He is also an actor. Deanne and Troy have worked in several productions for the last 12 years (starting in 1995). The couple has been married since 2001. Bray said, "My husband has been supportive with anything I do with my teaching and acting career." Bray continued by describing how other people were instrumental in her life. Her mother was her teacher and helped her develop academic skills. Her father showed her the world and taught her different cultures and how to reach out to all kinds of people. According to Bray, "Most of my friends from the deaf community, along with my hearing family, shaped me into who I am today."

How Deaf is She?: Culturally, she is a fluent signer. She was born deaf and has been exposed to ASL since the age of 2.5 with Lil Skinner as her first deaf teacher. Deanne has been exposed to the world of sound at age two with a hearing aid. Deanne calls herself bilingual: ASL and Spoken/written English. She also mentioned how she always have been a proud member of the deaf community. Thanks to her neighbor, a deaf family, who lived two blocks down the street, for being role models. They subtly led her to find her identity as a deaf individual. She often hung out with them and naturally developed American Sign Language while growing up from age four to 12.

Scientific Point of View: she has a 86 dB hearing loss in her left ear and is profoundly deaf in her right ear. She wears one hearing aid in her left ear. Without her hearing aid, she cannot hear people's voices and prefers not to even try reading lips. With her hearing aid on, she can hear many sounds which helps her read lips quite well. She was was trained to hear with her left ear and to read lips (trained to be hard of hearing). At age six to nine, Deanne also read a book aloud everyday after school for 20-30 minutes with her step mother listening while preparing dinner to make sure her pronunciation is correct.

Employment: Bray first became involved with acting as a young adult when she was discovered performing with a dance group, called, "Prism West." Among her acting credits are guest appearances on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Ellen" and "Diagnosis Murder," and more.

She starred in a series "Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye" for three seasons. Before Sue Thomas,  Bray taught deaf and hard-of-hearing high school students during the school year and taught dhh in elementary in the summer for four years. She is pursuing for her master's in education.

Deanne co-produced an educational/documentary DVD, "You're Pregnant: What to Expect," that is all in American Sign Language and Voiceover for almost three years and got the dvds released on December 1, 2007.

At last, when her daughter, Kyra, was born, she decided to be a full-time mom. She did some odd jobs for short periods at a time. Kyra had traveled everywhere with her.

Hobbies: Bray enjoys reading, reading with deaf children, as well as going to deaf community functions, like interacting with deaf senior citizens and listening to their stories.

Favorite Quotes: "It takes a village to raise a child." An African preverb
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."  Mother Theresa
My bestfriend brings out the best in me."  Henry Ford
"What is a friend? A single soul in two bodies" Aristotle
"Every wish is like a prayer with God..." Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861