A Salute to Rising Stars

It’s that time again to salute those actresses who are on the move, actresses who deserve a little extra attention for their latest work, those actresses who are rising stars. Landing that crucial role in a TV movie or guest appearance in a successful show or film makes all the difference for aspiring actors.

Let’s take a look at the next group of actresses who viewers should keep their eyes on:

Kaya Coleman

Kaya Kimberley Coleman Prokopchuk, known professionally as Kaya Coleman, grew up in Calgary, Canada, balancing her time between sports, music and academia. She has been acting since she was a young child, appearing in commercials as far back as the tender age of 4. She continued working in commercials through the age of 12 when she decided to pursue academia, where she ended up earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Molecular Biochemistry. But she missed the creative world, and after the untimely loss of her mother, Kaya decided to return to acting through the Rogues West Ensemble Acting Program.

Among her earlier work were the 2005 Lifetime movie Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story, which starred Jami Gertz and Ernie Hudson and the 2007 box office movie Resurrecting the Champ, which starred Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett and Kathryn Morris.

When she returned to acting after college, she appeared in several short films as well as the 2016 Lifetime movie Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart and the 2020 slasher flick Dangerous Games that starred Jon Voight, Will Sasso and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

She has two projects coming up, including a rom-com Christmas movie that she got to film in her hometown of Calgary and a horror-musical called Witches X, but it’s her current work as lead of the new Amazon Prime family drama Beyond Black Beauty that is getting her attention.

A modern retelling of the classic story, the series follows Jolie Dumont (Coleman), an Olympic-driven equestrian whose journey is halted when her mother Janelle moves them from their posh Belgium life to her mother’s family ranch in Baltimore. There Jolie struggles to find roots but as she bonds with an equally spirited horse named Black Beauty, and learns to embrace her family’s ranch, where Black cowboys have been entrenched in their DNA for over a century.

Kaya is of Ukrainian and African-American descent, spending her time between her hometown of Calgary and Los Angeles.

Kaya can be followed on Instagram here.

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Genevieve Angelson

The thirtysomething actress and writer was born in New York City where she graduated from Wesleyan University and earned her Masters Degree from Tisch School of the Arts.

Her first TV role was in the Lifetime military drama Army Wives in 2009 and then she was in the indie flick Open Five in 2010. She also appeared in several off-Broadway plays.

Over the course of the next few years, she appeared in episodes of The Glades, The Good Wife and House of Lies. She then appeared in the movies Top Five that starred Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson and Gabrielle Union and True Story, which starred James Franco, Jonah Hill and Felicity Jones.

From 2015 to 2019, she appeared in multiple episodes of Backstrom, Good Girls Revolt, Blue Bloods, Instinct, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Titans and Flack. She also appeared in the 2017 box office movie The Upside that starred Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman.

Over the last few years, she guest starred in This Is Us, the dark comedy The Afterparty, the NBC medical drama New Amsterdam and The Handmaid’s Tale as well as the 2023 film Which Brings Me to You that starred Lucy Hale.

She is currently one of the stars of the new Hallmark+ drama The Chicken Sisters that also stars Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick.

She divides her time between New York and Los Angeles.

Genevieve can be followed on Instagram here.