Born in 1967, opportunity was scarce for a deaf boy like Anthony Natale. A first-generation Italian-Canadian, Natale grew up in Saint Catharines, Ontario as the the middle child in a family of five. The only Deaf person in his family, Natale the boy was known as handsome and funny, a class clown destined to seize his dream, whether Deaf, hearing, or otherwise.

The dream first captured Natale following the 1978 release of the hit musical comedy Grease. At the time, closed captioning was widely unavailable for deaf moviegoers, so Natale improvised, bringing a pop-up book about the movie to the theater. From that day forward, Natale knew he wanted to be an actor, "like John Travolta."