Kayden Grace Swan is already considered a pro in the TV and movie industry.
Moorpark resident Kayden Grace Swan, 12, recently earned a lead role on Nickelodeon’s and Imagine Kids+Family’s “The Astronauts,” a live action series premiering this fall. Credit: Kayden Grace Swan
The 12-year-old Moorpark, CA resident estimates she has auditioned for more than 500 roles and played dozens of different characters over the past three years.
“I just love to be on set,” Kayden told the
Moorpark Acorn.
The thing she loves most about acting is delving into scripts and discovering what makes the characters she’s playing tick. The effort takes hard work, but for Kayden, it’s always worth it.
“I really like the process of getting into character and digging deeper into the character to find out more about them,” she said.
The sixth grader’s latest role, though, doesn’t require much research. That’s because her character on the upcoming series
The Astronauts is nearly identical to her personality in real life.
“I can see who she is: She’s me,” Kayden said of her character, Doria Taylor. “She and I are so relatable. I don’t think they could have cast anyone better for the role since me and her have the same personality, the same attitude, the same ideas and mindset and the same fashion sense.”
BLAST OFF—”The Astronauts” follows five tweens as they are mistakenly launched into space after sneaking onto the Odyssey II spaceship. The group has to work together to operate the space ship and find their way back home. Credit: Nickelodeon. is a live-action series slated to premiere this fall on Nickelodeon. It’s the first joint venture between the kids network and Ron Howard’s Imagine Kids+Family production company.
In the show, Kayden and her four co-stars embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they are mistakenly launched into space after sneaking aboard a spaceship. Without any proper training, the kids have to work together to operate the craft and find a way back to Earth.
“It’s like
The Goonies in space,” Kayden said.
For Kayden, the opportunity to play a central character on a high-profile show is a dream come true. It’s a goal she’s been working toward since she was a student at Walnut Canyon, an arts and technology magnet elementary school.
“When I did a one-woman show at my performing arts school, my mom knew that I could really act,” Kayden said. “Right after that I got my agent and started going out for a lot of auditions.”
Kayden’s been so busy that she had to leave Walnut Canyon and begin taking classes online and on the set.
She’s done guest spots on the HBO series
A Black Lady Sketch Show and the Oprah Winfrey-produced family drama
Queen Sugar. She played a young Nicki Minaj in the music video for “Bigger Than You” featuring 2 Chainz and
Degrassi alum Drake.
Trying out for the role of Doria on
The Astronauts, though, was her most nerve-wracking experience yet. She went through 10 rounds of auditions to get the part, according to her mom, Kelly Charity.
“After she found out she booked it, they told us they did a nationwide and (international) search for this role and had auditioned over 30,000 girls,” Charity said.
The casting director said Kayden was a perfect fit for the show and that the writers began adapting her character to be more like the 12-year-old.
“There were things that Kayden was bringing to the audition that they loved so much that they ended up rewriting who her character was,” Charity said. “They started to write the character really based on a lot of Kayden’s characteristics.”
The Astronauts began filming in February in Vancouver, Canada. Four episodes were shot before production was shut down in March due to COVID-19 (coronavirus). The cast and crew hope to be back on set in July.
In
The Astronauts, the group traveling together through space are: Samantha “Samy” Sawyer-Wei, played by Miya Cech (
Are You Afraid of the Dark?,
Always Be My Maybe); Elliott Combs, played by Bryce Gheisar (
Wonder,
A Dog’s Purpose); Martin Taylor, played by Keith L. Williams (
Good Boys,
The Last Man on Earth); Doria Taylor, played by Kayden Grace Swan (
A Black Lady Sketch Show); and Will Rivers, played by Ben Daon (
Child’s Play). Matilda, the ship’s onboard AI system is voiced by Paige Howard (
The Employer,
Adventureland).
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