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Claudia Nell McCoy is an American actress and writer, born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York. A CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), she built a career in New York theater and television before earning wider recognition through her recurring role on the CBS drama East New York1 and her appearance in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).2
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McCoy was born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in a household where communication was shaped by American Sign Language as much as by spoken words: her mother, father, and stepfather were all deaf.1 She has described growing up CODA as formative to her understanding of physical and visual storytelling.
She originally intended to pursue journalism, but theater redirected her path. She studied Theatre at SUNY Potsdam, where she trained for the stage.1
McCoy's professional work spans New York theater, independent film, and television. On stage, her most recognized credit is Daughters of the Mock with the Negro Ensemble Company, for which she received the 2017 AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance3 (the "Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO Recognition Award,"4 which honors excellence in Black theater in New York City).
Her screen career began in 2013 with the film Flawed.1 She made her television debut in the Showtime series Let the Right One In,1 and subsequently appeared in episodes of FBI, Law and Order, Dear Edward, and the short series Voyeur (2016).1 Her most sustained television role to date is the recurring part of Coach Sabrina in the CBS police procedural East New York, which premiered in 2022.1
In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, McCoy portrayed Woman Running Away (Beach),2 a Coney Island beachgoer present when Garraka's Death Chill strikes the waterfront. In the sequence, a bright summer day turns catastrophic in seconds: a massive black storm cloud surges in from the ocean, icicles erupt first through the water and then through the sand, and the Wonder Wheel freezes mid-rotation as the crowd panics and flees. McCoy's character is among those caught in that sudden transformation.
The casting came about through an unusually eventful process. After receiving the audition, McCoy had second thoughts about the role, and then was bitten by a Rottweiler, which caused her to miss the initial tape deadline. A few days later her manager informed her that the production was still interested in seeing something from her. She submitted a tape and booked the part.
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
IMDb, "Claudia Nell McCoy - Biography," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5612941/bio/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
IMDb, "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) - Full Cast and Crew," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21235248/fullcredits/ ↩ ↩2
"Norm Lewis, NaTasha Yvette Williams and More Among 2017 AUDELCO Award Winners; Full List!" BroadwayWorld (November 22, 2017), https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Norm-Lewis-NaTasha-Yvette-Williams-and-More-Among-2017-AUDELCO-Award-Winners-Full-List-20171122 ↩
Audience Development Committee, "2017 Nominees," AUDELCO.org, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.audelco.org/2017-nominees/ ↩