Maia Reficco (born July 14, 2000) is an American and Argentine actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Kally Ponce in the
Nickelodeon Latin America original series, ''
Kally's Mashup'' and as Noa Olivar in the
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
horror thriller series ''
Pretty Little Liars
''Pretty Little Liars'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery teen drama television series created by I. Marlene King, which aired on Freeform (TV channel), Freeform from June 8, 2010 to June 27, 2017, based on the novel series Pretty Little L ...
'', the fourth series in the
franchise of the same name.
In 2024, she made her
Broadway debut as
Eurydice
Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice', classical pronunciation: ) was a character in Greek mythology and the wife of Orpheus, whom Orpheus tried to bring back from the dead with his enchanting music.
Etymology
Several ...
in ''
Hadestown
''Hadestown'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial vers ...
'' opposite
Jordan Fisher
Jordan William Fisher (born April 24, 1994) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He began his career with recurring roles on several television series, including '' The Secret Life of the American Teenager'' in 2012 and '' Liv and Maddie'' ...
.
Early life
Reficco was born in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, and at the age of four, she moved to
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, Argentina, with her family of Argentine origin. From a young age, she showed interest in music, singing and playing the guitar, piano, saxophone and
ukulele
The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...
. Her mother Katie Viqueira is a singer and singing teacher, and is the director of her own Center for Vocal Art. Her father Ezequiel Reficco is a professor at the
University of Los Andes in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
.
She has a younger brother, Joaquín Reficco Viqueira, who is also a singer. Reficco did acrobatics for 11 years. At the age of 15, she traveled to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. She lived with
Claudia Brant
Claudia Alejandra Menkarski (born July 21, 1966), known as Claudia Brant, is an Argentine composer, producer and singer , where she had the opportunity to study singing with Eric Vetro, a vocal coach for artists such as
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...
,
Camila Cabello
Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao (; ; born March 3, 1997) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the Pop music, pop girl group Fifth Harmony, one of the List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl gro ...
and
Shawn Mendes
Shawn Peter Raul Mendes ( , ; born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian singer. He gained a following in 2013 when he posted song covers on the video-sharing platform Vine (software), Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manage ...
. She also attended a five-week program at
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...
in Boston in which she excelled, earning a scholarship.
Career
She came to the
Nickelodeon Latin America project ''
Kally's Mashup'' thanks to Claudia Brant and the Instagram social network; Brant was the one who was in charge of sending the covers that Reficco made of different artists and uploaded to the platform, then she was contacted by the production of the series for an audition.
Reficco auditioned with the Ariana Grande song "
Dangerous Woman". She managed to get the leading role in the series playing Kally Ponce. Reficco signed with the record company Deep Well Records and traveled to Miami to record music for the series. On October 19, 2017, Reficco appeared for the first time at the
Kids' Choice Awards Argentina presenting the theme song for the series "Key of Life".
In August 2018, Reficco performed at the
Kids' Choice Awards Mexico, where she sang the songs "World's Collide" and "Unísono" with the cast of ''Kally's Mashup''. The same month, in an interview with
''Billboard'' Argentina, Reficco confirmed that she was working on her record material as a soloist in conjunction with a major label, as well as revealing that her debut album will be of the
pop and
R&B genre.
Her album will also be fully in English. She performed at the KCA Argentina 2018, where she sang the song "World's Collide" and "Unísono" again with the cast of ''Kally's Mashup''. On November 7, Reficco appeared at the Meus Prêmios Nick 2018, where she performed the same songs again, but this time "Unísono", together with Alex Hoyer and Lalo Brito; Reficco received Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.
In 2022, she appeared in ''
Do Revenge'', a
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
film, and starred as Noa Olivar in the
HBO Max
Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...
series ''
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin''.
Personal life
Reficco self-identifies as
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...
. She is currently in a relationship with actor
Tom Francis
Thomas George Francis (20 October 1920 – April 1996) was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Career
Francis began his career with non-league club Cheltenham Town in 1938, however Francis' time at Cheltenham was interrupted by ...
.
Filmography
Film
Television
Theatre
Discography
;Soundtrack albums
* ''Kally's Mashup: La Música (Banda Sonora Original de la Serie de TV)'' (2018)
* ''Kally's Mashup: La Música, Vol. 2 (Banda Sonora Original de la Serie de TV)'' (2019)
* ''Kally's Mashup: Un Cumpleaños Muy Kally – Banda Sonora Original de la Película'' (2021)
;Singles
* 2020: "Tuya"
* 2021: "De Ti"
* 2021: "Tanto Calor"
* 2022: "Rápido y Furioso"
* 2022: "En Cartagena"
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reficco, Maia
2000 births
Living people
American film actresses
American people of Argentine descent
American television actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers