Indigenous Artist

Kayla Hayden is a 33 year old aspiring indigenous actor and filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has had a passion for film since the age of 12. Her love of story creation goes further than that; since she learned read. While in school the librarians favoured Kayla because of how often she read, she would be checking out and returning books every couple of days, as well as asking which books they recommended. Her love of stories also gained her admiration from her English teachers as well; this was a subject she often passed with high scores. Although Kayla excelled in creative story telling, she struggle with the technical aspects of the English language, inverting words in her mind and having people's words go right over her head, unintentionally of course. She had to work twice as hard to make her storytelling work.
Because of her love of storytelling Kayla has ensured she worked towards a career in film. After graduating high school she took a year long acting course at Academy of Acting. This was a course that completely changed her life and put her in more awe of the work that goes into making a film. While she continued her training, taking smaller classes and training programs, she worked other jobs but always kept film making at the front of her mind. She found herself envisioning her film future while she was working her other jobs. A couple years later she took another course that helped solidify her love of film. It was the National Screen Institute's New Voices Program. A program geared towards young Aboriginal film makers. It was through this program that Kayla learned she wanted to start telling true life stories in documentaries, specifically those that deal with aboriginal issues.

Before Kayla could get this next step off the ground she became unexpectedly pregnant, this was a completely life changing event that would help Kayla in ways she never thought possible. It was after this that Kayla became 100x more appreciate of life. Unfortunately, two years after, she experienced the devastating loss of her closest brother, while she was working as a film accounting assistant. As she works through this loss she has become even more determined than ever to tell the stories of those who cannot for themselves. Kayla knows that Aboriginal history is extremely important in Canada and her life goal is to tell it.

INDIGENOUS ANCESTRY

First Nations

SELF-IDENTIFICATION

Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation