NKD Mag - Issue #56 (February 2016)

FEB. actors:

04 JESSICA SULA from struggling in nyc to recovery road

12 ALBERTO ROSENDE spilling secrets on the shadow world

16 CHLOE EAST debby ryan’s little darling

18 XOSHA ROQUEMORE on diversity and the mindy project

22 ROBERTO AGUIRE

pretty little liars’ new heartthrob

24 CAMILLA LUDDINGTON raiding tombs and hospital hallways

34 RILEY VOELKEL

the originals’ newest mikaelson

38 EMILY ROBINSON

on transparent’s second season

40 FLORIANA LIMA welcoming you to the family

web stars: 06 JORDAN DOWW on finding himself and sharing it

10 GUNZ on fighting for the bands he believes in

publisher: CATHERINE POWELL

editors: CATHERINE POWELL NICOLA PRING

writers: MERISSA BLITZ SHELBY CHARGIN DUSTIN HEVERON BRITTANY LAMBAU STACY MAGALLON CATHERINE POWELL VANESSA SALLES RILEY STENEHJEM TANYA TRANER

photography: CATHERINE POWELL

design: CATHERINE POWELL

JESSICA SULA Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair by STEVEN MASON Make-Up by COOPER

A friendly young woman with a knack for storytelling is the easiest way to describe Jessica Sula. Hailing from Wales, and having traveled a lot, Jessica was very much a go-with-the-flow type of kid. “I started to [act] it in drama class really, that’s how everything sort of began,” she says. “I auditioned for a youth theater, and we put on this parody called ‘O What a Lovely War’ and it was fun but I was super shy. I came back the first weekend and I was so excited but then, you know, you have this thing where, ‘I’m just a kid from Wales who really cares,’” she jokes.

As she grew up, she realized that the regular route of going to school and university was not for her. “I thought I could be a lawyer, but I realized I mostly liked it for the performance aspect of it,” she laughs. She heard about an open audition for the widely popular television series Skins and begged her dad to drive her to Bristol for it. It ended up being the first part she booked. “Which was a real spontaneous stroke of luck,” she says.

Jessica’s attitude is refreshing. She’s filled with cheesy, sarcastic jokes that make it hard for not to love her. Through this, it’s easy to see how her love for acting kept her pushing through when her family didn’t have the financial standing to afford the extra things actors often need early on in their careers. “I got an agent, I took the last of my money, and I decided to move to New York,” she says. “My parents divorced around that time, so it was kind of a weird transition where you’re flying the nest, but your parents are breaking up and they were my biggest supporters so that was strange. I moved to New York with my mum for a little bit.” Jessica began studying acting at Stella Adler studio in New York after reading online comments that led her to believe she wasn’t that good of an actress. “I met some really 4

great people, and I did that for a semester but it was really hard,” she says. After her mom moved back to Trinidad, she began sharing a bedroom with a friend in Queens. After that, she went back home to Wales for a while. Jessica filmed a small indie film called Honeytrap, for which she earned a bit of money. “Then I decided after that to go back to New York. I stayed with my friend in her studio, and I got a job at an Irish Sports Bar as a hostess. I ate chicken fingers all the time and mozzarella sticks for free,” she says.

Throughout her time working at the sports bar, Jessica was constantly auditioning, and hoping to catch her next break. “I ended up getting an audition for Recovery Road… and it was, ‘Oh ok, let’s see how this goes,’” she says. After her audition, Jessica had a plane to catch. She ended up in a restaurant with the people who just watched her audition for Recovery Road, and it was in that restaurant she got offered the part. “They said, ‘Do you want the part?’ and I started crying in my soup,

and I said, ‘Really?’” she recalls.

Recovery Road, the newest Freeform show about addiction stars Jessica as the lead character Maddie Graham. For Jessica, the Recovery Road cast brought an old friend, her Skins co-star Sebastian De Souza playing her male counterpart, Wes Stewart. “That was really lovely,” she said about finding out that she and “Seb” were on the same show again. “With Sebbie, when we were in Skins, I really didn’t get to know him very well…I actually think that was really good because we had all of this common ground. We had been through this show together. So when we met up we could talk about, ‘How did you feel about this,’ which was lovely. We got to know each other even more,” she says. Her belief is that it’s best to “build a bank of memories” to form a relationship, which is what working with Sebastian brought her.

“I love that boy,” she says, laughing. For her, having Seb is having a piece of home in a new place like Los Angeles. “It’s nice to have somebody [in L.A.] from home

who gets what you’ve been through and gets your sense of humor,” she says. She likes knowing she can just be herself with her old cast mate. “He doesn’t take things too seriously, and you can’t take things too seriously,” she says.

And while she’s trying not taking herself too seriously, the subject manner of Recovery Road is a very serious topic for teens. “I think if everything were too dark it wouldn’t be a good experience, and it wouldn’t be a truthful one,” Jessica says of the show. “We’re trying to show that there are good and bad days for everybody.” It’s an important message from the show, and from Freeform. “You have this disease… and you’re just trying to understand how it got there. I think it’s important to show every emotion. You talk to people who have depression and it’s not that, ‘I’m sad everyday,’ [it’s] ‘I have good days, it’s just something I’m living with,’ and it’s the same with addiction,” she says.

Though Jessica is a fun and outspoken person, Maddie is much more freewheeling. “Maddie is a very dry sense of humored little madam,” Jessica says, laughsing. “You see a transition of her using humor…it’s a great way to deflect from certain issues going on. She has a great sense of humor, she’s got a lot of love, but she’s extremely against the idea that she’s an addict.” Maddie’s personality is a representation of a big portion of today’s teens who are feeling the “all kids go out and party” pressure, while not realizing the effect it’s having on their lives. Jessica recognizes that seeing that played out on screen can help people who may be in a similar position. “The whole show is about her meeting all these people who are open and honest…but also she’s quite smart in how she deals with people,” Jessica says.

Eventually, Jessica says, Maddie starts to become her own person.

It was easy for Jessica to see how Maddie’s mindset is in could be approached, although in true Jessica form, she cracks a joke about being really shy and how her mother was a “wise Caribbean woman” who didn’t let her go out as much. Although Maddie’s experience on the show is much different than Jessica’s, Jessica looks teenage years fondly, and appreciates and her chance to relive high school through the show and having the chance to expose people to the subject of addiction. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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JORDAN DOWW Words by BRITTANY LANDAU Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Actor and YouTube personality Jordan Doww’s story starts in Virginia. He lived there for six months before his parents split and he headed up north to Michigan with his mom. Watching her was his first glimpse of hard work, as she was constantly leaving him with babysitters while she studied for her PhD while working. She met Jordan’s now step-dad when he was 3 years old. “That’s when I started my life, I guess. I moved like five times growing up,” Jordan says. “I was such an awkward, quiet kid growing up just because I had to move around so much.”

Moving around a lot and having to make new friends was hard for Jordan. “Around the seventh grade, I enrolled in a theater studio and there is kind of where I flourished into who I am today,” he says. “I was very quiet in school, but this place was where I found my actual friends.” The school took him to compete in acting competitions, and he even enrolled in dance and voice lessons.

For six years, he surrounded himself with the arts.

“Tenth grade was the worst year of my life,” he says. “I was awkward and quiet, and I had the most severe case of acne in my town. Junior year, my face got clear and I was sick of being a shadow at school and then going to theater and loving life. I wanted to love life at school.” With the motiva-

tion and passion, Jordan did a complete 180. “I enrolled in the drama program, did choir, did theater, and then I got the lead my first time in junior year. By senior year, it was the most fun, all-American high school experience. [I was] homecoming king, varsity choir and lead in the musical.”

Then graduation came and Jordan went to Michigan State University to study Media Information. That summer, he took classes at The Second City in Chicago. “I would drive from Detroit to Chicago every Saturday,” he recalls. But Jordan had bigger dreams of a life in California.

“I saw a flyer in one of my classes for the Disney College Program and I thought that would be a fun job. And then it clicked. Disney World is in Florida and Disneyland is in California.” Jordan did his research, figuring out how far Disneyland is from Los Angeles, and applied to the program. He got accepted as a quick service food and beverage cashier, which was far from his top choice of being a PhotoPass photographer. “I was almost not going to take it because I thought about how shitty of a job that is,” Jordan says. “I wasn’t going to be making anything and I wasn’t going to have my car out there.” However, his Vine and YouTube channels started to take off during that time, so he knew that he had to be in California for his dreams and accepted his position with the Disney College Program.

“Right when I made the decision, I told my family and friends and everyone asked why I was doing that because it wasn’t going to do anything for me. I was like, ‘You don’t know that. California is where I want to be.

Why would I pass up an opportunity like that if it’s going to introduce me to where I want to be in the future?’” Jordan says. “I have this fear of growing up too fast and not achieving my dreams. I want to start young because I never get fulfilled. I’m always shooting for the next step.”

A month before the move, Disney contacted Jordan to tell him that he had been switched to the PhotoPass photographer position that he had already hoped for. The job took a toll on Jordan. PhotoPass photog-

raphers are out in the sun with just a camera and a tripod for up to 10 hours a day, and they work with long lines of families who want pictures. “I didn’t love the job at all, but I give it so much credit because that’s what got me here and it taught me so much about life and I think that’s what it was meant to do,” he says. “It was a really hard job. Really physically demanding, and in my free time, I wanted to try to get my name out there and do the acting thing.”

Jordan had four short months in California to make a name for himself. “I just worked so much and I didn’t have much free time, but when I did, I would take an Uber or train to L.A. and go to pointless auditions just because they meant something because they were auditions. It was that much more exposure,” he says. “There were days I was stranded in the middle of L.A. and didn’t have enough money to get back. I used to walk as far as I could to make the fare cheaper,” he recalls.

Luckily, things started happening for Jordan. In November of 2014, he signed with an agency. In December, his parents saw how much it meant to him and gave him until the summer to make it happen. In January, he moved to Pasadena with another Viner and really got into acting. He did a few commercials and a pilot that didn’t get picked up, but it was a start. He signed a social media management company, and he saw a major improvement in the places he got to go and the people he got to meet. He went to conferences and formed important friendships with other YouTube personalities. “I was trying to do as much as I could until I proved to my parents that I needed to stay,” he says.

Jordan was very active on the Internet, was sharing every piece of his life with his followers. “The one thing I was hiding was my sexuality,” Jordan says. “I was just uncomfortable with people knowing that I am gay, or people saying that they knew it.

I hated that. I thought that you should get to know me, instead of judging who I am.”

For months, Jordan just didn’t talk about his sexuality. It wasn’t until the end of 2015 that he really began to feel comfortable in his own skin.

In fact, his most popular video on YouTube with 200,000+ views is titled “Coming Out: I Am Gay, I Am Human.” It took him a while to post the video. “I was sitting down one night and I thought about how aweNKDMAG.COM

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some it would be to make a video diminishing labels,” Jordan says. “A video where I’m not coming out and saying that this is me and my story, but rather, a video that asks why we even need labels and why we need to associate a group with stereotypes or predetermined ways of acting, thinking, living.”

Jordan mentioned the idea to his management team, and they encouraged him to make it in time for Coming Out Day, which was happening a week later. At this point, Jordan hadn’t even told his parents and definitely didn’t feel ready to tell the whole world, but he’s the kind of person who would rather help the world than himself, and he started planning the video two days later. “Originally, I wanted to diminish labels, but then I thought about how labels are actually so beautiful and make us all different, but we are also human with the same needs and desires. Why not just celebrate labels in a healthy way, but show that at the end of the day, we are all people, all human, and all the same,” he says.

His idea flourished into something he never imagined. With a network, a director and a cast of actors, the video was made in a total of five days. Jordan even cried when he saw his project come to life, but his parents still had no idea. “My biggest fear was that this was going to go public, my mom still wasn’t going to know, and she was going to be so ashamed of me. So I got the courage to call her,” he says. “It took me 15 minutes to say it, but I said it and my mom and step dad were just like, ‘Ok.’ I didn’t expect that.

It was the most relieving experience,” he recalls. “I haven’t had one bad experience with people judging, except strangers on the Internet. It’s been three months since then and life has changed drastically. People are saying that I seem so much more confident and happier. I’m just not afraid of anything anymore.”

When asked to describe 2015, Jordan uses the phrase, “the year that I was making Jordan Doww.” 2016 is going to be the year where the world finally sees Jordan Doww.

He has his first live comedy show, “HollyWEIRD” in February at The Hollywood Improv. “If that does well, I’ll take it to Michigan and other cities,” Jordan says. “I would love to tour a live show because I love live energy.” He also wants to see his acting take off, whether it be with a TV show, movie or even a talk show. “I just want 2016 to be the year that shit happens,” he says. NKD

GUNZ Words by DUSTIN HEVERON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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Mike “Gunz” Gunzelman might take his nickname from a firearm, but he’s a more well-oiled machine than any rifle on the market. And as host of The Gunz Show on the Internet radio station Idobi, he gets to make just as much noise as any gun out there –maybe more. However, there’s a price that comes with making your voice stand out in a sea of so many personal opinions, and that price is the daily grind Gunz puts himself through…but he wouldn’t

have it any other way.

“So what I do is: five days a week I start every morning at 3:30 a.m.,” Gunz says. “I start prepping for the WABC Radio morning show that I’m a part of, which is Imus in the Morning. The hosts and everyone come in around 5 [a.m.] so I have to prep beforehand. And then we go live 6 to 10 a.m., so every day at 3:30 in the morning I’m at Madison Square Garden…whether I’m hungover or anything.”

But Gunz’s work day doesn’t end after his first job — in fact, that’s just beginning. He’s also a sports entertainment reporter for WABC Radio. “By noon everyone else is enjoying their life and I’ve been up for nine hours working nonstop,” he says. “I go home to Hoboken [N.J.] and sleep for a couple hours, then come back into New York City and then go to Madison Square Garden and work on The Gunz Show.”

If you’re like me and you feel

worn out just by hearing that, well guess what: Gunz still isn’t done with his day. “I usually go to at least three concerts a week in New York,” he says. “And once again I have to be at the studio at 3:30 every morning…So yeah, it’s a life that can definitely stop giving…but I never want it to stop giving.”

Believe it or not, there’s more to Gunz’s life than just work and presumably an endless stream of caffeine. Behind the curtain of nonstop hustle, Gunz started out just like a lot of other people do: with a deep passion for music that transformed into something more. “I used to be that kid,” Gunz says. “I always wanted to learn as much as I could about the music industry. I wanted to help out bands because bands helped me. Music saved my life.”

Gunz even takes a moment to poke fun at himself for the clichéd “music saved my life” line, but cliché or not, Gunz acknowledges that it’s just as true for him as it is for the millions of music fans who have found solace in music.

“I became friends with bands,” Gunz recalls of his early days getting into the entertainment industry, “A member of Midtown was my guitar teacher and the Midtown guys signed to Drive-Thru Records.

And then Drive-Thru kind of brings me along and they’re like, ‘All right well you’re young, you know what kids want,” and it’s like, ‘Ok, well here’s The Starting Line, here’s Finch, here’s The Early November’ and so I started working.”

For Gunz, work isn’t just a way of life, it is life — and that suits someone like Gunz just fine. “My first job was freshman year of high school,” Gunz reflects on his first foray into the industry that would become his home, “So I would also hand out flyers for local shows that were going on for bands that I liked and then I would go to shows, I would meet promoters, I would meet bookers and then that’s kind of how it all started.”

And at over 180,000 listeners, Gunz isn’t the only one having fun.

His fan base of loyal listeners is

comprised mostly of the coveted 18 to 45 demographic that companies are so eager to cater to — but Gunz isn’t trying to impress corporations and brands; he’s out there to connect with fans via the music and entertainment they mutually love.

Just hearing Gunz talk about the music industry over the years — how the record labels were too slow to embrace streaming music options like Spotify and Apple Music, (“Maybe things would’ve turned out better and CD sales wouldn’t have plummeted so much”) or his thoughts on which era of Justin Bieber was best (“I’m hoping he goes off the walls again, ‘cause that’s the fun Bieber, when he was insane for a while”) or his views on bipartisanship (“To be one sided in this day and age is just stupid. You don’t have to agree with everything but at least learn the other side”), it’s clear that Gunz has no problem with sharing his opinions, and no shortage of opinions to share. That’s undoubtedly part of his appeal to the millennial generation that gets their radio from everywhere except the radio.

