Why Charles-Ann From Ozark Season 4 Looks So Familiar

Ali Stroker's acting background is in musical theater, experiences she later used to leverage her way into a career in television and film. In 2011, Stroker made her regional-theater debut as Olive in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," a role she would later reprise in 2018 (via WKYC).

In 2012, Stroker appeared in Season 2 of "The Glee Project," an Oxygen-network reality competition television series, the prize of which was a multi-episode arc in the popular Fox show "Glee." Despite only finishing as the runner-up (Blake Jenner won first place), Stroker nonetheless guest-starred in a 2013 episode of "Glee" as a love interest to Artie (Kevin McHale).

"I know that being in a wheelchair has closed doors, but this is a door that can open," she said ahead of her final performance on "The Glee Project." And open doors it did. In 2015, Stroker became the first actor who uses a wheelchair to appear on Broadway while starring in "Spring Awakening" (via The Daily News). She broke another barrier in 2019 when she became the first actor in a wheelchair to be nominated for and win a Tony Award for her performance in "Oklahoma!" (via The New York Times).