About Kayla

Born in Sheepshead Bay and raised in central New Jersey, Kayla has been performing since age nine. Her first official stage appearance was playing Wendy Darling in her summer camp’s production of Peter Pan - she peed her nightgown onstage in front of her fellow campers and their families.

Needless to say, it could only go up from there. Kayla attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied acting, playwriting, devising, and directing at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and Shakespeare while abroad in London at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. At RADA, she was fortunate enough to conquer such roles as Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, Lady Anne in Richard III, and Tamora, Queen of the Goths, in Titus Andronicus.

In 2014, Kayla created and starred in The WorkOut!, an immersive theatrical fitness farce, with frequent collaborator, Chris Andrae. The WorkOut! was quickly adapted as a film, The WorkOut Video!, and received an official premiere in August 2015.

Following the success of The WorkOut Video!, Kayla had the distinct opportunity to work alongside Clubbed Thumb, Sarah DeLappe, and Lila Neugebauer while performing as #8 in the original workshops of The Wolves, which culminated in a reading at The Wild Project in 2015.

Soon after, Kayla was cast in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's 2015/2016 Acting Apprentice Company. With ASF, she performed in The Comedy of Errors, A Christmas Carol, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. She also had the great honor of playing the lead in Starstruck - a play by the brilliant Lucille Lichtblau - which had its world premiere at ASF's Southern Writers' Project new works festival.

Since returning to New York, Kayla’s had the opportunity to perform on numerous stages and sets. Notably, she played Ophelia in Hamlet at the Brick Theater, was featured in Ian Owes U!, a series pilot that premiered at the 2018 New York Television Festival, did voiceover for the 2019 feature documentary The Bachelors of Broken Hill Farms, and shot a commercial for A&E. She also completed the Improv and Character Advanced Training Programs at the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater in 2018 and has since been performing long-form improv with her indie team, Hobby Lobby Baby Hammer, as well as original characters and stand-up comedy at venues throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Kayla’s play, Lilith in Pisces, received a staged reading at Dixon Place in June 2018, and was fully mounted at the Hudson Guild Theater in August 2019, as part of the New York Theater Festival’s annual Summerfest. The play received a nomination for Best Play at the festival’s awards.

This year, Kayla has made the most of her quaran-time. Among other “stay-at-home” projects, she wrote for and acted in Zooming In, a new web series on youtube about virtual communication during the pandemic, joined a character team through The Armory Comedy which performs regularly on Zoom, and starred in a new play produced virtually by The Tank. Currently, Kayla is developing the pilot for a new television series. Check in soon to see how it’s going!