RJ Mitte, co-star of the Emmy-winning television drama “Breaking Bad,” will speak on “Overcoming Adversity: Turning a Disadvantage Into an Advantage” at 8 p.m. Monday, March 3, in South Woulfe Alumni Hall in Anderson Student Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
The lecture is sponsored by the University Lectures Committee. It is free, but because of limited seating the lecture is open only to St. Thomas students, staff and faculty.
Following the talk, a meet-and-greet with Mitte will be held in Scooter’s, located on the first floor of Anderson Student Center.
In “Breaking Bad,” Mitte played the role of Walter White Jr., son of the cancer-stricken high school science teacher who turned into a drug manufacturer. Both Mitte and the character he plays have cerebral palsy, although in real life Mitte has a milder form of the disability.
Mitte is involved with several organizations that raise awareness of equality and diversity. He is a spokesperson for the National Disability Institute’s Real Economic Impact Tour, and an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy, an organization that supports people with a spectrum of disabilities.
More recently he has been speaking out against bullying and has worked with the National Center for Bullying Prevention.
Mitte spent much of his childhood in Austin, Texas, and Lafayette, La. Early in his career he worked as a background actor on television’s “Hannah Montana” and “Everybody Hates Chris.” In January he began playing Campbell, a premed student paralyzed by a snowboarding accident in the ABC drama “Switched at Birth.”
