December 15, 2015
In The Mix

Pop Rocket

Entertainment is in Hayley Kiyoko's blood.

Libby Slate

Some things are just meant to be.

Actress Hayley Kiyoko was in Sweden last year, watching an episode of CSI, when she received word from her agent that she'd scored an audition for the show's newest spinoff, CSI: Cyber. A couple of days later she read for the role of Raven Ramirez, an ex-hacker who joins the FBI cyber-crime investigative team. Three days later she started work on the show.

The singer-songwriter had traveled to Sweden to meet music producers and write songs. "I was writing songs when I was five. I knew I was going to pursue music," says Kiyoko, who began playing drums as a youngster. "The acting came in the middle of that."

Her character on Cyber — now in season two — was initially a recurring role, but the actress was soon bumped up to series regular. "The first season was difficult," Kiyoko admits. "I didn't understand a lot of the [technical] words. But the writers are great about educating us."

Kiyoko was already known to viewers from ABC Family's The Fosters, the Disney Channel series The Wizards of Waverly Place and telefilm Lemonade Mouth as well as two Scooby-Doo movies for Cartoon Network. And she appeared in two features released this year, Insidious: Chapter 3 and Jem and the Holograms.

Entertainment is in her blood: her mother is director-choreographer Sarah Kawahara, a two-time Emmy winner for her ice-skating choreography, and her father is Jamie Alcroft, a comedian and voiceover artist.

The southern California native, who describes her music as indie pop, is following in mom's directing footsteps. She recently co-directed a music video of her LGBT-friendly song, "Girls Like Girls."

Posted on YouTube in late June, the video drew more than 8 million views in its first six weeks online.

"My dream came true for this video," she says. "It's wonderful to hear that people are affected by it. To see all the different levels of connection people are making... it's really cool."

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