“Terrestrial radio looks like it’s dead,” Gunz says. “It’s weird, we’re just in a weird age right now. Satellite is there, but a lot of kids our age, they’re not really listening to satellite too much.” Luckily, Gunz has an answer to the death of terrestrial radio. “That’s the beauty about Idobi and The Gunz Show,” he says.

“I’m on at 9 p.m., which is when a lot of people are home. And even if people are getting ready to go out they can still listen to Idobi. They can still listen to music, get ready, get dressed, start drinking, start partying, whatever the hell they want to do.”

“We’re seeing this rebirth of kids listening to real music once again,” Gunz says. As long as The Gunz Show is on the air, kids will always have a place they know they can go for real music, real opinions and real entertainment. And that’s a talent that means Gunz and his budding media empire will continue to be in demand for a long, long time. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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ALBERTO ROSENDE Words by RILEY STENEHJEN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Born into a military family, actor Alberto Rosende expected his life to follow a bit of a different path. Growing up, he thought he would attend West Point and join the Army, like his father, uncles, and cousins. “There was never a pressure, but I think understand the calling. I see it more as a vocation instead of a job that you do,” he explains. “You have to go through a lot of crap. All of that is very difficult to do when you’re 18 or 20 and kind of think you own the world. For me it was that understanding, if I have that calling that’s where I’ll end up.” After realizing that following in his family’s military footsteps wasn’t his calling, Alberto ended up attending NYU’s Tisch school for acting.

Moving to New York for school was a dream come true. Alberto’s a South Florida native, so it was a big transition for him. “South Florida, it’s…this kind of dream-like place, where you have the beach and you have people vacationing there constantly, so it kind of feels like a constant vacation. For me it felt like you were putting life on postpone,” he says. “And then when I got to New York, you’re walking the city, you’re constantly a part of it. It’s like a living being. It’s like going from being where you feel like you’re constantly just above the surface to going right in it — it was like a huge dive.” While finishing his last semester of school, Alberto was auditioning for roles – including a part on 12

Freeform’s new series, Shadowhunters.

The audition for Shadowhunters was in early January 2015, and when the callback for the part came in May, Alberto travelled to Los Angeles for the first time. “I just sat in a hotel room for four days and auditioned and wherever they drove me is where I went,” he says of the trip. The series is based of off The Mortal Instruments, a popular six-part book series by Cassandra Clare. “As soon as I got the callback I got the first book. Before the callback I’d read the first and most of the second, and midway through the audition I was starting the third book,” Alberto says. “Even then, I didn’t understand that all of this was going to have a giant fanbase. The Mortal Instruments, has like, 38 million copies sold.”

With so many fans of the book series, the TV show already has a big following, especially after the film version’s flop. “We always wanted to separate ourselves from the movie,” Alberto explains. “It reminds me of this documentary called Meru, where all these guys are climbing a mountain, and how every time someone tries they climb it a different way. Same mountain, same story, but we’re taking a different path.” The episode format allows for the television show to go much deeper into the characters and storylines, something that wasn’t possible in a two-hour movie. “We can go into the world that they are going to be a part of and that

the audience is eventually going to be a part of. I think that’s the benefit we have. The movie didn’t get us invested in the world, because there wasn’t enough time,” says Alberto. His character on the show, Simon Lewis, is slowly brought into the “Shadow World,” much like the audience is.

Simon is the best friend of heroine Clary Fray (portrayed by Kat McNamara), and in the show’s first episode, Clary finds out that she is a part of the supernatural Shadow World. She’s a Shadowhunter - someone who is given powers from the angels to protect and police the supernatural world. “I’m her friend who’s a mundane, a regular human,” Alberto explains. “He loves Clary. She’s his best friend but there’s also that romantic involvement that she doesn’t feel but he does. He literally will do anything for her, so he gets dragged into this world and because it’s not the safest place, he has a really big journey going through it.

Shadowhunters is the first long project Alberto has worked on, so being in a character for such an extended period of time has been a great experience. “To have six months to be in someone else’s body essentially is really cool,” he says.

“Having that opportunity to really be in a character, really see his point of view and the way he sees the world just made it easier. It was less prep and more just having to be there — know what I love, know what I care about, and everything

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else will just lend itself to that.”

Throughout the six months of filming in Toronto, the cast was able to get really close. “The whole cast is all just super cool, super chill people. People I would want to be friends with whether or not I was working with them, people that I would want to see all the time,” Alberto says. “We really created a family of people that really liked the work that we were doing and really liked each other, which made the work we were doing so much easier and so much better because we were all open to each other.”

The Freeform crew also made an effort to make sure all of the actors were comfortable and totally on board. “We’ve seen the investment they put into each of us, as actors and as people, and the investment they’re putting in the show,” Alberto explains. “They want us to feel like we know what we’re doing, and they know what they’re doing, so it’s very open. They’re trying to really show us that they’re behind us 100% and that we’re all behind the same project.”

An important part to any Freeform project is social media. “They actually sat me down when I got cast and they gave a whole spiel. They give you a nice little book, and they make it very understandable and very easy.” Alberto says. “It’s both amazing and kind of scary, how much you can do with that.

I’ve seen the way the show’s kind of grown because of social media, like the people that in was in high school with that never would have come across the show have called me like, ‘I saw that thing on Facebook or someone tweeted something and I saw that you were part of that’. It’s amazing how the world is like that now.”

With the first season of Shadowhunters finished, Alberto is looking for some new projects. “I’m not someone that can sit still. I don’t like to be idle for too long,” he says. “Season two is definitely something that I’m very excited about if it were to happen. I’m a very optimistic, positive person, so naturally I always do the assumption that it’s going to happen and if it doesn’t I’m not too disappointed. I want to do a lot of theatre. Maybe a couple of full films. The world is open for me in that sense, I just want to make sure I’m working and trying to explore how to make myself a better actor.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CHLOE EAST Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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NKD: Why do you think a film like this is important for girls to see?

CE: I think it’s important to stay true to yourself because you don’t want to be known for someone that you’re not. It’s the best version of you. It’s important for girls to learn the little lessons throughout that middle school experience.

NKD: Since the books are a full series, do you think there is potential for more films?

CE: For sure. That’s what they’re planning.

Chloe East is good at just about everything. She acts, she dances, she models, and she vlogs. At only 14-years old, Chloe has amassed a whopping 78,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel. Is she stopping now? No way. In fact, she only plans to do more.

NKD: Tell us your life story from beginning to end.

CHLOE EAST: I started dancing when I was two and a half. It was nothing too serious – a lot of “mommy and me” classes and “daddy-daughter” dances. I started doing a little bit of theater when I was seven. Theater was something I really enjoyed – the first time we performed Annie, I was the dog. It was dance and theater, dance and theater. Then I got cast in a thriller play as Gloria in Wait Until Dark. That was really fun. We got to do that play for a month. The first movie I ever did was a Lifetime movie called Out of Reach.

NKD: Your YouTube channel is pretty popular. How has social media helped your career?

CE: My self-choreographed dancing opened up so many opportunities because of social media. Even my YouTube channel was just a hobby, and I think people like seeing the dancing, the acting, and the modeling. Everything I’ve done has started from dancing.

NKD: How have your parents reacted to your success thus far?

CE: Acting is in my genes because both of my parents were actors. They met in New York while they were both pursuing acting. I didn’t know they liked acting so much when I was in theater.

I just thought they liked it because I liked it. And they were like, “We went to college for it.” They’re huge supporters because they’ve done it and they’ve had the experience.

NKD: Let’s talk about your new movie, Jessica Darling’s It List.

CE: I play Jessica. She’s really witty. She doesn’t care what people think about her – she’s just Jessica. It’s very difficult for her as she watches her sister try to be someone she’s not and it doesn’t turn out very well for her. Filming was really fun. Really fun cast, really fun crew.

NKD: Tell us more about Jessica.

How does she grow throughout the film?

CE: She kind of grows in a bad way.

When her sister gives her the “It List”, it tells her to wear something different everyday; to stay with the “It” clique. It tells her popularity is perfection. Jessica is such a sweetheart. She loves her mom and she loves her sister. The best adjective I could give her is authentic.

