Alaqua Cox

Alaqua Cox (born February 14, 1997) is a Native American actress. She landed her breakthrough role as Maya Lopez / Echo within the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Disney+ series Hawkeye (2021) and as the protagonist in the upcoming spin-off series Echo (2024). Early life Cox was born Deaf to Elena and Bill Cox. She was born and raised in the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, and is of the Menominee and Mohican nation. She has three siblings: Will, Jordan, and Katie. She attended the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, where she played on the girls' basketball team from 2014 to 2015 and on the volleyball team. Cox is an amputee with a prosthetic leg. She has not publicly revealed what led to her need for a prosthetic. Career She was cast in Hawkeye as Echo, her debut acting role, on December 3, 2020. Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco and many others applauded the casting. In June 2021, Echo co-creator David W. Mack reacted to the news of the Echo television series by expressing gratitude to Cox for being a representative for deaf and Indigenous youth: "I taught at the School for the Deaf in Africa, Asia, [and] Europe, in my work for the U.S. State Department, [and] the students love Echo [and] will be happy about this."