Plus size. Queer. Utterly magical. There are so many words to describe dynamically-disabled dancer Makenzie Morgan Gomez. However, at her core, she’s an artist who pushes past the harsh streaks of life’s canvas and paints a story with every praise-worthy performance.
The multi-gifted entertainer became a force to be reckoned with on the floor in her adolescence, developing a love for the bright lights, red curtains, and centerstage. From dance classes to school plays, Gomez couldn’t escape her infatuation with microphones and movement, honing an undeniable skill that has catapulted the singer-actress into the theatrical powerhouse she is today. Hailing from the Golden State, this Mexican-American trailblazer has professionally displayed her talents before audiences for over a decade.
After years of training and exercising her God-given craft(s), it was in 2020 that what Gomez had grown to do so effortlessly began to look a lot different for her. A sudden battle with autoimmune issues seemingly triggered various physical impairments, leaving the illustrious performer to question what her future in the arts would hold. For as long as she could remember, dancing had been her way of connection and expression. With an onset of chronic pain and being nearly robbed of the ability to walk, the Californian was devasted and depleted but still determined enough to adapt to her new normal.
What many would see as an obstacle, Gomez saw it as an opportunity to overcome. Making the courageous decision not to be restrained by her current situation, the 32-year-old used her medical diagnoses for the greater good, morphing into the voice and the visual of a modern-day superwoman on the performing front. From there, Gomez’s growing influence expanded beyond her wildest imagination.
In 2024, she found herself in the spotlight of her Off-Broadway debut in Neil Simon’s I Ought to Be in Pictures, where she delivered an outstanding act as ‘Libby.’ Along with that wonderful achievement, later that year, Gomez created an empowering production called Music and the Mirror (& Mobility Aids), a six-minute re-interpretation of Marvin Hamlisch and Ed Kleban’s musical, A Chorus Line. The riveting segment featured Gomez utilizing her mobility aids as she gracefully showcased an emotion-filled, choreographic portrayal.
Iconic in her own right, Gomez continues hustling through the hurt, living life in the intersections (as she says), and captivating the crowd… one motivational masterpiece at a time.
We recently spoke with this lovely lady to discuss how she’s turned the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding disability into full-blown dopeness. Check it out below!
Plus Size Performer Makenzie Morgan Gomez Talks Persisting in Her Purpose, Owning Her Uniqueness, & Reshaping the Narrative for Disabled Folks in Theater
TCF: So, let’s take it back to the very beginning. Where were you born and raised?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: I was born in San Diego, California but raised in San Pedro. So, the South Bay… just outside of Los Angeles.
TCF: How would you say growing up there shaped you into who you are today?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: My parents always encouraged [me] to pursue what [I] had a passion in and to find something that [I was] passionate about. Grades were important, but it was just as important to find something you love to do. So, I was very lucky to have that upbringing because once I did find dance and performing, I was so hooked, and I never had to fight my parents to let me do another show or join another dance team as long as I kept my grades up. You know, we had certain agreements, but they never said “no.” There was always, “Let’s find a way to make it happen for you.”
I think that mentality really shaped a lot of how I have gone through my life as an adult, t00. I always want to find a way to do what I love to do. And there’s always going to be this balancing act. In childhood, it was getting good grades, and in adulthood, it’s paying the bills! [laughs]
TCF: Right! [laughs] Have you always had a passion for the performing arts? If so, at what age would you say you realized this was something you wanted to pursue?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Yeah! I started taking dance class when I was eight and I liked it a lot, but it was middle school that I was like, “Oh, I want to do this for the rest of my life.” That was more so like seventh [or] eighth grade. I started to get cast in lead roles in my middle school’s musicals. [It was] at that point when I was like, “Oh, yeah, I’m going to find a way to do this as an adult.”
TCF: So, you’ve been doing this a long time!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Sure have! [I turned] thirty-two in January! [laughs] It’s been, at least, twenty years.
TCF: That’s such a blessing!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Yes!
TCF: One of the things I admire about your story is that you unapologetically stand in all of your truths… no matter what that may look like. Not only being plus size and dynamically disabled but also queer. I feel like, while there are far more liberating spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community today than there used to be, many still carry those traumatic experiences from not being accepted.