She’s so true to herself.

NKD: Did you read the novels before filming?

CE: When I was filming, I read the whole script and the one particular book. I haven’t read the other books in the series. I kind of want it to be a surprise. I’ve heard what happens in the other books, but if we do get to film any of them, I want to read as we film. I think it might be cooler that way.

NKD: To have Debby Ryan come on and work with you as an executive producer, how did that make you feel?

CE: Debby Ryan actually surprised me while we were doing ADR for the film.

She came in and was like, “Hi, I’m Debby!” and I was like, “I know you’re Debby!” It was amazing. It was a good type of pressure. I perform well and better under healthy pressure. She’s someone to look up to as opposed to just doing your script. She’s always setting the bar up higher. She’s so supportive, encouraging and always positive. I love it.

NKD: Have you been working on any other projects?

CE: I worked on Teen Dance Challenge, which is a web series. It was really cool because I got to showcase my dancing, which I haven’t done in a while. I also plan on going to the Joffrey Ballet School this summer because I won a scholarship there.

NKD: What are your plans with the Joffrey Ballet School?

CE: I’m planning on designing some leotards and apparel. Joffrey is amazing.

I’ve always dreamed of going there and now it’s amazing to design alongside them. NKD

XOSHA ROQUEMORE Words by VANESSA SALLES Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair & Make-Up by EMMA WILLIS

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A fan-favorite on The Mindy Project, Xosha Roquemore is all you could ask for in an entertainer. The Los Angeles native discovered her love for performing at a very young age and for that, she can thank her parents. “My mom and dad both worked in the arts,” she says. “My mom was in producing/arts administration and my dad was in writing/ directing/producing in theater.

So, in a way, I was born into this.

I started taking acting classes and auditioning when I was really young but only because I loved it; my parents never forced me into it.” Xosha’s passion for her craft was fueled more and more as she got older. “In high school, I did a program called Amazing Grace Conservatory,” she says. “It was a Saturday program for acting, singing, and dancing. We’d put on plays at LATC and I learned so much from them. From there, I went to the Tisch high school summer program and it inspired me to apply there. I studied acting and when I graduated, I had an agent I was working with in New York.”

That’s when things really started to take off. “I started auditioning for things and lucked out on booking my first role in Precious,” she says.

“It was a pretty big deal and so once I got that, I thought to myself, ‘Okay, I’m going to make it in this business.’”

Precious marked Xosha’s film debut and served as a stepping-stone to bigger roles. “Once the film was released, I got with my current manager and started getting more and more auditions,” she says. One of those auditions just so happened to land her in the casting room of The Mindy Project. “I hadn’t watched the show when I auditioned but I knew who Mindy Kaling was because of The Office,” she shares.

“I thought she was really funny

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and cool! The fact that she had created her own show and was this powerful brown woman running it was really dope to me.” Although Xosha was still fairly new on the scene, the character of Tamra was actually tailor-made for her. “I had auditioned for a guest-starring role and this character was particularly interesting because her name [at the time] was Xosha, just like mine,” she says. “At that point, some small part in my mind was thinking that they wrote the role for me. I was sure they didn’t even know who I was so I let that idea go really fast! Of course, I didn’t want anyone else to get the role because the worst thing that could happen is having someone use your likeness and name!

But, I went in and auditioned for it and booked it. I found out later that they did write the role for me.”

For Xosha, a three-episode arc quickly turned into something more. “I came in at the end of season one,” she says. “After that, they asked me to come back as a season two regular.” On the show, Xosha’s been able to break boundaries and be apart of a truly monumental time on television. “Seeing more people of color on TV is really cool,” she says. “If people would stop being so knit-picky and just look at all these shows for what it is, they’d see the bigger picture. It’s monumental.” An actress she admires for her vision is Mindy Kaling. “She’s just awesome,” she says. “She’s been doing this for so long and has managed to find success so early on in her career – it’s completely inspiring to be around. I really think the show will stand the test of time and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

Being around such comedic actors on the show, Xosha’s developed a major appreciation for improv.

“I’m not a master at it but I do love it,” she says. “I like to bring a bit of myself into everything and that’s what I love about it, being in the moment. Some of the people on the show, like Ike Barinholtz and Adam Pally, are such pros at it, it’s hilarious.” The same can be said for the show’s guest-stars. “We’ve had

so many good ones but my favorites have been James Franco, Josh Peck, and Laverne Cox,” she shares. And just in case you were wondering, Idris Elba and Amy Schumer top her list of dream The Mindy Project guest-stars.

Along with hilarious one-liners, Xosha was able to show off her musical side when Tamra performed a quirky song (that may or may not have alluded to a potential Tamra/ Morgan reunion) during the first half of the show’s current season.

“I’ve always been interested in music,” she shares. “I didn’t ask to sing on the show but the writers know I love singing and dancing so it just happened. It was really exciting for me; any time I have a chance to do that, please sign me up!” With production on the second half of the season having just started, Xosha’s excited to see what happens next with her character. “I’d love to see more sides of her and continue to dig a little deeper with her,” she says. “I want her to stretch out as a character so I can stretch out as an actor. In the last episode, it seems like Tamra has a crush on Morgan again but I don’t know if they’re going to end up together. I’d love to get back into her love life because that’s always fun.”

For all the hardcore The Mindy Project fans, news of the show’s FOX cancellation hit hard. However, the cast and series have had a seamless transition to Hulu. “There was a slight panic about moving to a streaming service because I wasn’t sure what it meant,” she shares. “It’s awesome, though. It’s the future.

Most of my friends and family had only been watching the show on Hulu anyways because they’d be busy when the episode aired during the week. As an actor, nothing’s really changed for me on the show.

We still work at the same studio with the same cast and crew. As for the show, I don’t think we’ve really changed the tone of it; it just has a little more edge. On FOX, we were already pushing the limits; it’s a little more lenient on Hulu – some of the things said are a little crazier.”

As for what Xosha has coming up; fans can expect lots of laughs.

“There’s a couple of things that I’m excited about,” she reveals. I recently did a cool, small cameo in The Disaster Artist, directed by James Franco. I don’t want to give anything away but it’s going to be hilarious! No matter how it comes out in the film, the work I got to do was invaluable and really fun.”

While you’re jotting that down on your must-watch list, go ahead and add The Runaround. “I filmed that with Emile Hirsch and J.K. Simmons, directed by Gary Wieson,” she shares. “It’s a super fun romantic comedy-esque film.”

When asked if getting into writing and producing were of interest, Xosha says she’d only use it as a way to get her voice heard. “I’m a performer and I love performing,” she says. “However, I would probably get into the behind-the-scenes stuff just to have more of a voice.

The more I’m in the business, the more I see that it’s the only way to really say what it is you want to say.

No one’s going to write what I want to say; I have to do that myself. I’d use it to get more stories of black women out there – seeing the same kinds of stories can make you feel like you’re trapped inside a box and the only way to break out of that box is to write or produce my way out. My ideal character would have a lot of layers to her and have a lot to say,” she revealed. “She’d be very fashionable and cool and the one in charge.”

Although Xosha’s success has been one of a slow-but-steady tale, she’s planning on sticking around for years to come. “Everything in this business takes time,” she says.

“A lot of people seem like overnight successes but there’s always years in the making of it. I’ve wanted to do this since I was little and so, for me, it’s taken 31 years to get here. I’m grateful for where I am but still have a lot more goals to accomplish. In 2016, I’m just focusing on a being a dope 31-year-old woman who’s trying to take everything to the next level.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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ROBERTO AGUIRE Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair & Make-Up by MICHELLE SFARZO

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Roberto Aguire is possibly the most well-rounded actor to come into Freeform’s hit TV series Pretty Little Liars. Having been born in L.A., relocating to Mexico and growing up in Geneva, Roberto had seen a lot of the world before acting became his full-time gig.

“The first time I really considered acting was when I was 15 years old,” he says. “I randomly auditioned for this play, this amateur play in Geneva… I ended up getting the part. It was an amazing play and an amazing opportunity for me to be on stage.”

