Bergen's Ali Stroker Cast In ABC's 'Ten Days In The Valley'

Bergen County's Ali Stroker will appear in a 10-episode run of ABC's new drama "Ten Days In The Valley."

Stroker, who is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair, announced her being cast on the show live online Thursday during an interview on build.com.

"Ten Days In The Valley," stars Kyra Sedgwick as Jane Sadler, a television producer whose young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night.

Stroker, a Ridgewood native, plays Tamara, a writer and researcher on Jane's television staff who is not afraid "to pitch and let her opinions be known. She’s an encyclopedia of facts and statistics," a Deadline.com report of the series and characters said.

Stroker did not even have to audition for the role. She simply did a test performance for it and landed it. She is excited about the role because the character was not created with Stroker's wheelchair in mind.

"It was so refreshing to learn that the wheelchair is not that important to them," Stroker said. "It's such a huge breakthrough and getting on board, creating characters that are going to resonate with so many people. I've never had a role with storylines and with relationships and connections."

For Stroker, the role is a chance to smash through the idea that people in wheelchairs cannot do the things that so-called "normal" people can.

Stroker was in a car accident when she was 2 and is paralyzed from the waist down. She has never set limits on herself and said that the idea of walking is kind of a strange one.

"I became an expert at flipping negative things into positive things," said Stroker, who trained with the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn . "My parents had a very positive outlook and they looked at what I could do rather than what I couldn't do."

Stroker said she has never felt limited by her wheelchair. She was the first wheelchair-bound actress to appear on a Broadway stage during the 2015 revival of "Spring Awakening." Stroker also starred in 12 episodes of "The Glee Project" in 2012, finishing in third place and made a guest appearance on "Glee." She's also had roles in the movie "Cotton" and the MTV series "Faking It."

"I've always felt my chair made me tough and forced me to be confident in who I am," Stroker said. "When I first started dancing, I just started using my hands. In learning how to sing, it was about expressing something and I have a lot to express."

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Photo: Ali Stroker — Courtesy of Ali Stroker