Aryana Engineer

Luis Gonzalo · April 13, 2014

Engineer was born partially deaf on March 6, 2001 in British Columbia, Canada.

In 2007, she was discovered when she was spotted using sign language with her mother. The neighbor (Brenda Campbell) who discovered her was an agent, who suggested Aryana for the role of six-year-old Maxine "Max" Coleman in the film Orphan (2009). The neighbor knew the producers were searching for a blond-haired girl who knew how to sign, and decided to take action.[2] In the script of Orphan, Maxine Coleman was described as 'unimaginably cute'. When director Collet-Serra saw that Aryana had the ability "while crying, to perform a scene -- to immediately go from there still keeping this emotion", he knew she was the one for the part. According to Collet-Serra, Aryana didn't understand what was going on during the making of Orphan and thought it was all a game.

After the release of Orphan, Aryana took part in a commercial for the 2010 Winter Olympics that was being held in Canada. She also represented Canada with her brother at the 2010 Paralympic games opening ceremony, welcoming viewers using sign language.

In September 2012, Resident Evil: Retribution was released to the public. In the film, Aryana plays a deaf girl named Becky who builds a mother-daughter relationship with the main character Alice (Milla Jovovich). According to Jovovich, an actor or actress to play Ben/Becky had not been intended to have impaired hearing. A sixth film in the Resident Evil franchise has been confirmed by Paul W. S. Anderson and Rory Bruer, head of Sony Pictures, but it is unknown if Aryana will be reprising her role as Becky.