During the curtain call at the end of the play’s run, one of the lead actors called Roberto up and said, “Take a bow kid, you deserve it.’” For Roberto, that was it. His acting career was calling him, and he left Geneva for college at NYU. “Luckily my parents were really supportive,” he says. “They were really behind the whole idea of me becoming an actor, but my dad just said ‘get an economics degree’ then go off be an actor, be merry, long life kind of thing,” he says. He got two degrees, one in economics and one in acting, and continued to pursue the arts.

One of his biggest learning experiences was after his first play, on the set of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

“I was able to get this [film] internship, I didn’t know at first that I was going to Harry Potter,” he says. “I thought I was going to a random Warner Bros. movie and when I showed up on set I was like, ‘This is Harry Potter,’” he says, laughing. “It was amazing, the scale of it was awe-inspiring... To see these actors working and to see them having a good time, and getting to create these insane scenes, I [thought], this is the height of imagination.”

Roberto also worked with the late Robin Williams in the movie Boulevard. “Working with Robin… there’s no experience like it in the world, there

never will be,” Roberto says. “It was such a unique experience… it was so special and something I will forever treasure.

I think first and foremost because of the person he was,” he says. Robin, in Roberto’s eyes, was the epitome of what an actor should be. “He was so humble, nice, generous person,” Roberto says.

Robin had the ability to talk to anyone and make them feel like the most important thing in the world, something that Roberto valued very much in him.

“For someone to approach this legend, this icon of a man…for them in that second to feel like the most amazing and important thing in Robin’s life is something I think very few people have,” he says. “He has a speed mentally that is unparalleled, and acting ability that is so deep and profound that you barely see it,” Roberto adds. Roberto was in an experience that was “one of constant learning.” While he learned as an actor, his biggest lesson came in the form of how to live life. “I think my biggest lesson from him is just, be humble,” Roberto says. “He was the most grounded, humble person in the world. He would treat each moment so passionately… It

was always about committing to every single moment. And if I can do that for my entire career I think that’d be a pretty good quality to have.”

It’s easy to see Roberto taking this attitude and blending it into his new role on the hit series Pretty Little Liars. Coming onto a set that already has a flow was easy for him because the cast and crew were so welcoming “You’re walking into a machine that’s already well-oiled,” he says. “It’s already been going. All the sudden you’re walking in at dessert like, ‘Hey guys, I’m here for dinner.’” Roberto plays Liam, the new love interest of Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) and book publisher of Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding). “Liam comes in after this five year flash-forward…immediately what that did for me was that I didn’t have to know anything about the story,” he jokes. “Liam is an assistant editor at this Boston publishing house. When we first see him, we see he’s working really closely with Ezra trying to get his [next book] published, and working really closely with Aria because she ends up working there too.”

As Roberto describes Liam as a very sweet guy who is passionate about telling

stories and listening to others’ stories while encouraging them to share, it’s hard not to make the obvious comparison between Roberto and Liam. There’s passion for what they do, and an innate kindness. “I think it’s really cool to see this character who’s outside of their whole world and outside of this drama… he’s Liam, he’s this really nice guy,” Roberto says. Eventually, Liam gets sucked into that world and becomes another piece in the never-ending puzzle that is “A.” Outside of acting, Roberto is also a philanthropist, a martial arts enthusiast and a happy person all around. “I’ve always love the idea of education, and I think education is vital….I feel very Mexican and in Mexico we have a severe lack in education…I haven’t found where I want to put my attentions yet, but I feel like I’m coming closer and closer,” he says of his passion for philanthropy.

In whatever he does, Roberto wants is to reach people. “At the end of the day I’m doing movies because it’s something that’s really special,” he says. “It’s something that I’m really privileged to do, and it’s touching so many people’s lives.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CAMILLA LUDDINGTON Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair by CLARISS RUBENSTEIN Make-Up by KIRA NASRAT Styling by AUDREY BRIANNE Wardrobe Assistant KASSEY RICH Location IDLE HOUR

Camilla Luddington is not all that different from most Grey’s Anatomy fans.

During the show’s first few seasons, she would rush home from her waitressing job to watch the show live, and she became invested in the characters’ lives.

The only difference between her and the rest of Grey’s dedicated fan base is, come Season 9, she was acting alongside her favorite characters.

Camilla and I meet in Studio City in Los Angeles in the middle of a very busy weekend for the young actress. Following our cover shoot, Camilla had a few hours to decompress before heading to an event that evening. The next day was the Golden Globes, and on Monday morning she was back on set to continue shooting the 12th season of Grey’s Anatomy. But you’ll never hear her say she’s tired – she spent far too long struggling to complain now.

Camilla was born and raised in England – though her accent is mostly faded now given she has to be American on set nine months out of the year. Her initial interest in acting came about when she was just 5 years old and became obsessed with The Wizard of 24

Oz and wanted to be Judy Garland. “I understood that Dorothy was a character, and I knew I wanted to be Judy,” she says. “I even made myself a pair of ruby slippers by taking my mom’s red nail polish that had sparkles in it and pouring it all over my shoes.” She started her acting career in England before moving to the U.S. in her early 20’s.

“I did the struggling waitress thing in Los Angeles,” Camilla says. “I kind of feel like it was the best thing to do because it really pushes you to want to be the best you can in your auditions.” She knew she didn’t want to have to work another shift, as a waitress so she would always give her all in the audition room. She booked a few guest starring roles on shows like CSI and Days of Our Lives, but still had to continue waitressing until she booked the role of Kate Middleton in Lifetime’s William & Kate and continued to book steady roles from there. The day she got back to Los Angeles from filming William & Kate, she booked a 10-episode stint on Californication, immediately followed by a six-episode arc on True Blood. Though she never went back to her waitress job after William & Kate, it

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was a while before she officially quit. “I didn’t want to take anything for granted,” she says.

While the majority of her work has been television-based, when she first started booking roles, Camilla wasn’t particular about which medium she wanted to work in – especially given the strides television has taken in the last decade. “T.V. is incredible right now with shows like Breaking Bad, Orange Is The New Black, Mr. Robot…” she says, “I feel like that stigma that there once was about TV, I feel like it’s not there anymore.” Her main goal was always to play characters that are complicated and interesting, which she feels like she’s been able to accomplish so far. “I play some messy people,” she says, laughing.

The biggest surprise of Camilla’s career came when she was cast as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider – the popular video game series.

Though that route wasn’t planned, Lara has become the character Camilla has played the longest. The first game took three years to develop, and the second one took two years.

“I’m most proud of that character because I’ve lived in it the longest, and it pushes me emotionally and physically,” she says. When she first auditioned for the role it had a code name, and she had no idea what type of journey the role would take her on. With Tomb Raider she’s been able to attend Comic Con and be apart of a fandom she never would have experienced before. Being in the game doesn’t make her any better at it, though – Camilla admits she’s terrible at it. “I know what I need to do, I know where I need to go and what I need to solve, but it’s just solving it and finding that place that can drive you crazy,” she says, laughing.

While Tomb Raider is her longest roll to date, her most recognizable role

is without a doubt her part on Grey’s Anatomy. “It was nostalgic for me,” she says of booking the role of Jo Wilson in 2012. She became hooked on the series when she first moved out to L.A., and because she didn’t have a solid friend group in the city yet she would go home after work and watch T.V. and specifically remembers watching those first few seasons from her couch. “I remember on my first days I snuck onto other sets that I wasn’t supposed to be on – like Meredith’s house or Joe’s Bar – and there was something reminiscent of those early days of being in L.A. and struggling and watching the show and thinking ‘God, I would love to be on that show,’ and ‘Man, aren’t these characters great?’” she says.

gether episode, and most – if not the entire cast – will be together for 15 hours every day. “When we all get together like that, it’s really fun,” Camilla says. “We’re all very close.”

Joining a Shonda Rhimes show as a female actress can guarantee one thing – the character you’re playing may be struggling, but she’s damn strong regardless. Shonda has been praised for her ability to bring incredibly complex and tough female characters to life over the years, and Jo Wilson is no exception.

“I like that Jo didn’t come from anything, because I can relate to not really having any help and having to do it all myself, and feeling lost at times,” Camilla says.

She likes that Jo isn’t perfect, and often finds her completely infuriating, but she knows that is much more interesting to watch – and more fun to play.

