marissa bode why is she in a wheelchair

Marissa Bode uses a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury she sustained in a car accident when she was 11 years old, which left her paralyzed from the waist down. This autobiographical detail has been reported in multiple interviews and profiles, and it is also reflected in her casting as Nessarose in Wicked, where she is described as the first actor with a disability to portray the character in real life.