Sam Garder, a character with Autism played by non-Autistic actor Keir Gilchrist in the show Atypical

 Atypical is a show about how Sam, who is on the Autism Spectrum, navigates high school, college, dating, and relationships, and viewers witness his unique perspective on the world.

The character in this show in question is Sam Gardner who is on the Autism Spectrum. His fascination includes the South Pole, Antarctica, and Penguins. This character is played by actor Keir Gilchrist. Actor Keir Gilchrist is neurotypical, not on the autism spectrum. 

Actor Keir Gilchrist did a fair job playing the character Sam Gardner in the show Atypical. A role that did not come easy to him because he is not on the Autism Spectrum. There was significant and important preparation that Keir took on to successfully complete the role. As soon as he learned he was casted for the role he began reading “The Journal of Best Practices – a seminal book on Asperger Syndrome” (source). This journal is mentioned in the show as something the parents of Sam read to get an understanding into his mind set. However, one could easily argue that reading this journal alone does not sufficiently prepare Keir to play an individual on the Autism Spectrum. The directors of the show were well aware of the challenge of having an actor not on the Autism Spectrum play this character so they cast experts to help guide Keir and themselves with proper representation on screen (source).

The major issue with directors hiring and working with actors that do not live with the disability they are trying to represent on screen is that the actor has to do more preparation. An actor who plays a character with an invisible or complex disability that they do not have such as Autism faces the greatest challenge of accurately representing said disability on screen. Through the help of Keir’s dedication to reading and working with the experts, his role as Sam was well-done and persuading that Sam was on the Autism Spectrum, but one has to acknowledge the challenge of learning how to do that. One could argue it would have been much more efficient is the disability of the actor and character match.

As this is the first character with Autism that I examined, it is important to consider the population pool of actors on the Autism Spectrum scale capable of playing such a role. Given the disability and all it entails, it makes it challenging for individuals with this condition to do all the work that being an actor requires. Despite this, there are still numerous successful actors who are on the autism spectrum and play characters with Autism. The American Autism Association explores five actors with Autism and the roles they play in a variety of on-screen media. To get an idea, check it out for yourself here.

As for the responses by critics, the number five on this site addresses the show Atypical. For the most part, individuals seem to agree that the holistic character of Sam was a good to fair representation of individuals with Autism on screen considering that the actor did not have autism. Given the context of the actor reading the book and getting guidance from the expert on set, some of the behaviours were overly exaggerated or insensitive of individuals with Autism. However, for the most part Keir did a swell job representing the character Sam with Autism on Screen.

A news article by Time with more thoughts on the show “Atypical” representation of a character with Autism. Beyond this article, Huffpost also talks about how an individual from the Autism community who watched this show felt seeing their disability represented on screen. Finally NPR examines critics' opinions from both sides of the successes and failures of Keir representing a character with Autism in the series.