When Jo is first introduced on the series in a new batch of interns at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, most of her backstory is still a mystery. Camilla herself didn’t know much about it until she had to film a storyline where Jo is looking after a homeless patient and doesn’t feel he’s getting the proper care he deserves.

Chandra Wilson – who has played Dr. Bailey on the show since Season 1 – was directing at the time and stopped Camilla mid-scene and told her the reason Jo felt so affected by this case was because Jo herself was homeless at one point, and then continued to spill the rest of her backstory, which includes being abandoned as an infant followed by 16 years of bounding around the foster care system. “At first I was like, why didn’t I know this from the beginning?” she says. “It made me fall in love with her a little bit because I liked that she had that vulnerability and I thought it was interesting she was keeping it a secret at that point.” Camilla thinks there’s a lot

“I REMEMBER ON MY FIRST DAYS I SNUCK ONTO OTHER SETS THAT I WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE ON - LIKE MEREDITH’S HOUSE OR JOE’S BAR - AND THERE WAS SOMETHING REMINISCENT OF THOSE EARLY DAYS OF BEING IN L.A. AND STRUGGLING AND WATCHING THE SHOW.” By the time Camilla joined the show in its ninth season, production was running like a well-oiled machine. Camilla was able to sit back and watch how it all worked, and felt like she easily adapted to the environment on set. “Everyone really embraces new people,” she says.

“There’s always people going in and out, so people are so welcoming. That makes you feel comfortable immediately.”

Unlike most ensemble casts who may not even film scenes in the same country, the characters on Grey’s Anatomy are constantly rotating their positions in the hospital, which allows each cast member to work with every actor on the show.

Every so often there will be a big get-to-

more to learn about Jo and she hopes that those storylines will be explored in the near future. “I think that there’s a lot more to her previous relationships, and where she came from, and at some point I would love it if she stumbled upon her family,” Camilla says. “I don’t know if there’s a plan for any of that, but me playing her, I just want to see who my parents are.”

On the happier end of Jo’s storyline is her relationship with Alex Karev (Justin Chambers). Longtime fans of Grey’s Anatomy have watched Alex struggle with relationships and happiness for years until Jo came around – but even so, fan approval was not instantaneous.

“Slowly, I feel like fans are starting to embrace them as a couple and actually root for them,” she says. Thanks to Twitter – which earlier Grey’s actors didn’t get to utilize as much – Camilla can see fan reactions instantly.

The mid-season finale of Grey’s ended with a cliffhanger for Alex and Jo after Alex asked Jo to marry him and she stared at him blankly. Immediately following the episode, Camilla’s Twitter timeline blew up with fans arguing about whether or not Jo should say “yes.”

“That’s really fun for me to see, that they have that much passion, that they’ve decided what’s best for these characters,” she says. Camilla can’t wait for the show to come back on February 11th so she can read fans’ reactions to Jo’s answer.

While to some fans saying “yes” seems like the obvious path for Jo, many fans have seen Alex and Jo’s relationship shift quite drastically now that Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is using Alex as her support system following the death of her husband, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). “I don’t think Jo is being unreasonable,” Camilla says. “In real life, if my boyfriend had a friend who kicked me out of bed in the middle of the night, it would be an immediate conversation.

That would not be ok.” Camilla feels that because Alex is so vocal about wanting a future and a family with Jo, he should stand up for her and their relationship more. “Jo says in the last episode, ‘The worst part is, is you allowed it to happen,’” Camilla says.

Camilla is happy Jo is beginning to stand up for herself, but still very often disagrees with how she handles 28

situations. In the first half of Season 12, longtime friends and hospital equals Jo and Stephanie Edwards (Jerrika Hinton) get into an argument after Jo goes behind Stephanie’s back and tells their superior, Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) Stephanie is lying about something very serious about her past. Turns out Stephanie wasn’t lying and the two friends had an intense falling out. “Do I wish Jo had gone back to Stephanie and re-disucssed it? Sure. Is it a more interesting storyline for her not to? Yes,” Camilla says. “Writers can always justify why characters are doing something, even if it’s not the best thing to do.” In this specific instance, the writers told Camilla that the reason Jo reacted the way she did was because Jo has told Stephanie so much about her past, and because Stephanie hadn’t told Jo about her own past, Jo feels like it must not be true when she hears it from someone else.

A huge aspect of the first few seasons of Grey’s was the competitive spirit that existed between the original five interns. Since all those interns have either become department supervisors, left the hospital or died, there hasn’t been any real competiton in the show until this season, where Jo and Stephanie really battle it out to be the best resident. “I think competition is natural, and I think people feel competitive even with their friends, and I think if these were two real people they would feel like they wanted to be the best,” Camilla says. “There’s going to be an element of wanting to shine.”

The competitive nature that exists in Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital somewhat parallels Camilla’s real life as a working actress. In Hollywood, she makes a ton of friends in the same profession, but at the end of the day, many of them are going after the same parts.

She doesn’t believe it has to be cut throat, however, and doesn’t ever let it get to that level with her and her friends. “For me, if I don’t get a role, I want the people I love to get that role,” she says. “I personally believe there’s an element of destiny to things. If you don’t get something, it just wasn’t meant to be.” She also knows there’s always something else: another role, another audition, another thing to get excited about. “Have I lost out on things I would have loved to have done?

Of course. But you move on,” she says.

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“I JOKE THAT MY DAY JOB IS SAVING PEOPLE, AND MY NIGHT JOB IS KILLING PEOPLE.”

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Grey’s Anatomy keeps Camilla busy for roughly nine months out of the year, but last summer during hiatus she was able to film a romantic comedy with Oliver Jackson-Cohen called The Healer.

“We spent like six weeks together in Nova Scotia,” she says. “It was absolutely freezing but so fun.” The film focuses on a young man (Oliver) coming back to where his family is from and meets Cecilla (Camilla). “Some actually sort of mysterious things start happening that bond them together and they go on this little journey,” she says. The film is expected to release sometime next year.

Spending the majority of her time with one character makes jumping into a new role challenging, but fun for Camilla. “You sort of have to take a step back and think ‘Ok, I’m going to let that life go,’” she says. “It’s exciting to sort of breathe life into someone new.” Because she works on Tomb Raider on her days of from Grey’s, switching between roles has become increasingly easier for Camilla.

“I joke that my day job is saving lives, and my night job is killing people,” she laughs.

Looking ahead at 2016, Camilla is excited to continue Jo’s storyline on Grey’s and shares that Jo will become more assertive in the second half of this season – both in her professional and personal life. “I think she’s just kind of learning more about what she wants, and how to get what she wants, and what she needs from people,” she says. “I feel like that’s been a long time coming.” In terms of where she sees Jo ending up when the series eventually wraps, Camilla wants her to continue working with Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and become an orthopedic surgeon. In terms of her personal life, Camilla’s opinion is on par with most fans’ opinions right now. “I really want her to have a happy ending, and I really want her to have a happy ending with Alex,” she says. “I feel like they’re sort of meant to be.”

If at the end of this season of Grey’s Anatomy, Camilla was told the show was ending, she would look back on her work with great pride and feel extremely fortunate to have become a pivotal character in a show she was once a fan of. “I would feel like I got to be just a little part of this very iconic show that people will remember forever, honestly,” she says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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RILEY VOELKEL Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

When The Mikaelsons first infiltrated Mystic Falls on the second season of The Vampire Diaries, it was clear this family was a force to be reckoned with. So much so, in fact, that The CW gave them their own spinoff series, The Originals, and sent the family to the magical city of New Orleans. Come the spin-off’s second season, it was time to introduce a new – but previously presumed dead – Mikaelson to the audience. Enter, Riley Voelkel.

Riley’s road to New Orleans, (or rather, Atlanta, where the show is filmed) was filled with a lot of unplanned left turns. Growing up, Riley was extremely focused on school and sports – softball in particular, where she was a competitive pitcher for 15 years. She worked extremely hard as a teenager so she could get into a college with a good architecture program. She got into the University of California – San Diego and one month before moving there she was scouted for modeling. “So last minute I decided to drop everything and move to L.A.,” she says. Her parents were incredibly supportive and offered their full blessing as she took the leap of faith. She had a few successful years as a model and then began booking commercials.

