A young Indigenous artist from Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis is making waves in the television industry.
Kiya Bruno, 13, has travelled internationally as an actress, filming the television series “The Alienist” in Budapest, Hungary and finished filming a new First Nation teen TV series for APTN in Montreal, Quebec, last summer. The show started airing in March, 2019.
Bruno also travelled to Toronto, Ontario this past summer with her mother Barbara Dumigan Jackson to film in Season 2 of “Just Like Mom and Dad” TV game show that started airing on October 22, 2018.
Bruno is multi-talented, adding artist, activist, athlete, traditional vocalist, jingle dancer and competitive jazz and hip hop dancer as well as musical theatre to her list of skills.
She returned from New York in February where she was cast to model and film in the 2019 Girlish Line and will be in the 2019 Spring/Summer campaign and commercial shoot.
She’s proud to be the first First Nations/Indigenous model for the line and campaign, Jackson says.
Bruno is Cree, coming from a cultural upbringing in the Plains Cree Nehiyaw community, and she incorporates that cultural knowledge into everything she does.
She performs as a traditional jingle dress dancer and sings the national anthem in Cree and English at many sporting, community and school events.
Bruno is a young entrepreneur and started her own natural beauty and skin essentials business called “ Cree Beauty Essentials.” She enjoys creating natural beauty and skin products and facilitates bath bomb workshops throughout the Treaty 6 area to youth and adults.
Bruno has a deep passion to help others and started a suicide prevention campaign called #YouRLoved with her mother. She also joined the Bluedot movement with her mother as an ambassador and raises awareness for climate change and the environment.