Hayley Kiyoko

Early life

Kiyoko was born on April 3, 1991, in Los Angeles, California, to actor/comedian Jamie Alcroft and figure skater/choreographer Sarah Kawahara. Her mother is from Canada, and is of Japanese ancestry, and her father is from Ohio, and has English and Irish ancestry. She began acting at a young age, appearing in national commercials for companies such as GM Onstar, Slim Jim, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Insisting on drum lessons at age 6, she was writing drum charts for new releases and selling them in a local music store by age 11. She was elected President of her middle school and high school freshman classes school and Vice-president in her senior year. She was appointed Commissioner of Entertainment in her sophomore year and Commissioner of Pep Rallies in her junior year.

She created and choreographed "The Agoura High Step Team" that has now been faculty-approved as a school club under her direction. The team placed 3rd at a Nationals competition in 2005. Upon graduation, she was accepted into Clive Davis School of Recorded Music at New York University but initially deferred until eventually declining due to career opportunities.

Kiyoko was discovered at the age of 5 when she went with her friend to a photo shoot. The director asked her to step in front of the camera, and she ended up in a national print ad for KnowledgeWare. Nickelodeon spotted her at the Culver City Ice Rink, and she ended up featured in and narrating a short piece about children in sports called, "I'm Hayley, a Skater". Kiyoko continued to hone her skills in middle school plays, and in 7th grade she, after seeing Eurasian girls like herself act in J. C. Penney commercials, asked for an agent. She got her commercial agent and booked her first audition, claiming acting was always just something she did on the side to make money for college and music equipment. Formed in November 2007 and named after her grandfather, Kiyoko created the garage band Hede and released five songs on Myspace and a music video for "Warehouse". The band performed locally on several occasions and split in 2008.

2007–2011: Career beginning

In 2007, Kiyoko was approached by former pop-star Vitamin C to join an all-girl singing and dancing group. She joined Allie Gonino, Tinashe, Kelsey Sanders (later replaced by Lauren Hudson), and Marisol Esparza to form The Stunners. Six months after forming, the group signed with Columbia Records and released a single titled "Bubblegum" to iTunes along with the official video for the single. They also contributed a cover of the song "Let's Hear It for the Boy" to the iCarly soundtrack. In 2009, the group left Columbia Records, signed a production deal with Lionsgate Entertainment, and shot a music video for their promo single "We Got It", which was released on February 22, 2010. After graduating high school in 2009, Kiyoko booked her first big movie, starring as Velma Dinkley in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, a role she almost did not audition for due to her image. The TV movie premiered on September 13, 2009 and was a huge success. It brought in 6.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched program in Cartoon Network’s history. She reprised the role in the movie's sequel, Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, which premiered on October 16, 2010. The sequel drew 3.4 million viewers. In 2010, Kiyoko also guest starred in four episodes of Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place in the role of Stevie Nichols, an evil wizard.

The Stunners signed to Universal Republic Records in 2010 and released their first single "Dancin' Around the Truth", which featured the New Boyz. The music video for the song premiered June 2, just before the group was announced as an opening act on Justin Bieber's My World Tour. A full album was planned, but cancelled when the group split in 2011. Kiyoko began work on the Disney Channel movie Lemonade Mouth in 2010, starring in a lead role as rebellious teenager Stella Yamada. The film premiered on April 15, 2011 with 5.7 million viewers. Kiyoko later guest starred in the episode "Skater Girl Island" of Disney XD's Zeke and Luther which aired May 23, 2011. A sequel to Lemonade Mouth was cancelled prior to pre-production when Disney released a statement saying that "they felt the movie had completed its story within the first film."

2012–present: Television and music

In February 2012, Kiyoko landed a small role in Blue Lagoon: The Awakening, a Lifetime TV movie and remake of the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon. The movie premiered on June 16, 2012. She portrayed the character Gabi in a recurring role on ABC Family's The Fosters and later landed the role of Raven Ramirez in CSI: Cyber. She also portrayed Shannie in the Netflix movie XOXO, which premiered in August 2016.

On March 12, 2013, Kiyoko released her debut EP, A Belle to Remember. Immediately following its release, Kiyoko began writing new music in London with British producer James Flannigan. She announced via Facebook in 2014 that her next EP was finished and she would be debuting the songs at a show later that month. The songs were recorded in her parents' garage in Los Angeles with Flannigan. Kiyoko also collaborated with Swedish producer Anders Grahn.

Her second EP, This Side of Paradise, was released on February 3, 2015. The music video for her single "Girls Like Girls" was released on June 24, 2015. After co-directing the video for "Girls Like Girls" (which as of August 2017 has over 73 million views), Kiyoko assumed full directorial responsibilities for her next music video. "Cliff's Edge" was released via VEVO in November 2015. In 2016, she released the single "Gravel to Tempo" and its music video from her next EP, Citrine. The EP was released on September 30, 2016 via EMPIRE and Atlantic. Her third fully self-directed music video for the song "One Bad Night" was premiered via Vice on October 11, 2016 in order to promote the EP. A new single called "Sleepover" was released alongside its music video on March 2, 2017 via BuzzFeed.

Personal life

Kiyoko's hobbies include hiking, ice skating, teaching dance, and taking karate. She performed as an ice skater in the 2007 film Blades of Glory and in the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, both of which were choreographed by her mother.

Kiyoko has said that the "Gravel to Tempo" video draws on her experiences with having crushes on girls while growing up. She spoke further about her sexuality in an article for Paper.

In that interview, she expressed her frustration about not connecting to people the way she wanted. When asked about something about herself that no one knew and she was afraid to sing about, Kiyoko wanted to sing about the fact that she likes girls, but was struggling to be out about that. In her school days, she had a crush on a female teacher, and she realized she liked girls and grew up struggling with these feelings, fearing rejection and judgment if she came out. She wanted to inspire confidence in young people dealing with the same struggles.

In an interview for Elle Magazine, Kiyoko speaks most explicitly about her sexual orientation by referring to herself as a gay woman.

EPs