Biography

Riley Jackson is a California born and raised actress with both U.S. and Canadian citizenship. She began her acting career doing theater and then began booking voiceover roles and roles in short films for GoPro and the American Film Institute. This ultimately led to being cast as a lead in the feature film "Crystal Inferno" (SyFy Channel) opposite Claire Forlani at the age of eleven.

Riley then landed other roles including the coveted "Young Frankie" in Netflix' award winning series "Grace and Frankie." She most recently starred in the award winning Apple TV+ series "Little America," and in the Showtime / Paramount Plus family feature film "A Genie's Tail" opposite Laura Marano (star of Netflix's "The Perfect Date" and Disney's "Austin & Ally"), Jake Paul (star of Disney's "Bizaardvark" and YouTube superstar) and comedians John and Kevin Farley (the hilarious brothers of Chris Farley).

Riley also stars as Carmen in "We're Alive: Scout's Honor," an audio drama with over 250+ Million downloads which premiered at #1 on Apple when released in March of 2024.

On the stage, Riley was in her Ivy League College's first year musical and played Guitar in Little Shop of Horrors. She has starred in several plays for ACT including Young Frankenstein Roland and Julie, and Couples Therapy, and has trained at The Groundlings and United Citizen's Brigade.

Riley writes music, plays the guitar, piano, ukulele, and drums. She has recorded background vocals for 16x Grammy Award winning producer Humberto Gatica (Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli) and for Kenny O'Brien (Michael Buble; Celine Dion). This included vocals on the remix of Michael Jackson's "Earth Song," and vocals on Laura Breton's Christmas Album. She was also the lead vocalist for Music Sense on 30 children's songs.

In the world of social media, Riley has been featured with superstars David Dobrick, Jake Paul, Jason Nash and Merrick Hanna. Her 'Muscal.ly' (now TikTok) videos were also featured multiple times.

Riley recently served as Event Chair and Presenter at the Halloween for Hope event co-hosted by Disney star Raven Symoné Pearman-Maday. Held at LA's Orpheum Theatre, the event raised over $35,000 to benefit the City of Hope's Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program. She also helped create and was an event Co-Chair for the Celebrity Sale 4 Hope and was an On Air Co-Host with actors Eric McCormack & John Schneider. The Celebrity Sale 4 Hope was a collaborative event with Cancer Support Community Los Angeles, the City of Hope Hospital, Greenlight Women, and Variety Magazine to raise money for people battling cancer.

Behind the camera, Riley wrote, directed and edited the award winning short film "The Ultimate Sacrifice." Awards include LA's Indie Short Fest for Best Young Female Filmmaker; Vancouver's Director's Cut International Film Festival for Best Short USA; New York International Film Award for Best Film Under 5 Minutes; it was also an Official Selection LA's HollyShorts Monthly, Atlanta's RollCall Indie & Italy's Golden Short Film Festival. She also created a short film for the acclaimed José Mateo Ballet Theater dance studio following the children's preparation for The Nutcracker; and she filmed and edited Cancer Support Community's fundraising gala video which helped generate a record amount of donations. The film showcases its history, its merger with "Gilda's Club" (SNL's Gilda Radner) and how it has enormously impacted cancer patients and their families.

As part of a show business family, Riley has grown up in the entertainment world and has enjoyed the unique opportunity of attending international film and television markets including Cannes, Miptv, Mipcom, Budapest, Hong Kong, Moscow, London, Toronto and more, thereby learning the business side of the entertainment industry at a very young age.

Interested in the business side of film, she recently interned at Propagate Content, participating in the company's evaluation meetings for potential projects, scouting intriguing IP, and learning more about the development and "green-lighting" side of the entertainment business. Spearheaded by former NBC President Ben Silverman and former National Geographic President Howard Owens, Propagate develops, produces and distributes premium scripted and unscripted series and films spanning all genres.

She also recently interned at the Gersh Talent Agency, learning from accomplished agents across different departments. Gersh is the fourth largest talent and literary agent in the world and a force in the industry. She also interned at Underscore Talent Management where she had the opportunity to scout talent, shadow team members, join agency meetings, and optimize market trends. The Underscore team represents top artists, some of the most influential creators in the industry, and other personalities across all verticals, including film and television, music, social media, brand partnerships, live events and more.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: L. Paolucci