​Douglas Ridloff

Douglas Ridloff is a poet and visual storyteller creating original works in American Sign Language. He is the owner, executive director and host of ASL SLAM  (www.aslslam.com) a monthly open mic event in NYC that functions as a space for the Deaf community to creatively play with ASL through poetry performances, improv, games and storytelling, often bringing special guests from around the world to perform. As a widely popular platform, ASL SLAM has now been established as a monthly event in Washington DC, Chicago and Orlando with Douglas’s oversight and guidance. Recently, Douglas has organized performances at the Whitney Museum, the Jewish Museum, SITE Santa Fe and the 9/11 Memorial Museum, and has traveled to perform his own poetry and to bring ASL SLAM to Deaf communities around the world, including Jamaica, Cuba, Finland, England, Sweden and Australia.  He has worked as an ASL consultant for film and TV with the likes of John Kraskinsky, Emily Blunt, Sam Rockwell, Donald Glover and Anthony Edwards. Douglas has been featured in NBC NEWS, Circa, HBO Vice, and CNN’s Great Big Story for his work. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his two young boys and his wife Lauren Ridloff, the lead actress in the 2018 Broadway revival of Children of a Lesser God.