Bio:

Born and raised in New England, Leyla Davis has always loved performing. As a toddler, she was always dancing around the house while belting Beyoncé. The joy she found in acting quickly blossomed into a passion when, at age six, she got her first taste of the stage in a local community theatre production of Once on This Island. Throughout her young life, she participated in various summer theatre programs that continued to nurture her excitement for performing—but it was her love for television and film that truly drove her toward a career in acting. She recalls watching The Matrix with her dad when she was eight years old; though she was definitely too young to be watching a film that complex and violent, she remembers deciding: “That’s what I want to do!” 

Leyla has been acting ever since… With the minor detour of thinking she wanted to go to the Tokyo Olympics for Track and Field, she found herself at CMU, where her passion for acting has only grown. Leyla has learned that the characters she is most fulfilled by and drawn to are the ones that push her out of her comfort zone and encourage her to be vulnerable. 

Outside of acting, Leyla can be found knitting, writing, or sitting in bed binge-watching Game of Thrones for the millionth time. Leyla is a proud multiracial, Black, MENA woman who firmly believes that representation matters. Her career as an actor is inspired by an enthusiasm for performing and a driving conviction that the characters portrayed in performing arts should be as diverse as their audiences.