British actor Mat Fraser has struggled with phocomelia—a rare congenital deformity in which the hands or feet are attached close to the trunk—his entire life. However, his courage is not something anyone can question as he has made a significant impact on the entertainment industry as a whole.

Fraser has now teamed up with fellow showbiz personalities, including but not limited to Robert Softley Gale, Ruth Madeley, Jackie Hagan, and Liz Carr, who have all faced similar challenges, to bring to life a series of six inspiring fifteen-minute monologues that shed light on a never-before traversed path in Hollywood.

Crip Tales Set To Air On October 1

BBC America announced on September 11 that October 1 would mark the premiere of Crip Tales—a collection of six short films curated by Mat Fraser himself. Every last one of these stories is written, directed, and performed by a person who has lived with some form of disability.

crip tales premiere date

(Photo Source: Instagram)

According to BBC America, the monologues will take the viewers on a journey to a life-changing moment of a person with disabilities. What's more is that these stories, although fictional, are based on factual research and real-life experiences from the last fifty years of British history. 

Courtney Thomasma, the Executive Director of BBC America, explained that these stories deliver a healthy mix of hilarious and heartbreaking scenarios. These monologues let the audience experience the diversity of experience among people living with disabilities and the thoroughly relatable dilemmas they face in life.

Crip Tales Is More Than Just A Series Of Clips

The premier date of Crip Tales, October 1, marks the start of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, during which AMC Networks will also share a Visibility Collection that includes CripTales, Critics Choice Award winner Push Girls, and This Close, which has received the Ruderman Family Foundation Seal of Authentic Representation.

As a show of good faith, all apps and websites of BBC America, AMC Networks, IFC, and Sundance TV will make the entire Visibility Collection available for free, without the requirement of log-ins, for the month of October. 

crip tales matt fraser project free streaming
(Photo Source: Instagram)
The broadcast will also be a helping hand to the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) as the AMC Network has promised to share with the viewers how they can support AAPD, a leading national cross-disability civil rights organization that advocates for the full recognition of rights of over 60 million Americans with disabilities.

Actor Mat Fraser's Unfortunate Congenital Disability

Mat Fraser, who is proud and excited to present the inspiring stories of crips for mainstream TV audiences worldwide, has a condition called phocomelia. According to Merriam-Webster, phocomelia is "a congenital deformity in which the limbs are extremely shortened so that the feet and hands arise close to the torso."

The deformity was actually drug-induced because of the negligence of the government. The culprit was a drug called "Thalidomide" used in the '50s as a sleeping tablet that also cured morning sickness in pregnant women.

However, even after it was apparent that the drug was causing irreparable damage to the unborn fetuses, the government failed to take this drug off the shelves. Thousands of children across Europe and Canada, including Mat, suffered the consequence of that negligence.

However, despite facing many downsides of his physical disability, the actor, musician, and director Mat Fraser is an inspiration to the millions of people worldwide who are battling some form of disability.