Daniel Monks Brings Authentic Disability Representation to Peacock’s All Her Fault Series
Feb. 24, 2026 — Australian actor Daniel Monks, living with hemiplegia from complications during benign spinal tumor removal at age 11, stars as Brian in the 2025 Peacock miniseries All Her Fault, where his character’s disability was added for progressive representation absent from the source material.
The series, adapted from a book and starring Sarah Snook, features Monks’ character Brian using an electric wheelchair and advocating for independence against ableism, including from his brother played by Jake Lacy. In a CinemaBlend interview published Nov. 13, 2025, Monks described the development with showrunner Megan Gallagher, a parent of a disabled child.
“It was really exciting for me when this came along… My character in the book doesn’t have a disability… but she’s… very passionate about… more interesting, but also progressive representation for disability on screens.”
“[It felt like] an antidote to a lot of the narrative we’ve seen of disability on screens before, which is often like Oscar bait, able-bodied actors pretending to be disabled… which… can be quite isolating and harmful.”
Monks noted the role challenges perceptions, something he wished to see growing up.
Recent Recognition and Upcoming Projects
In January 2026, the Attitude Foundation featured Monks in its Perspective Shift documentary series, highlighting his arts journey despite industry barriers telling him there was “no place” for disabled artists. He has earned AACTA recognition and created award-winning work.
Monks appears as Ser Manfred Dondarrion in the 2026 HBO series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, per his Wikipedia page and IMDb profile. Recent roles include Kaos (2024, Netflix) and Ricky Stanicky (2024).
Disability Background and Advocacy
At age 11, Monks became initially quadriplegic after biopsy complications from a spinal tumor, later hemiplegic with a fully paralyzed right arm and partial right leg function, as detailed in SBS Voices (March 20, 2017) and his 2017 essay. He gave up childhood acting due to lack of representation but returned via self-produced projects.
In his essay, Monks outlined pathways for disabled actors: self-producing, collaborating early, or auditioning, criticizing the norm of abled actors in disabled roles (95% per Ruderman Foundation).
Key Early Works
Monks wrote, starred in, and produced the 2017 short Pulse, inspired by his disability and identity themes, screened at Sydney Film Festival’s Screenability, per an Accessible Arts interview. It earned a 2018 AACTA Best Actor nomination. Stage accolades include a 2020 Stage Debut Award for Teenage Dick and 2018 Helpmann nomination for The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man.
