“No Fear, Just Go For It”: Rising Actress Laya DeLeon Hayes

“I think entertainment was always number one -- that was always my dream,” shared 17-year-old actress Laya DeLeon Hayes, currently featured as Delilah on the CBS/Sky Witness hit show ‘The Equalizer’.
Growing up, Hayes was always drawn to entertainment, from being on stage for her first ever dance recital to singing performances. “I loved expressing myself through art; so acting is just an extension of that,” she shares. But the moment where Hayes truly harnessed a passion for acting all started in third grade. “I was asked to do the morning announcements at my school, and it was supposed to be a one time thing,” she laughs, “but I ended up going back every single day.” Before Hayes knew it, what started as speaking a few lines through a microphone at school led to one acting lesson after another, all paving her way to living out her dreams in the limelight.

Formally starting her career at the age of 9 with the lead voice over part on Disney’s show Doc McStuffins. “It was the best start I could have had,” Hayes smiles as she thinks back to her younger self. “Especially as someone who came into the acting industry thinking I could only do one thing, as in live action,” she continues, “the [voiceover] role opened my mind up to possibilities and prepped me for the industry that I was going to be a part of.”

Despite being so young at the time, Doc McStuffins marked the beginning of Hayes' thought process to not put herself into a box – “even if I didn’t realise it at the time,” she laughs. “It helped me prepare for anything, and in this industry, you never know what they could ask you to do in an audition – like singing or rapping,” she smiles, “and being ready for anything!”

This first role of Hayes made history as the first Black animated character on Disney Junior, and she earned her first individual NAACP Image Award for her voicework. While some would believe this would add pressure to the actress, this could not be further from the truth. “My parents never introduced me to fear,” Hayes shares. Instilled with the belief to never limit herself, Hayes became a trailblazer and role model for many young girls of colour everywhere. “Being the first of anything is inspiring, it’s motivating — I want to be that. No fear, just go for it,” she says.

Vested with this head-first mindset in addition to her constant grind and hunger, Hayes now finds herself on set with actors including Queen Latifah and Adam Goldberg in one of network television’s most watched shows, The Equalizer. As the youngest person on the set, where the actors and actresses around Hayes have been doing this for so long – since they were her age and younger — she sees this as a huge advantage: “The fact that I get to not only bond with these actors, but also learn from them, that has been the biggest gift, it really has.”

In the time that she has been on set, “the biggest lesson I’ve learnt,” she says “is to speak up.” “Working on this show, everyone wants the characters and the storyline to reflect real life, and they give you the creative freedom to express how you feel — and this trust has been really enlightening for me.” Not to mention, the experiences she gains from every scene and every set is helping her mature in the limelight. “The perspectives I gain, whether that’s playing a character that’s completely different from who I am, or if it’s playing a character that’s a little too similar to me for me to even admit,” she laughs, “it’s all going to help me in the future.”

Besides acting in and of itself, Hayes loves everything about the industry: “I love the craft of it. I love all the different techniques, I love watching other people work, I love getting to push certain buttons inside of me that I didn’t even know I could push. I just love the element of surprise and freedom that I get when I’m acting,” she says, “and that’s something I can’t really get anywhere else.”

“But of course,” Hayes smiles, “I’m still figuring it all out.” And as if she was speaking to her younger self, the 17-year-old smiles and says, “but if I had one advice to my younger self, it would be to breathe, be patient, and know that everything will work out.”