Jahannah James

This week, we share more about Jahannah James, a successful actor who at a young age experienced severe hearing loss overnight. The blog explores Jahannah’s thoughts on the importance of deaf awareness and also touches on her opinions regarding the introduction of a BSL GCSE.

 

Carry on reading to learn more about Jahannah:

  1. Hi Jahannah, first, could you please introduce yourself to our Signature weekly readers?

Hi, I am Jahannah, I’m an Actor and content creator from South London.

  1. Can you expand on where you passion for acting came from/when it started?

I was actually a really shy kid and didn’t get confident in drama until around year 9. My School didn’t have a GCSE drama class, so I joined a youth local theatre and did some production of Bugsy Malone and Les Misérables.

  1. At what age did you begin to become aware of being hard of hearing and what emotions did you feel?

I have always had issues with my ears since I was a baby, I grew up with chronic Glue Ear, which meant my ears were always full of fluid and sticky wax which affected my hearing. I was very susceptible to ear infections and got them often. I was given Grommets age 14, which helped reduce the fluid build-up. At the age of 17 I was diagnosed with two middle ear tumours, one on each side called Cholesteatomas. One tumour was very advanced, and I had a Mastoidectomy to remove it. They also had to remove all three of my hearing bones as the tumour had eroded them, which meant I experienced severe hearing loss literally overnight. This was a big shock. I had no connection to the deaf community at that point as my family are hearing, it was a bit of a lonely adjustment, I remember everything sounding like I had a permanent goldfish bowl on my head.

  1. How has your hearing affected your journey into acting, do you feel like you have been treated differently in the acting world?

After a few rounds of corrective ear surgeries that weren’t successful in recovering what I had lost, I was given hearing aids which helped massively, I literally cried when they were turned on. However, sometimes I have been cast in period roles where hearing aids haven’t been invented yet and I have had to remove them in the scene and rely a lot on lip reading, which I am happy to do. I have also always told my scene partners I am partially deaf and asked if they could really project when the shot is only on me, and I have worked with amazing 1st Assistant Directors who will visually cue me on Action. 

Amazingly in the last few TV projects I have done, my character was written as Hard of Hearing, and I have been able to wear my own hearing aids. And twice now a character has been re-written to incorporate my deafness, which is so exciting. I have been able to act in Sign Language which I love. It is such a beautiful expressive language. I have always been told I am ‘too expressive’ or just ‘a lot’ and now when I am signing, it is like my natural energy finally has a proper output.  

 

  1. Why is it so important that people are deaf aware?

12 million people in the UK are deaf or have some degree of hearing loss, and as we get older, hearing loss becomes even more likely. In the past people haven’t seen, and still today, haven’t seen, that huge spectrum fully represented in the Media, Film, The Government. It was only after I started joining the deaf community, it highlighted just how much access to everything is aimed exclusively at the hearing world. It is insane how simple things like captioning video, subtitles, learning a few bits of sign language or the alphabet can make a massive impact on removing the communication barriers.  

 

  1. Here at Signature, we are thrilled to be a part of the campaign to get a BSL GCSE. Why do you think a qualification like this is so important for both the deaf and hearing community?

I would have LOVED to have taken a GCSE in BSL; I wish I had started learning sign earlier. What a fantastic way to gift communication to a generation of young people. This will also create thousands of permanent jobs for deaf teachers. If you are aware of the history of sign language in education, you will know how it was banned in the 1880s by the hearing community and not allowed to be used in schools to teach deaf children until around the 1980s! I think it is perfect now the deaf community can flip that historical narrative, take back the power and teach the next generation to sign and remove any stigma around using it.  

 

  1. What advice would you give to your younger self?

LEARN BSL IMMEDIATELY! It is so much easier to absorb and learn when you are younger and older you will thank you! I would tell my younger self that although I had lost hearing, I was also about to gain a deaf identity. This experience will become part of who I am. There is so much humour in my ears not working so well, I miss hear everyone, I never get song lyrics, and accidently blank people entirely. I would tell myself that there is a whole community of people and a culture I will get to explore and be part of.  

  1. Finally, do you have any specific goals or aspirations that you would like to achieve in the next few years?

I would love to continue to act in BSL. I would love to continue to create shows that showcase the spectrum of hearing loss, and that deafness is a literal rainbow of difference, everyone is unique. I am passionate to see deaf characters in film and television where the story isn’t solely about the struggle of hearing loss, where they can showcase BSL in a positive way.  

 

Here at Signature, we would like to thank Jahannah for sharing her experiences with hearing loss. Her positive attitude shines brightly through her responses. Like Jahannah, we too hope to see deaf and hard of hearing characters more widely on our screens, illuminating the richness that is British Sign Language (BSL).  

 

 

 

Share this article:

Enquiries

Leave your Name, Email and the manner of your enquiry and member of our very helpful team will get back to you as soon as possible.

Skip to content