So, how would you recall your coming-out story? Were you always as free and open about your sexuality as you are now or is that something you struggled with since an early age?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: That’s something I’ve struggled with since an early age. I didn’t come out until I was twenty-six years old. I think actually coming out as queer and finally claiming that identity is what propelled me into claiming all of my other identities with just as much loudness, I guess. One of the downsides of pursuing theater, or any kind of performing arts, is wondering do we have to be this cookie-cutter version of something. Do we have to look like a Rockette? I love the Rockettes, to be clear, [laughs], but they have a very specific look. I think growing up in Theater and starting to pursue it professionally made me question a lot of pieces of myself and what I was willing to show… including my Mexican heritage.
It’s something that I struggled with figuring out how to navigate those identities and audition for roles. When I came out as queer, I felt so liberated from finally owning that, that I started to evaluate other areas of my life where I could own pieces of myself that I’ve maybe tried to suppress.
TCF: And I’m sure entertaining has been a very expressive outlet for you and provided a sense of freedom. Do you remember your first big break and what it felt like? Like, that moment when you just knew that performing was your destiny and you were exactly where you were called to be?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Oh, gosh! Yeah! I’ve had a couple of those moments in my life. As a child, it was my eighth-grade musical when I got the lead role. That was like the first moment–at fourteen years old–where I was like, “Okay, I have to figure out a way to do this!” And then… as I got older, [another moment was] when I was a senior in high school auditioning for BFA musical theater programs. I actually didn’t get into any of the audition-based programs I went out for. I had this moment where I had to decide as a senior in high school, “Do I want to pursue something else or do I want to try again?” I decided to take a gap year, train in LA, and audition again. When I auditioned [for] the second year, I got into my dream school.
TCF: Wow!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: So, that was another moment of like, “Okay, if I put in the work, I can do this.” And then there was another moment in college. I broke part of my spine as a junior in college.
TCF: Oh, goodness! No way!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: In ballet class. I broke part of my spine. [laughs] I laugh because it’s like the most wild story ever, but it’s always my fun fact when I’m in a get-to-know-you circle. I unknowingly broke part of my spine and ended up in a back brace. The school, my doctors, everybody else were basically giving me this moment of like, “Do you want to continue or is this a sign to pursue something else?” And I was like, “No, this is an injury that can heal. I’m going to keep going. I’m a year away from graduating. Absolutely not.”
I healed in half the time it was supposed to take, and I was back in dance in like four months. So, it was like another moment of the universe giving me this chance–or however you want to put it, the universe, God, whoever–giving me this chance to pause and ask myself, “Do I really want to pursue this or is it going to be too hard?” Because when you pursue theater in New York City, there are so many rejections, so many moments of, “Am I good enough?”
You have to want it enough to stay. And that was one of those moments for me of… “Do I want it enough?”
TCF: To see where you are today is so motivating!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Also, I didn’t start going disabled until 2020. And so [that was] another piece of… “Do I want to keep doing this? Is there space for me? Am I willing to put in the work and claim my space and I can own it? [How can I show] that I’m worthy of being here when not a lot of people look like me?” Not a lot of people are doing this yet… as a disabled professional performer. The first audition season that I went back [in] hard–like went hard and auditioned again… fully claiming my disabilities–I booked my off-Broadway debut. That was this past year, 2024.
TCF: That brings me to my next question. Could you let us in on your conditions and how the journey navigating through those disabilities has been for you since finding out in 2020?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: It’s been a non-linear journey. I started developing autoimmune disorder-type symptoms in 2020 and things just continued to progress where more and more symptoms began to show themselves. I have a number of diagnoses now, and we still don’t know the full story, but what I can say is through the past few years we’ve identified a thyroid condition. I have Hashimoto’s disease, and that was one of the easiest things to solve because there is medication for that and we’ve been monitoring it and it’s been under control.
That was the first thing to sort of pop up and get discovered. When we started to get that under control, there were still so many other symptoms that needed to be looked into–the biggest one being chronic pain. My leg will randomly go completely numb. There’s no correlation. It came out of nowhere, or it felt like it came out of nowhere. There was no correlation [between] me exercising or not exercising, sitting or standing, walking or staying still.