Considering theater wasn’t even an extra curricular for Riley in high school, her modeling agent suggested she take a few acting classes to see if she liked it. “I fell in love,” she says.

“I had never loved anything that much before.” Riley booked a tiny role in The Social Network and was able to secure an acting agent from that. Since then, things have been progressing very quickly.

Riley’s first extended role came when she booked the pilot of the now-critically acclaimed The Newsroom, which first aired in 2012. She was only supposed to appear in the pilot, but during filming, creator Aaron Sorkin pulled her aside and said “I think you’re good, I think I might write you in.” “So I was freaking out, but I was pretending not to be freaking out,” she says, laughing. So she

waited and waited for Aaron to call – despite numerous people telling her to give it up – and eventually was asked back for the season one finale, and then continued her role as Jenna Johnson for two more seasons.

When Riley originally auditioned for the role, she knew nothing about it other than it was a small role on an Aaron Sorkin project – and that was enough to convince her to do it. “I got to learn and watch a lot. Everyone was so sweet and so professional. It was just a great start [to acting],” she says. Riley made a point to watch how all the other actors – including Jeff Daniels and Olivia Munn worked so she could leave the project with a hell of a lot more knowledge than she walked in with.

“I was just able to watch the best of the best, do what they do,” she says. “I would come to set nervous about working with these people, and slowly learned that we’re all here together and in it for the same thing.”

Riley’s role on The Originals was also not originally intended to be as big as it has become – she started as an unnamed character with a mysterious backstory connected to a non-Mikaelson character. During her first day on-set in Atlanta, one of the writers spilled and told her she would indeed be becoming a Mikaelson. Freya Mikaelson, to be exact. “I had my first few scenes with [Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies] and we all got along really well, and worked well together on set,” she says. “The reaction to the character was good, and towards the end of Season Two they said ‘Ok, we want you here for a while longer.’”

“It was definitely a little intimidating,” Riley says of jumping aboard this ship that’s been sailing on for years. Joseph and Daniel had been working together on The Vampire Diaries for three seasons, and are now on their third season of The Originals. Many of the other cast members came over from The Vampire Diaries as well, or had been involved with The Originals since Season One. Despite her nerves, the chemistry between Riley and

her new cast mates was obvious from the start. “The boys and I just worked so naturally together,” she says. “I think I was always supposed to be a Mikaelson.”

While going to set every day was intimidating at first, it wasn’t until Riley’s episodes started airing that she really felt the weight of joining The Vampire Diaries/The Originals family. The two shows have a massive social media presence – something Riley had never really experienced before. “It kind of exploded,” she says. “It was shocking to me and [I was] really humbled by it, because it’s really sweet to think all these people are looking up to you and loving your character.”

Riley is especially happy that young girls are identifying with Freya, because she feels the character is an incredibly strong female presence. “Take the supernatural thing out of it and you still have this really strong woman who’s going through stuff,” Riley says. “She has family issues and she has insecurities, but she also just kicks ass.”

All of the female characters on The Originals are pretty badass, much to the credit of creator Julie Plec, who has been a huge advocate for having strong women on television. Riley feels extremely privileged to be working with Julie, especially because she really feels like Julie took a chance on her.

“She doesn’t just cast people based on talent or potential, but on personality and who she sees these people, and how she sees them on set,” Riley says. Julie is extremely tight with her casts (she runs three shows: The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Containment) and makes a point to cast people she knows will get along with everyone else. “She taught me that you don’t always need to have so many credits,” Riley says. “She can kind of pick you out because she feels something special about you.”

The Originals’ mid-season finale left a lot of things up in the air – and in relation to Freya’s storyline, the pendant containing the spirit and power of her deceased brother NKDMAG.COM

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Finn has been stolen by Tristan, Lucien and Aurora – the “big bads” of Season Three.

Finn will be used as a bargaining chip for the Mikaelson clan to do as the villains say, and his powers will also be used so they can get what they want.

In terms of where Freya’s storyline is going this season outside of her family drama, Riley is hoping she may get a love interest this year. “That’s been a discussion that’s been up in the air for a while,” Riley says. “There’s definitely some flirtation going on, that you’ll see.” While most of the season’s details are kept under wraps, Riley promises there a lot of exciting things to look forward to in the coming months. “The fans will really, really appreciate it,” she says.

With a millennium’s worth of stories to tell, Freya’s back story is far from being fully explained – but there are no plans to dive more into that this season. “I think Freya’s turn this season has been getting comfortable in this new world,” Riley says. “She’s kind of got a fresh slate.” After the death of her aunt/ captor, Dahlia, in the Season Two finale, Freya can finally have some fun. Her main priority remains her family, though – both helping her siblings avoid death and teaching her niece Hope how to control her magical powers. “They’re all in it together, when it comes to Hope,” Riley says.

With half a season left to film, Riley will be down it Atlanta until at least mid-April.

She describes her move from L.A. to Atlanta as “scary but exciting,” and she says she instantly fell in love with the city. Between the live music scene, the Southern hospitality and the food, Riley felt at home almost right away. It also helps that Atlanta is becoming one of the most popular filming locations in the country and there’s a continuously growing acting community there. “It totally feels like the new Hollywood,” Riley says. “It didn’t feel like I was leaving L.A. because people kept showing up.”

After an incredibly successful 2015, Riley is looking forward at 2016 with wide eyes, but ultimately she just wants to continue to portray a character that people can relate to and look forward to watching each week.

Following the season wrap in April, Riley hopes to book a film or some guest starring roles to fill her time. “I get really antsy when I’m not working,” she admits. Considering she didn’t find her love for acting until a few years ago, Riley certainly isn’t ready to stop doing it anytime soon – even if it’s just a short break.NKD

EMILY ROBINSON Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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At 17, Emily Robinson is proud to be a part of the transgender awareness and human rights movement. While she is not a trans person herself, she is making a difference in the best way she knows how – her art.

Emily was born and raised in New York City, where she attended Fieldston Lower School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The school and her teachers instilled in her a love of learning. She says her experience there shaped who she is today – a person who is able to discuss issues and think critically about the world. “It’s really impacted how I see the world and how I interact with it,” Emily says.

She was already doing theater and commercials at the time, and she says the school’s faculty was really supportive. “They were like, ‘Oh no no no, go do that. That’s life experience. That’s teaching you something that we couldn’t teach you,’” she says.

Emily says she kind of stumbled into acting and modeling.

When she was 6 years old, her next-door neighbor was a Ford model who got her in with the agency, and she says she loved it from the start. “I was like, ‘Oh I have to go to work now,’” she jokes. Her work evolved into theater and commercial work around age 8, and she began to travel to Los Angeles for work when she was in middle school.

Emily believes her most important acting to date is on critically-acclaimed, hit series Transparent which is streaming on Amazon. Transparent is a comedy, set in L.A., that follows a family who has discovered that their father, Mort, (Jeffrey Tambor) is transgender, and now prefers to be called Mora. Emily says her experience on the show is one of the most freeing and creative things she’s been a part of, and it’s deepened her love of acting. “It’s not about hitting the mark and saying your words,” she says. “It’s about creating art that you want to see in the world.”

In the first season, Emily plays a young version of Ali (now played by Gaby Hoffman as an adult). Now, in her second season, she gets to play a young Rose, who is Mora’s mother. This time, we find her in Berlin in the 1930s.

Emily notes that the amount of research that went into the flashback scenes was amazing, and each actor took it upon themselves to be a part of it. Included in the show is the story of real life Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish, German sexologist thought to be one of the first advocates for homosexual and transgender rights in the 1930s. His life’s work was burned to the ground by the Nazi Party before World War II. Emily says that few people know how advanced advocacy was back then before it was all destroyed. “It’s so tragic and really heart breaking,” she says. “Because it’s like, if that didn’t happen, where would we be now?”

Season Two takes us deeper into everyone’s stories. “I think one of my favorite parts of this season is we see Mora’s flaws more,” Emily says. “And it’s like Mora is a real person.” The previous season was about protecting Mora and her coming out. “And this season we sort of see how she wasn’t always perfect, and she still isn’t,” she says. Emily says Mora also gets a love interest, which adds a new layer to the story.

