father, and an autistic brother called Louie, played by Valdez.

Louie, a musical theatre enthusiast himself, is struggling to adapt to living in a new group home without his sister. Valdez beat out over 300 other actors to get his first role on screen.

“I believe that as an autistic person, I have this motivation to support people with autism,” said Valdez, who was diagnosed with the developmental disorder at 22 months old. “My career can show what everybody can do regardless of your disability.”

Supporting Valdez in Little Voice is a group of other actors with autism that play the role of Louie’s roommates in the group home he’s living in. The people behind Little Voice said a lot of time and detail was spent ensuring that the scripts accurately and represented people with autism in a realistic manner.

“You think it’s going to be difficult (to) have five actors on the autism spectrum on set together, but they were so prepared and so imaginative that it was a beautiful surprise,” said Jessie Nelson, a creator of the show. “Kevin and all the other actors who play the roommates were wonderful actors, to begin with, so I dealt with them like any other actors. They were never playing themselves.”

If you want to check out Little Voice for yourself, a new episode will air on Apple+ TV every Friday.