Christopher Gorham

What's the deal with Auggie Anderson, the blind CIA tech ops agent on Covert Affairs?

It's not every day that you see a blind guy manning a computer station containing international government secrets—and that's exactly the point. "It is an extreme choice and we haven't really seen it done before," says exec producer Dave Bartis of Auggie, played by Christopher Gorham. "We knew if we did it right, it could be really outstanding." The character is loosely based on a real-life soldier the series creators know who was injured in battle, confined to a wheelchair and then had to find a second act. While the light-hearted Auggie will continue to waffle about the specifics of how he was hurt while serving with Special Ops in Iraq, the idea, says Bartis, "Is that he was so good that the CIA would want to find a place for him." Naturally, that entails tricking him out with a top-of-the-line Braille keyboard—the genuine article—as well as a futuristic-looking laser walking cane that's based on a product currently in development. Says Bartis, "He's worth it."

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