Nikki Castillo

SCORPION CBS

Photography Arthur Galvao Beauty by Matthew Cerda Styling Luke Funcheta - Special thanks Maison Privée PR

THOSE FAMILIAR WITH CBS’S “SCORPION” WILL DEFINITELY RECOGNIZE OUR LATEST FEATURE! WHILE CURRENTLY STARTING AS PATTY LOGAN ON CBS’ “SCORPION”, NIKKI CASTILLO, IS NO STRANGER TO AN AUDIENCE BOTH ON THE SCREEN AND ON STAGE. SINCE THE EARLY AGE OF 10, NIKKI HAS SET HERSELF APART FROM THE REST AS A THESPIAN: SINGING, DANCING, AND ACTING PROFESSIONALLY. SHE HAS BEEN SEEN TNT’S “THE LAST SHIP,” DISNEY CHANNEL’S “K. C. UNDERCOVER,” AND THE DARK COMEDY DRIVING WHILE BLACK WHICH WAS RELEASED EARLIER THIS YEAR ON FEBRUARY 1ST.

Tell us about CBS’s Scorpion, your role and how it is working with a giant network. How exciting has it been for you? Scorpion is about a team of geniuses who “tackle worldwide threats only they can solve”. My character, Patty Logan, is an intern to Sylvester, the math genius. Aside from Scorpion, he doubles as a city councilman, so I’m his secretary, campaign manager, and “boss”. I’m not really his boss but Patty is just very forward and direct so it often seems like she’s his boss. It’s all been extremely exciting. The first time I walked onto the set I remember being completely speechless and taken aback by it, because it’s a really cool set! They transformed an entire soundstage into the garage, which is like their headquarters. And I guess I must have given them the impression that I was really calm and composed because they kept telling me how professional I was. I would thank them, but in reality I was freaking out.

How did you get into acting? When did you feel the urge to perform in front of audiences? When I was 9 I felt the urge to perform at my school talent show when my parents “forced” me to do it. I say forced, but I actually did want to do it. I was just too scared to do it on my own so they just gave me a little nudge and I found out that I loved it. After that I started doing musical theatre. Just local community theatre at first, then regional theatre, then we started flying out for auditions for Broadway in New York, and then LA.

What made you want to make the transition from perfoing on stage to in front of the camera? By the time I had started flying out to New York for auditions I was already turning 13 and at the top of the height range going up against kids that were a lot younger and shorter than me. In short, I grew too tall to be a Broadway kid, so I started auditioning in LA.

Do you feel more comfortable acting? Singing? Or dancing? And why? I’d say I’m equally comfortable with acting or singing. I’m equally comfortable dancing as well, if I have enough practice. But if I’m put on the spot I’d rather do both acting and singing at the same time (musical theatre style). That way if I’m not feeling too confident with my singing for a particular song, I can focus more on impressing people with how I act it out and vise versa. Or if I choose to sing a song that I’ve performed hundreds of times, that I’m super comfortable with, it’ll be twice as great .

What is your dream role? Would it be something that involves all three? A role that I’d definitely want to tackle at some point in my career would have to be Kim in Miss Saigon. It’s just such an amazing show with beautiful music and a beautiful love story. And not to mention Kim is such a strong character. At 17 she loses her family, has to become a prostitute, falls in love with an American soldier, then has to raise their son by herself. She’s pretty badass. And not only does the role require you to be able to sing, dance, and act, at one point in the show she sings this huge vocally and emotionally demanding song while sitting down carrying a child on her lap. I was actually training to audition for it on Broadway for most of last year. I was going to move to New York after I graduated, but then Scorpion called.