Nyle DiMarco Joins ‘All’s Fair’ Season 2 as Role Gets Rewritten Around Him

Nyle DiMarco is heading back to scripted TV, and this time he’s joining one of the most talked-about casts on streaming. The 37-year-old model, actor, and activist has booked a recurring role in season 2 of Ryan Murphy’s Hulu legal drama All’s Fair — and the part he’s playing wasn’t even originally written for him.

The casting news broke on Monday (October 5) via Deadline, as first reported by Just Jared, and it’s one of those announcements that tells you a lot about where a show is headed. DiMarco, who is deaf, will step into a role that was first conceived for a hearing character — but the producers decided to rewrite it around him instead.

Details about who exactly he’ll play are being kept under wraps for now. That’s typical Ryan Murphy mischief. But the fact that the creative team chose to adapt the character specifically for DiMarco, rather than just plugging him into an existing slot, says something encouraging about how the show is thinking about representation in its second season.

What We Know About Nyle’s Role So Far

Honestly? Not much yet. And that’s okay — mystery is half the fun with this kind of casting. What we do know is that the character was originally written as a hearing character, and the writers are now reworking the part to fit DiMarco, who is deaf. That means the role will presumably incorporate sign language and the lived experience of a deaf character, rather than being a one-to-one swap.

This is the kind of casting decision that matters more than it might look on a casting announcement. Too often, deaf and hard-of-hearing characters in mainstream TV have been played by hearing actors, or included as one-off “very special episode” material. Here, the show’s producers are doing the opposite: taking a character they’d already designed and rebuilding the part around a deaf actor. That’s a deliberate creative choice, and it suggests DiMarco’s character won’t be window dressing.

It also fits the DNA of All’s Fair itself. The show has never been subtle about what it is — glossy, soapy, maximalist — and a character whose presence naturally brings questions of accessibility and power dynamics into a courtroom drama actually fits right in. The legal world is all about who gets heard, literally and figuratively. There’s real thematic meat there if the writers go for it.

A Quick Refresher: What Is ‘All’s Fair’ Anyway?

If you haven’t been keeping up with the Ryan Murphy-verse lately, here’s the rundown. All’s Fair follows a team of powerhouse divorce lawyers who break away from a male-dominated firm to start their own practice — Grant, Ronson & Greene. It’s a legal drama, but make it fashion: stilettos, scandal, and stare-downs across mahogany desks.

The cast is genuinely stacked. Kim Kardashian leads as Allura Grant, alongside Naomi Watts as Liberty Ronson, Niecy Nash-Betts as Emerald Greene, and Teyana Taylor — plus Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close in supporting roles, and Matthew Noszka in the mix. For season 2, the official synopsis teases that the lawyers of Grant, Ronson & Greene will be “back for another season of scandals, secrets, and stilettos,” with “new allegiances form, friendships are tested, and a shocking revelation threatens the very existence of the firm.”

Season 1 was one of those shows that critics loved to hate and audiences couldn’t stop watching. The critical reception was rough — we’re talking single-digit territory on Rotten Tomatoes — but the viewership numbers told a completely different story. The series became the most-watched scripted debut on Hulu in three years and topped the charts on Disney+ too. Hate-watch, appointment-watch, whatever you want to call it: people showed up.

That kind of heat is exactly why a season 2 was inevitable, and why the show keeps stacking its cast. Murphy knows how to feed an audience that loves a spectacle, and adding new faces to the ensemble is part of the playbook.

Nyle DiMarco’s Career Has Been Anything But Ordinary

If the name sounds familiar, it should. DiMarco’s rise has been one of the more remarkable trajectories in reality TV and beyond. He first broke through by winning cycle 22 of America’s Next Top Model back in 2015, becoming the first deaf contestant — and winner — in the show’s history. He didn’t stop there. The following year, he paired up with pro dancer Peta Murgatroyd on season 22 of Dancing with the Stars and won that too. Two reality competition titles in two years. Not bad for someone the industry initially didn’t know what to do with.

Since then, he’s built out a legitimately interesting acting resume: roles on Switched at Birth, Difficult People, This Close (a show that itself centered deaf characters and was way ahead of its time), Station 19, and Queer as Folk. He’s never been content to just be “the model who acts” — he’s been picky, and he’s gravitated toward projects that take deaf identity seriously.

Behind the camera, he’s arguably been even more influential. DiMarco served as an executive producer on Netflix’s Deaf U, a reality series that gave mainstream audiences an unfiltered look at deaf college life, and on the short documentary Audible, which earned an Oscar nomination. Then in 2025, he made his documentary directorial debut with Deaf President Now!, which went on to earn two Emmy nominations. That’s a serious producing and directing track record for someone still in his thirties.

Through all of it, he’s been one of the most visible advocates for authentic deaf representation in entertainment — not just more deaf characters, but deaf actors playing them, deaf creatives shaping the stories, and sign language treated as a language, not a gimmick. His All’s Fair casting is basically that philosophy in action.

Why This Casting Actually Matters

Let’s be real for a second: TV casting announcements happen by the dozen every week, and most of them are forgettable. This one isn’t, and here’s why.

First, the role adaptation. When a production takes a character written for a hearing actor and rewrites it for a deaf performer, that’s a meaningful creative commitment. It means the writers’ room has to actually think about how this character communicates, how other characters react to them, and how deafness intersects with the show’s world of high-powered legal maneuvering. Done well, that could be one of the most interesting things about season 2. Done poorly — well, let’s hope it’s done well.

Second, the platform. All’s Fair is a big, loud, mainstream hit with a massive audience. Whatever DiMarco does on this show will be seen by millions of people who may never have watched This Close or Deaf U. That’s how representation moves the needle: not just in prestige indie projects, but in the glossy crowd-pleasers everyone actually watches.

Third, Ryan Murphy’s track record. Say what you want about Murphy’s shows — and people say plenty — but the man has a long history of casting performers that other showrunners wouldn’t take a chance on, and of building queer, disabled, and otherwise underrepresented characters into the center of his stories rather than the margins. All’s Fair joining that tradition with a deaf actor in a reimagined role feels very on-brand.

And fourth, honestly? It’s just good TV math. DiMarco has screen presence for days, the fan base from his competition-show days is still loyal, and the All’s Fair audience loves a new face to obsess over. Everybody wins.

What to Expect From Season 2

Production details for the new season are still trickling out, but the shape of it is clear: the core ensemble returns, the stakes get higher, and the firm faces an existential threat. New cast additions are being announced in waves, and DiMarco is part of that expanding universe.

It’s worth noting that the show’s stars have been refreshingly unbothered by the critical drubbing season 1 took. Kardashian in particular has leaned into the joke, jokingly calling it the most critically acclaimed show of the year on social media. That kind of self-awareness tends to play well with audiences — people can smell when a cast is having fun, and All’s Fair is clearly a cast having fun.

For DiMarco, this is another step in a career that’s been defined by refusing to stay in one lane. Model, reality champion, actor, producer, director, activist — and now, scene-stealer in waiting on one of streaming’s loudest dramas. If the writers give him material worthy of his talent, season 2 of All’s Fair might have its breakout supporting performance already lined up.

We’ll be watching. And listening — in whatever language the story is told.

Source: Just Jared