Leyla DeMolina is a Brooklyn-based actor and creator originally from Queens, NY. In 2019, she graduated from Brown University with Honors, receiving a B.A. in Theater Arts and Performance Studies as well as English. 

 

Leyla has trained in Shakespeare, Viewpoints Technique, Alexander Technique, Voice and Speech, and Contemporary Dance. She studied Directing for five months at Dublin’s Trinity College. She has split her time between many film and theater projects. Most recently she performed in an outdoor immersive performance called Off the Trail for Squeak and Squawk at the Stamford Nature Center with Stage Partners and a devised collaborative theater piece with the Underground Skills Exchange's SpeakART program surrounding making home, making space, and slowing down in NYC which premiered May of 2022. Some other favorite productions include In the Heights with Brown’s Sock & Buskin; performing as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth; and starring in a short film called Sometimes I Want to Cut Off My Hands which was selected and awarded by ARMS (Art to Reduce Mental Health Stigma) for their Flip the Script festival. Leyla was an Assistant Stage Manager with Third Rail Projects’ long running immersive production Then She Fell, managed a 10 day musical development workshop in the woods, and works with the Manhattan School of Music as an Assistant Stage Manager. She wrote an Honors TAPS thesis at Brown on the women of Shakespeare and devised and led a collaborative piece based on it called Last Rites/First Light. Leyla is also a dancer and appeared in a 25 minute piece by choreographer Nia Sanders at Brown called Where Do I Go From Here? 

 

Leyla writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Forever excited about new storytelling forms, she created and co-wrote the fictional, magical audio adventure Whisper Bits about mothers, archives, and prophecy. Leyla has also served on a combination Shakespeare and site-specific theater board (two things she loves a lot) and as the Literary Chair of the Brown Theater Department’s Sock & Buskin producing board. Additionally, she has spent time working as a summer music and theater teacher for kids aged 2-14, writing and directing an original youth musical theater production which she helped them stage all by themselves! Leyla also has a pie company and you can catch her popping up at markets and cafes in Brooklyn and on the WoodSpoon app. 

 

Leyla is a collaborator, a mover, and a competitive crossword puzzler. She currently lives in Bushwick with her kitten, Paloma.