Ciera Payton- Talks Booking A Lead Role Opposite Steven Seagal While Still Being A Student, Working With Tyler Perry & How Growing Up In New Orleans Shaped Her

Ciera Payton is an accomplished actor, writer, social activist and  entrepreneur hailing from the city of New Orleans. After Hurricane  Katrina, Ciera and her family relocated to North Carolina where she  graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of the North Carolina School  of the Arts. While still enrolled in school, Ciera landed the female  lead role opposite Steven Seagal in Flight of Fury. Since her  breakout role, she has shared screen time with many talented artists  including Viola Davis, Nicholas Cage, Kevin Hart and Josh Brolin. Past  credits include USA Network’s Graceland, Bad Teacher on CBS, and Spike  Lee’s Oldboy. As a writer and solo performer, Ciera created and  performed her one-woman show, Michael’s Daughter, a piece detailing her  compelling journey of growing up in New Orleans to her present success  in Los Angeles through a series of letters with her incarcerated father,  Michael. While dedicated to her acting career, Ciera also  manages to and time to contribute to her local community. Her dedication  to arts education in underserved communities led her to create the  non-profit organization The Michael’s Daughter Foundation, which  provides an annual theater and media arts summer camp for youth impacted  by incarceration. Her contribution was recognized by the City of Los  Angeles’ Mayor Garcetti and Councilwoman Nury Martinez, as she was  rewarded the 2016 Pioneer Woman Award. A free-spirit, Ciera  enjoys boxing, painting, cooking and most importantly, dancing! She  continues to have an unwavering commitment to always be her best,  challenge the limits of everything she does, while always remaining true  to herself.