Even before auditioning for the show, Emily always very interested in activism, feminism and LGBT rights, but didn’t know as much about the trans movement. After auditioning for the show, she read Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl, a sort of required reading. She says the book gave her a much-needed introduction to the trans movement.

She was only 15 when she began working on the show, and says she had a lot to learn about trans etiquette, including which pronouns to us. Being on the show allowed her to immerse herself and appreciate the movement.

Until the show aired, Amazon

had yet to break into the original series streaming phenomenon.

The show had a lot to live up to, as it was competing with original series’ on Hulu and Netflix. No one knew if it would be bingewatch worthy, or if fans could handle yet another subscription service. Because Emily had already seen and fallen in love with the pilot, she knew it was going to be a hit, no matter the medium, and the entire cast believed in it as well. “Even if we didn’t know if it would be publicly received as well as it [has] been, we knew that, at least for us, it was this special little oasis,” Emily says.

Transparent won best comedy at last year’s Golden Globes, making it the first web series to ever win the award. But this show isn’t just about winning awards.

It’s helping to give trans people a voice all. Emily says that at the Emmy’s, one of her co-stars remarked that this might be the most transgender people the award show has ever invited at one time. “It’s breaking so many barriers and it’s opened up this conversation,” she says. “And it’s so necessary, and it’s so long overdue.”

Emily is keeping busy with other projects as well. Last summer, she shot a film called Going Under, starring Bruce Willis and John Goodman. The film is set to release sometime this summer.

She just wrapped another movie, Behold my Heart, with Marisa Tomei, as well. “I learned to drive on that set,” she says, laughing.

She’s also currently taking college courses, while writing and directing a short film.

Despite moving on with new projects, Emily knows that she is a part of something greater than herself with Transparent, and she will never forget that. She says creator Jill Soloway’s reason for creating the show was to make the world a safer place for trans people. “I think even if it’s in the smallest of ways, she has,” Emily says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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FLORIANA LIMA Words by MERISSA BLITZ Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

“It’s been a ridiculous ride and I never thought I would make a career out of it,” says Floriana Lima of her blossoming acting career.

Floriana grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio with two older brothers and a split family situation due to her parents’ divorce when she was 5. Around that same time, she started taking ballet, tap and jazz lessons for 10 years. Dance was her main focus as a kid and Floriana admits that she regrets quitting when she was 15. For most of her early life, acting was just a hobby for her. “I always really liked performing and feeling that rush but I never thought anything of it,” Floriana says.

It wasn’t until she was in sixth grade when she and her friends wrote and performed their own play that she realized that she was falling in love with acting.

“We created this whole thing and then we performed it and everyone really loved it and I was like, oh wait, I feel like I can do that and that would be really cool to create something and show it to people and tell a story,” Floriana says.

Though she had developed a love for acting, it was still on the back burner for her while she went through school. Occa40

sionally, she did some theater and worked with an agency in Cincinnati doing local commercials to pay for her education at Ohio State University.

While in college, Floriana bounced around from major to major until ultimately deciding to get her degree in journalism just to be able to finish school and to make her parents happy that she got a degree. “This was me trying to figure out something other than acting,” Floriana says. “I didn’t realize that was truly what I wanted to do.”

After graduation, Floriana got a job at an NBC station in Columbus as a production assistant performing tasks like operating the cameras and teleprompters, and organizing the scripts for each segment. “The whole goal was to eventually write there but I was like, this isn’t even my [ultimate] goal. I don’t even like it,” Floriana says. She wanted see if she would be able to make a living off of an acting career.

With $200 to her name, Floriana moved into her aunt’s guesthouse in Los Angeles and shipped all her possessions to meet her there, including her “crappy” 1988 Toyota Corolla. “I can’t believe I did that, now that I’m thinking about it,” Floriana says. “Looking back, I would never do this again. I was so reckless.”

However reckless her decision seemed, Floriana was lucky enough to have help from her agent in Cincinnati with finding a new agent and manager in LA. The first job she booked once she moved there was a non-union commercial for an insurance company. The commercial was filmed on Santa Monica’s infamous Third Street Promenade and Floriana was so excited by filming on location and getting primped to be camera ready that nothing could ruin her day. That was until a homeless man asked her for one of the oranges that were being used as props on set.

“I said, ‘Oh um these are actually props but maybe when we’re done we can give you an orange,’ and he had a temper tantrum. He freaked out, hit me with an open hand on the top of my head and I almost passed out, I saw stars,” Floriana remembers.

It was an embarrassing moment on her first job, but she didn’t let that get to her.

She booked her first signed job in 2008 – a guest-starring role on the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Her first line on TV was one that she couldn’t NKDMAG.COM

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forget. “They were like, ‘Your line is “bitchwhore much,’ and I’m like, ‘Bitch-whore much?’ and they’re like, ‘Yes, just like that,’” Floriana says.

For most of her early career, Floriana had a lot of guest star roles on different shows, in between working odd jobs like being a bus girl at a restaurant or working at a gym.

One of her favorite smaller parts was a role on How I Met Your Mother. Her scene involved Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) telling his friend Randy (Will Forte) that the best way to flirt with a girl is to insult her.

Hayley was supposed to throw her martini in Randy’s face after he tried to make a moved, but when Floriana had her first attempt at the shot, Neil Patrick Harris was standing to close behind Will Forte and Floriana ended up missing Will and hitting Neil right in the face instead. “We had to stop because we had to dry [Neil] down because I had the worst aim ever,” Floriana says. She says that to this day, that was the most energy and excitement she remembers on set of any show she’s been a part of, and even though she hasn’t done comedy since, she hopes that one day she can be a part of a show like that.

Her first series regular jobs were more serious. One was on The Mob Doctor, a show about a surgeon who moonlights as the doctor to the South Chicago mafia, and another was Alligence, an action-thriller about a CIA analyst and the discovery that his family wasn’t who he thought they were. After Alligence ended, Floriana began auditioning for a bunch of pilots and she came upon one called The Untitled Jenna Bans, which eventually became the political thriller that is The Family – a story that takes place in the fictional town of Red Pines, Maine about a boy named Adam Warren (Liam James) who was kidnapped and thought to be dead for 10 years. He later returns, leading everyone close to him to wonder where he had been.

Floriana had been offered a part in three different shows at the time but ended up choosing the part of Bridey Howard in The Family, which premieres in March.

Floriana had something in common with character Bridey – Bridey is a journalist.

“I kind of realized that recently, I was like wait a second, I have a journalism degree, this is weird,” Floriana says. “It’s pretty cool that I get to get to play out a part of my life for a short period of time in the most

dramatic way possible.”

Adam’s mom Claire Warren (Joan Allen) is running for governor around the time Adam returns. Bridey thinks the Warren family’s situation seems just a little out of place so she decides to do some sleuthing to uncover the story. Floriana says that she is the kind of investigative reporter who will use any means necessary to get the story. “[Bridey] had a connection with the older brother [Danny, played by Zach Gilford],” Floriana explains. “In high school [the two] dated and messed around and were friends so [Bridey] knew she could get to him to talk a little bit more about it all.”

Floriana explains that it’s a dark show filled with crime, kidnapping and alcoholism. She believes that her characterhas a colorful personality and that she is the light of the show hopefully bringing relief from all the heaviness.

Floriana believes that creator and writer Jenna Bans has definitely mastered the genre of the show. Having worked with legend Shonda Rhimes on Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Jenna was not only familiar with the genre but also with including empowering female characters into the script. “She is very good at making these strong female characters that drive a story and actually all the characters that drive the story in this show are female,” Floriana says talking about Joan Allen, Allison Pill, Margot Bingham and herself. “We have some great men on our show but definitely it is a female-driven, strong-women, show.”

Though Floriana is having her empowering female moment on screen, she realizes that being in the acting industry, as a female, is tough. “There are so many things that women…and guys go through this too, but female actresses have to deal with so much shit,” Floriana says explaining the obvious wage gap, the importance of a woman’s body image and the unspoken age limits on when a female is “too old” to keep acting. “I want to portray health and I want to portray someone who cares about their appearance and things like that but at the same time you don’t want to be told by some executive or somebody you know [that you need to change your appearance],” Floriana says.

Floriana has jumped into a career that’s risky not only for women but for anyone trying to make it as an actor but she’s doing it with grace and dignity. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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