Texas girl lands Emmy nomination
Actress born with brittle bone disease earns recognition for work on Netflix series ‘Raising Dion’
In the second and final season of the Netflix sci-fi series “Raising Dion,” child actress Sammi Haney once again steals the show as Esperanza, a spirited wheelchair user who more than holds her own as the best friend of the young title superhero, played by fellow newcomer Ja’Siah Young. She even takes on the code name “Invisible Girl” as Dion’s behind-thescenes partner in fighting crime.
Soon, the 12-year-old San Antonio girl might also call herself an Emmy winner.
Sammi is a nominee for the first-ever Children’s & Family Emmys, a new stand-alone expansion of the Emmy Awards. The inaugural Children’s & Family Emmy Awards ceremony runs Dec. 10-11 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
Sammi’s turn as Esperanza earned her a nod for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Preschool, Children’s or Young Teen Program, a category she shares with Young as a fellow nominee.
“It’s very cool,” Sammi said of the Emmy nomination. “I hope that it shows people with disabilities that they can act and that they will be recognized for their work.”
Sammi was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or OI, a rare genetic disorder commonly known as brittle bone disease. Sammi’s OI is so severe she’s broken hundreds of bones, sometimes from just tossing in her sleep as an infant or sneezing too
hard.
Sammi’s condition limits most of her mobility to her hot pink motorized wheelchair, which she also used on-camera during her two seasons on “Dion.” Though as much as she said she enjoys roles that highlight the disabled, she hardly considers her work method acting.
“Maybe some ad-libs and some sass?” she said. “I don’t know.”
When “Dion” debuted in late 2019, showrunner Carol Barbee described Sammi in an email to the Express-News as the perfect fit for Esperanza, a funny girl wise beyond her years with a big heart.
“She carries herself the way I wanted Esperanza to carry herself,” Barbee said, “with confidence and curiosity, looking out, not in.”
Barbee noted Sammi rarely missed a line in her acting debut, though she did like to sing them. She finally got her wish in
“Dion’s” second season when Esperanza belts out the “Dreamgirls” showtune, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” The performance also highlighted her nomination reel for Emmy consideration.
“Raising Dion” centers on widowed mom Nicole Warren (Alisha Wainwright) and her son Dion’s emerging powers after the death of his father, Mark, played by executive producer Michael B. Jordan. Sammi’s Esperanza has been Dion’s BFF since the first season.
In 2019, “Dion” was Netflix’s most popular kids and family series release. The show’s second season finally dropped in February, but the show was not renewed for a third.
“Dion’s” other Children’s & Family Emmy nominations include Outstanding Children’s or Family Viewing Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing and Sound Editing for
a Live Action Program, Outstanding Visual Effects for a Live Action Program and Outstanding Stunt Coordination.
The accolades come on the heels of Haney’s latest television project: voicing a talking wheelchair in the new Disney Junior animated series “Firebuds,” which airs Fridays and has episodes on Disney+.
“Firebuds” is about a group of kid first responders, and their talking rescue vehicles, who protect their cartoon community. The series features various celebrity voices, including Yvette Nicole Brown, Lou Diamond Phillips and “Weird Al” Yankovic. Sammi plays Piper, an electric wheelchair used by paraplegic character Jazzy Jones.
“I feel like the character that I play is very energetic, very caring,” Sammi said. “It’s also really cool that they had a wheelchair being in a TV show.”
Sammi’s mother, Priscilla
Haney, said she often gets compliments about Sammi from other parents with disabled children, especially when she takes Sammi to doctor appointments and physical therapy, and they recognize her from her role on “Dion.”
“I’ll run into other parents, and they’ll say, ‘My child loves that show. They love seeing another child with a disability on a TV show,’ ” Priscilla Haney said. “So I’m glad that there are other kids who can connect to her character and just know that there’s kids like (them) out there being represented.”
Sammi also oversees her own disability-themed clothing line at Sammi Haney’s DisabilityShirts.com, which her father, Matt Haney, launched in 2019 after she landed the “Dion” role. And on her Instagram page, @sammi.haney, she’s just as forthright and upbeat about her latest OI-related surgeries and X-rays as she is about her pics and clips from the “Dion” set in Atlanta.
Sammi hopes her Emmy nomination leads to more live-action and animation work. In the meantime, she’s looking forward to possibly attending school next year after being home-schooled like her older sister, Sarah, and older brother, John, were before they attended middle school. And if acting doesn’t pan out, she’d love to pursue a career that involves animals.
Of course, whatever Sammi tackles next, rest assured she will remain very visible.