Only a few performers can portray vastly diverse characters, something Jaylen Barron does with ease far beyond her years of practice. The actress is well-known for her versatility, but within that versatility indeed lies a commonality. To understand Jaylen’s craft and approach is to understand the woman herself.

A California native, Jaylen was born in West Covina. She danced competitively at Fairgrove Academy in La Puente—cheer, jazz, lyrical—for years, and fondly remembers traveling across the country for competitions. “I loved it,” gushes Jaylen. “And then, I grew up, for the rest of my teenage years, in the Inland Empire.” Fontana, to be specific, “so that’s where my family’s at right now,” she shares.

The performance bug started with dancing. Jaylen didn’t enter the acting realm until she was about 12 years old. “My first acting job was a Bratz commercial … I love Bratz,” she emphasizes. “Bratz is my life inspiration! It’s the look, the hair, the makeup, everything. And then my first big job, I guess you could say, was a co-starring role on Shake It Up.” From there, Jaylen went on See Dad Run and Good Luck Charlie, “and then boom bang bow, here we are!”

Performing arts were consistently part of Jaylen’s childhood. In elementary school, she participated in talent shows, plays, and chorus. “I was always doing something like that,” recalls Jaylen. “As I got older, I was just like, ‘I feel like I could do this acting thing.’ I think about it and I feel like it accidentally fell into my lap. I didn’t go to some extravagant Juilliard, or any performing arts school that was renowned, or anything like that. It was really just raw and real from your local school and the local mall program of being in a play. That’s where I found my love for it—it’s just from local theaters.”

Interestingly enough, Jaylen seems to still be drawn to raw, real characters, making her roles not only fun to watch but also intriguing to digest. That vulnerability factor, and the opportunity to explore those personality nuances, genuinely intrigues the actress. “You know what’s so funny about it?” Jaylen asks with a reflective tone. “With my roles, I see them as separate from me, but I feel like they all have a little bit of me in them.” With hindsight, she reveals, “I feel like now that I’m talking about it, I see a common occurrence: I love to see the flaws in the characters and I love to just have people watch and relate to it.”

Playing Dominique in Shameless perfectly exemplifies this perspective. “She was just real, and I feel like there wasn’t anything that was too amazing about her—she didn’t have any special talents. It was just this good girl that had turned bad,” imparts Jaylen. “And honestly, I feel like that was representative for a lot of girls in real life … She always had it together, and then, just like any of us, she went through a learning process and, heck, she just decided to be bad! And I feel like that’s a pretty fun thing to do because I feel like a lot of people get to see themselves in her. She made mistakes and I think that’s the realest thing you can do—just show representation to the consumers, to the fans watching it.”

Blazer & Skirt by Rails. Shirt by Vince. Vintage Tie/Cravat. Vintage Jewelry.

Jaylen’s role as Zoe in Netflix’s Free Rein equestrian series (including two holiday specials: Free Rein: Valentine’s Day and Free Rein: The Twelve Neighs of Christmas) was a departure from that of Shameless. Aside from her love of animals, she couldn’t help but fall in love with this heartwarming story. “It was just a cute love, horse story. It was just as innocent as that, and the power of friendship and family, and I just love really what she stood for.” Jaylen admits, “She was a little bit nosy at times, but that’s real! She had flaws, and that’s what I think I really loved.”

In Free Rein, Jaylen’s character was the only Black female on the equestrian team, making her the first American person of color to play the lead in a Netflix children’s original series. “It makes me feel proud and it makes me feel like I made a small, tiny mark in history, in television, and that’s just something that I’ve always wanted to accomplish and do, and bring something raw and real, and bring awareness to audiences all around the world,” professes Jaylen. Seeing a young Black girl on a horse is another inspirational facet that the actress values. “I think that’s what I’m most proud of: it made people who’ve never even looked at horses, or never even looked at that thing that they wanted to try, and want to go for it,” she confesses.

Since starring in Free Rein, Jaylen admits she’s been taking her craft more seriously. “I didn’t have any proper training. I really was just auditioning and doing my best, and luckily, I was blessed enough to be able to even get this far,” she shares. “So, I think it made me want to go deeper within myself and understand this craft more because it is a craft, and it is an art. I feel like when I was younger, of course, we don’t understand the severity of things, and I feel like now, as I’m getting older, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is serious. This takes a lot of work and effort.’ I think I’m just falling in love with it more and more every single day and learning more about myself. It actually feels like therapy for me because I’m putting more personal feelings into my work when before I would be kind of detached from it.”

To liken acting to therapy makes sense when considering the inward reflection necessary to embody another personality. With such a diverse career and body of characters, it is easy to see how Jaylen is actively exploring herself through her craft. “When you get to be all these different people, and I think that’s why I chose the kind of career path I chose—not sticking to one particular character, being a multitude of people—I think that’s therapy because I get to act out these different ‘fantasies’ that you think about when you’re little.”

Jaylen has garnered quite a bit of recognition for her performance as Trish in Blindspotting. “Trish is a truly organic woman,” Jaylen describes, “meaning just from the earth; the realness and the rawness of who she brings to the table; of not necessarily caring about what anybody else thinks; she’s unapologetic … She’s very beautiful and spirited. I think everybody needs a friend like Trish,” she urges. “I learned to love myself more because she loves herself so much, and I have to practice that on set. She’s very open with her body and she’s very open with her words and her freedom of speech. I feel like before her, I was a little bit more in my shell and I was kind of jealous of her—it was weird! She taught me to really have more confidence in who I am as a woman and to really just be unapologetically myself and authentic.”

When you get to be all these different people, and I think that’s why I chose the kind of career path I chose—not sticking to one particular character, being a multitude of characters—I think that’s therapy because I get to act out these different “fantasies” that you think about when you’re little.

The show really emphasizes its Oakland roots, as well as family dynamics, and has been renewed for a highly anticipated second season. “The realness of it, the everyday hustle and bustle of what, maybe, lower middle class people go through—I think people want to see that, especially people of color. Seeing the reality of somebody whose sibling, boyfriend, brother, husband, son, cousin goes to jail—what is that like?” The cast and storylines of Blindspotting explore the dynamics and trickle-down effects of that question masterfully. “I think that people really resonate with it because of the art in it as well. The emotional expression that they show and they create throughout the series, and the second season really only gets better, truly,” teases the actress.

Jaylen knows that life is short, and she reveals, “I’d like to experience living multiple, different lives and the way I get to do that is through my art.” Each of us possesses contradictory traits—we must learn to embrace the yin as well as the yang. “I have a sweet streak in me, just like I have a bad streak in me,” Jaylen acknowledges. “It really irritates me when characters are just portrayed as this one perfect entity all the time because that’s just not realistic; that is not reality,” she understands. “I get to play all these different people and tap into different parts of myself that I did not even know existed: the good girl, the sweet girl, the bad girl.” In doing so, self-discovery, self-awareness, and self-acceptance will follow. Life is a stage, and Jaylen Barron is here to command its audience.

Features Editor Elisabeth Ross
Photographer Louis Lee @louiseugenelee
Makeup Anton Khachaturian @antonmakeup
Stylist Enrique Melendez @mrenriquemelendez
Stylist Assistant Kyra Bissett
On-Site Tailor Michelle Thomas @auntfunkyscloset

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