Katherine Beattie, a 2008 graduate of Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University, has lived a life story worth telling. Now TCU has helped celebrate it with a huge mural in Los Angeles—one of a series of murals nationwide highlight alumni who are “leading on” in extraordinary ways.
Beattie has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, a condition that makes walking extremely difficult and led to her need for a wheelchair. But that hasn’t slowed down her career as an athlete and TV writer and producer. She worked on “NCIS: New Orleans” before being hired as a supervising producer on CBS’ longtime cornerstone drama “NCIS.” This year, Beatty was promoted to co-executive producer for the show’s 20th season.
Beatty is also known for something else—becoming the first woman to land a backflip using a wheelchair, which she accomplished in 2016.
Beattie won an award from the Writer’s Guild of America West
The Katherine Beattie TCU mural in Los Angeles. [Photo: TCU]
A graduate of TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication, Beattie won the 2019 Evan Somers Memorial Award from the Writers Guild of America West, which is given for on-screen representation of people with disabilities and creating opportunities in the entertainment industry for people with disabilities.
“Katherine is inspiring, and she represents what we believe is the power of all Horned Frogs: We find our passion and pursue it,” TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr., said in a statement. “In corporations, in classrooms, in operating rooms, and even on screens large and small, you’ll find Horned Frogs leading on.”
Beattie says TCU helped shape what she went on to achieve after graduating.
“I’m so grateful to everyone at TCU for broadening my worldview, helping me develop empathy, and tapping into the person I wanted to be,” said Beattie. “It’s so meaningful to be celebrated like this and to know that I’m viewed as a leader in my community. As one of just a few disabled people working behind the camera in Hollywood, I get to create authentic characters and write storylines that celebrate disability as part of natural human diversity, not something that is sad or tragic.”
Mural is one of a series
The mural featuring Beattie is 56 feet high and 32 feet wide and is prominently located on Hollywood Boulevard.
The first mural in the series was unveiled in New York City,, spotlighting alumnus John Devereaux of “Hamilton.” Other mural subjects and locations will be announced soon, TCU says, with the final mural appearing in Fort Worth this fall.
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