Kayla Rivera, is a Filipina-Romanian, Television and Musical Theater singer and actress who originally hails from Calgary, Canada. Her early experiences in performing at local events and competitions, including being the co-winner of the David Foster Star Search, inspired her to move to Manila to further pursue performing. She became a finalist of ABS-CBN’s singing competition Starpower, and also emerged as the winner of the MYX VJ Search later that year. She began her professional musical theatre career as Nina Rosario in In the Heights staged by Atlantis Theatrical under the direction of Bobby Garcia and Chari Arespacochaga in 2011 where she received her first ALIW Award Nomination for “Best Actress in a Musical”.   

 

Kayla’s other professional theatre credits under Atlantis Theatrical include: Beautiful (Carole King), Side Show (Violet Hilton) - Broadway World Philippines nominee as “Best Actress in a Musical”, Rock of Ages (Sherrie Christian), The Addams Family (Wednesday Addams), Carrie (Carrie White) - Broadway World Philippines nominee as “Best Actress in a Musical”, Aladdin (Princess Jasmine), and most recently with Trumpets, Inc., Joseph the Dreamer (Asenath/Narrator).

After she graduated with a Bachelor of Communications - Economics minor degree at the University of Calgary in 2019, Kayla has returned to Manila and is currently a Headhunter on TV5’s POPinoy: The Search for the Next-Gen P-Pop Stars.