I was logging everything that was happening–all of my symptoms–and I could not find a correlation as to why this was happening along with chronic pain and chronic fatigue and all kinds of things. Along the way, a rheumatologist was like, “Yeah, you don’t have arthritis, you don’t have this, you don’t have that. I don’t know, let’s just say you have fibromyalgia.” While I do believe that I probably have that, it’s not the full story; it doesn’t explain a lot of things. The big discovery that recently happened is my parents were cleaning out their garage and came across old medical files of mine from childhood. We started to remember [that in] my childhood, I had chronic pain as, as a preschooler, and we never could figure out why.
TCF: So, you likely had similar issues back then as well?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Yeah! This old rheumatologist from the nineties diagnosed me with a hypermobility spectrum disorder.
TCF: Okay.
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: In the nineties, this wasn’t even a very commonly known thing. But, now, twenty-five years later, there are tons more studies coming out and articles and research on hypermobility. While, yes, a lot of the population is generally hypermobile and it might not be concerning in any way, there are rare diseases. There are people who fall under this rare disease category where hypermobility is disabling. I still need to get tested for what is called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or EDS for short. There’s a grouping of thirteen types of EDS, one being hypermobility. That is very common for dancers to miss because we’re so celebrated for being flexible that you don’t think anything of it until your body makes you think anything of it.
So, there’s something within this hypermobility, whether it’s hypermobility spectrum disorder or a version of EDS, that is very likely the main diagnosis for me that is causing chronic pain and is the reason why I need to use mobility aids now and all of that. I know it’s a long-winded answer. Sorry! [laughs]
TCF: No! Listen, give all the details! [laughs] With that said, I can imagine you went through a period of self-doubt and felt like these new limitations would restrict you from booking jobs. What has helped you push past those feelings and continue propelling them into your purpose?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: On one hand, like any artist, there’s just this deep internal need. It’s like a necessity for me to be an artist. I can’t escape it. I tried doing another career. [laughs] I tried to see if I could pursue other things and maybe be creative on the side, but I have to be an artist. There’s this desire. On top of that, I’ve worked so hard, I’ve had so much training, [and] I’ve overcome so much already. It feels like my story is not over here. I’m not ready to leave New York. I’m not ready to quit. I’m a member of the union. I know that there’s another way. There’s this internal monologue, and I guess like a come-to-Jesus moment for me. Like, “Am I going to do this or am I just going to be miserable and always wonder what if?”
TCF: I love that.
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: So, when I finally was ready to address that, I got back into class with [my acting teacher]. I have a great acting teacher and career mentor in New York City. I talked to her about it, and she was like, “Alright, let’s figure this out. Let’s figure out what this means for you and figure out a way that we’re going to present you. Like, what is your plan of attack here?” Because if I am going into these audition rooms unsure, then casting will be unsure. I had to find a way to be confident in what I was presenting. I did a lot of work behind the scenes with my acting and career coach before I stepped foot into an audition room again.
TCF: Speaking of auditions, could you tell us about booking the off-Broadway debut for Neil Simon’s I Ought to Be in Pictures? Walk us through the day you got the news that you had gotten the role and what that experience was like.
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Oh, my God! It was such a great day! I didn’t have any representation. I didn’t have an agent yet. So, I self-submitted online for everything or just showed up to open calls. I had submitted for this role on Actors Access. I didn’t have to go in person, they asked me to do a self-tape. I filmed myself doing the monologues at home, sent in a self-tape, and they asked me for another round. So, I did another round. In one of the callbacks, that was virtual, they asked me to talk about my disabilities in whatever way I’m comfortable and what it’s like navigating New York City with them.
I did that, got the final callback in person, and showed up at their theater. The exciting thing about this particular off-Broadway company is its mission to cast and integrate disabled performers into shows that are not necessarily written for disabled actors. Their whole mission is about this, which is so rare. And it’s like the only off-Broadway house that does this.
TCF: So, it was made for you!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: It was made for me… exactly! It felt so aligned. I didn’t have to worry about all the things I worry about at other auditions because they already got it. You know, they already understood. So, I went in person, I did my monologues for them, [and] they gave me some notes. The artistic director was so nice. He gave me a hug. I brought my service dog in, and they were totally fine with that. It was such an easy experience, and it was so fun.
I left that callback, went home to Brooklyn, [and] some of my friends came over. It was a beautiful day out. We were sitting in [the] backyard, just hanging out with our dogs. I got an email that same day with an offer, which [isn’t] very common! [laughs] It’s not usually [the] same day! It was just so exciting. [My] friend ran out and got champagne. I called my parents. I had to let everybody know! It just [felt] like a fever dream from then on. [laughs]
TCF: 2024 has definitely been a year of wins for you. There’s no way I could go through this interview without mentioning your amazing Music and the Mirror (& Mobility Aids) performance. So, talk to me about that. What was the creative process like putting that production together? I did watch it, and I was completely blown away. It almost brought me to tears. So inspirational!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! My off-Broadway debut was in the spring of 2024, and it was a straight play, so there was no singing or dancing in it. But dance is my first love, if you will. Dance has always been like my roots of how I got into theater. I was so grateful to do a play, but I want to do a musical. I really want to do a musical next… if I can. I realized through taking dance classes in New York City and connecting with choreographers that a lot of people just don’t know what to expect when they see someone come into a dance space with mobility aids.
People are even more unsure when I say I am dynamically disabled and I can use a range of mobility aids, depending on the day. People don’t know what that means. They may kind of understand, but they don’t know what to ask, especially in a dance setting. They don’t know what that looks like because there’s not a blueprint. There’s not [anyone] else showing this in this way. A lot of the disabled-dancer social media presence are wheelchair users. So, people don’t know what to look for yet or what to expect or envision [with me]. I decided, “Alright, I’m coming off this off-Broadway show. I have the summer off, [and] the show [is] closed. What am I going to do with my time?” I wanted to create some kind of video concept piece that showed me using all of my mobility aids in all of the ways that I can. Through that initial thought, Music and the Mirror came to my mind because a good friend of mine was in a production of a chorus line that summer.
I talked to her about it, [and] I talked to my acting coach about it. We came up with this concept, and it was incredible how little I had to change. All of it is as written but was so applicable to my scenario. The only word I added was disabled in front of dancer. Everything else is exactly as written.
TCF: You put so much emotion into that performance. Amazingly done!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Thank you so much! The process of learning the original choreography and adapting it with my friend, Cassidy was so much fun. I didn’t know I would learn the whole thing, but then I did. So, that was when I decided, “Alright, I need to hire a videographer. I need to rent a really cool space and get really good footage of this because this is so much bigger than I even thought it could be.” The videographer that I chose… I had worked with her once before, and she was so excited to make this vision come to life with me. She totally bought into what I was trying to do. She captured it beautifully. So, it was such a great, collaborative experience, and I couldn’t have done it without all the people [who] helped make it happen.
TCF: What do you want people to say when they think of the mark Makenzie Morgan Gomez has left through her artistry?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: I want people to see that I’m not just out here performing; I’m trying to change the narrative for disabled artists. I used Music and the Mirror (& Mobility Aids) in this way… not just to show what I can do but as an invitation to have conversations about it. People are so afraid to talk about disability because they don’t want to offend anybody. But I want to provide space to make those mistakes and have those messy conversations so we can get more disabled artists on stage.
TCF: Right! And increase visibility.
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Exactly. And we’re starting to do it slowly but surely, but there’s so much room for growth in the theater industry. Based on the people I’ve spoken to so far, they don’t know how to do it, but they want to.
TCF: Any other projects in the pipeline for the new year that we can expect?
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: I am launching a business! [laughs]
TCF: So dope! Congratulations!
Makenzie Morgan Gomez: Thank you! Yes! I just formed the LLC, and I’m starting to raise money for it. It’s called Creative Adaptations. The whole goal is exactly what I just talked about. The company aims to empower professional theater makers to be disability-informed allies and adaptive creators and collaborators. I am so excited to roll out programming in 2025 that gives folks a chance to come in and workshop their material, and learn how to adapt choreography, how to work with disabled artists, and understanding that disabled artists are not a monolith, right?
We all have very unique needs or mobility aids… or whatever. So, I want to provide a space where choreographers can come in and work with a range of mobilities or disabilities and learn, on the spot, in a safe space. Also, how to work with them when they come in the room and not ever lessen the quality expectation of professional theater, but adapt what the initial vision was. You know? To still get that intent, still get that integrity of choreography. Maybe, instead of a kick, it’s an arm, stuff like that. So, [the focus is to] find the same dynamics, but with a bit of adaptation. I want to provide the space for people to learn how to do that.
Stay connected with Makenzie Morgan Gomez on social media:
Instagram: @makenziemorgangomez
TikTok: MakenzieMorganGomez
YouTube: MakenzieMGomez/LifeintheIntersections
