Rosa Lee Timm signing in front of a green screen in a studio. In the foreground, a production monitor shows the footage being worked on.
DASL · Creative Direction · Quality Review · Authenticity Reads

ASL belongs inside the story.Not on top of it.

I work with filmmakers, performers, creative teams, and storytellers to make sure signed language isn’t simply accurate, but emotionally, visually, and culturally alive.

In studio.
What I bring to the room

ASL isn’t something I approach as a final layer to add after the creative decisions have already been made. I look at the whole picture: the story, the character, the performer, the camera, the rhythm, and the audience.

Sometimes that means shaping a translation. Sometimes it means working beside a performer. Sometimes it means noticing the one thing that isn’t landing and figuring out why.

Rosa Lee Timm seated at a production table beside two colleagues, all watching a monitor. Laptops, a sound mixer, notes and coffee cover the table; a lit green screen stands at the edge of the room.
Reviewing playback.
The Work

Three ways to bring this eye into a project.

DASL & Creative Direction

For film, television, theater, dubbing, and performance.

Support signed performances from translation and character development through rehearsal, filming, and post-production.

  • Translation development
  • Performance coaching
  • Character & language choices
  • Rehearsal support
  • On-set DASL direction
  • Dubbing direction
  • Camera & visual readability

Authenticity & Quality Review

A second set of eyes when the details matter.

Review scripts, performances, translations, edits, and creative decisions for linguistic accuracy, cultural authenticity, visual clarity, and character integrity.

  • ASL quality review
  • Authenticity reads
  • Script consultation
  • Performance review
  • Cultural context
  • Continuity & visual clarity
  • Final-cut review

Creative Consulting

For projects still figuring out what ASL needs to become.

Work with creative and production teams early in development to determine how ASL, Deaf characters, signed performance, and Deaf cultural perspective can live naturally within the project.

  • Early development consultation
  • Creative strategy
  • Deaf character development
  • Casting considerations
  • Production workflow
  • Creative problem-solving
  • Team education
Selected Work

A few of the rooms this work has happened in.

The Bride

DASL · ASL DubbingWarner Bros. / HBO Max

Worked as the DASL supporting the ASL-language version of the film, working directly with the performer and helping shape translation, performance, character intention, rhythm, and visual delivery for the screen.

Waitress

DASL · Live PerformanceDeaf Broadway · Lincoln Center

Served as DASL for Deaf Broadway’s production of Waitress, supporting the translation and performance process so the signed work could live fully within the musical rather than function as a separate layer.

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

ASL & Creative Media WorkDPAN · PBS

ASL and creative media work on the documentary.

Selected Collaborations
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • HBO Max
  • ALL ARTS / WNET
  • Deaf West
  • Lincoln Center
  • Amazon MGM
  • PBS
  • Disney
  • DPAN

Additional work under NDA. References available upon request.

Rosa Lee Timm sitting in the empty seats of a theater, turned back toward the camera. Behind her, the company is on stage in rehearsal under warm light.
In rehearsal.

I don’t approach ASL as something to check off at the end of production. I want to know what the scene is trying to do, what the character knows, what the camera sees, and what the language needs in order to belong there.

Inside the work

On set, in studio, between takes.

Much of this work happens in the small decisions: watching, questioning, adjusting, trying again, and finding the moment when language and story finally click into place.

Watch

What is the story asking for?

Shape

How does it live naturally in ASL?

Embody

How does the performer make it their own?

Refine

What changes once camera, edit, rhythm, and context enter the room?

Rosa Lee Timm signing in a studio, lit by two large softboxes, a camera on a tripod in the foreground and a branded backdrop behind her.
Between takes.
A camera crew silhouetted in the foreground of a classroom set, the performer lit in the distance beyond them.
Rosa Lee Timm and a collaborator in front of a green screen, both with their arms raised and hands open, laughing.
On set.

Building a story that includes ASL, Deaf characters, or signed performance?

Bring me in early. Or bring me in when something isn’t quite landing yet.

Start a conversation →

Not a full production yet? An hour of strategy, one on one — bring a specific problem, leave with a next step.