Meet Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose in Wicked: the first actress with a disability in the role, she says she manifested the part – then got a surprise call from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo

Nov 21 , 2024

Marissa Bode, who is playing Nessarose in Wicked, is disabled in real life. Photo: @marissa_edob/Instagram

Marissa Bode has been a wheelchair user since the age of 11, and is now blazing a trail in Hollywood as the first version of Wicked’s Nessa to be authentically cast

The build-up to the release of the Wicked film feels like it’s been going on forever, but the moment has finally arrived.

The movie adaptation of the hit Broadway show boasts a cast of rising Hollywood talents, from Jonathan Bailey – who will take on his biggest role since Bridgerton – to Cynthia Erivo who plays the lead as Elphaba. But one cast member is making history in this production – and that’s Marissa Bode.

Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater all star in the film adaptation of Wicked. Photo: @wickedmovie/Instagram

Despite the stage show first premiering in 2003, Bode is the very first actress to play Nessarose, who uses a wheelchair in the show, to have a disability in real life too.

So what else do we know about the actress? Here’s what you need to know.

Marissa Bode went from small town Wisconsin to Hollywood

Marissa Bode in a local theatre production in 2017. Photo: @marissa_edob/Instagram

Bode, 24, is from a small town in Wisconsin, and began acting in community theatre at the age of eight, according to an interview she gave to Broadway World. At 11, she was in a car crash that paralysed her from the waist down, but as her former teacher Aniela Haas noted in an interview with WMTV, Bode’s accident changed her but never dimmed her love of acting, even when their stage didn’t have a ramp. “She would patiently wait for somebody to help her get down on the lift and patiently wait for someone to get her up into the lift,” Haas explained.

Marissa Bode grew up in small town Wisconsin. Photo: @marissa_edob/Instagram

Bode began her degree at New York’s The American Musical and Dramatic Academy during the pandemic and auditioned for Wicked a year after graduating. She now lives in LA.

She “manifested” her role in Wicked during spooky season

Marissa Bode made a short film while waiting to hear back about her Wicked audition. Photo: @laurennbrooks/Instagram