Crystle Lea Lightning (born February 5, 1981) is a

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

film actress, musician, DJ, and hip-hop MC.

Early life

Crystle Lea Lightning, born February 5, 1981 (age 44) in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. She is the daughter of director and actress Georgina Lightning, and her brother is actor Cody Lightning. A First Nations Hobbema/ Enoch Cree artist, Crystle began performing in

, when she was 4 years old before her family relocated to Hollywood, California, when she was 9. She holds

dual citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

with the United States and Canada.

Film career

Lightning started acting in 1994 and has been in several films, with her most notable role portraying

Lori Piestewa Lori Ann Piestewa ( ; December 14, 1979 – March 23, 2003) was a United States Army soldier killed during the Iraq War. A member of the Quartermaster Corps, she died in the same Iraqi attack in which fellow soldiers Shoshana Johnson and Piestewa ...

in ''

Saving Jessica Lynch ''Saving Jessica Lynch'' is a 2003 American television film that aired on NBC and features Canadian actress Laura Regan in the title role. The film begins with the ambush of Jessica Lynch's convoy in the middle of an Iraqi city and follows a vers ...

''. She played the lead role of Jo in '' 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up'' (1995). Since then, she has been cast in a recurring role on the daytime NBC soap ''

Days of Our Lives ''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that aired on the network NBC from November 8, 1965, to September 9, 2022; the soap has streamed n ...

'', played Chloe in 2005's '' American Pie Presents: Band Camp'',

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

/BET/

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

's ''The Game'' (2006), the spinoff of '' Girlfriends''; and in '' Older Than America'' (2008) alongside

Bradley Cooper Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and three Grammy Awards. In addition, he has been nominated for twelve Acade ...

. She also voiced Jen, the girlfriend of the game's protagonist, Tommy, in the 2006 video game ''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not ki ...

''. At the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 17–20 May 2021 to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020. The presentations were held as a seri ...

in 2021, she won the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for ''

Trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

''.

Music career

Lightning is also an

electro house Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music and a subgenre of house music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 125–135 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including ...

DJ. Inspired by a mix performed by DJ Lady Tribe at a local Los Angeles nightspot, Lightning sought a musical apprenticeship with Christi Mills, later partnering with her mentor to form a performance crew called Ladies of the House. They perform regularly at Los Angeles venues, as well as throughout the United States.

LightningCloud

Moving from the DJ booth to the center-stage mic, Lightning paired up with MC RedCloud to form the hip-hop group LightningCloud. The pair released their self-titled debut, ''LightningCloud'', in 2012 with RedCloud's long-term musical collaborator, DJ Hydroe. Sam Slovik of ''L.A. Weekly'' called the group, "a near-earth object inventing new realms of the Electro-House-Hip-Hop revolution on the planet. Urban futurist MC RedCloud and Crystle Lightning are L.A.'s subterranean Bonnie and Clyde." The Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards (APCMA) honored the group with recognition for Best Hip Hop Album in November 2012. In 2013, LightningCloud won the "Who's Next: Battle for the Best" contest on

Power 106 KPWR (105.9 FM) – branded as ''Power 106'' – is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KPWR is owned and operated by Alex Meruelo's Meruelo Group, through licensee KPWR Radio Ho ...

. As winners, LightningCloud received a cash prize, a performance with

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...

, and the honor of representing west coast hip hop against Hot 97's

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

-based east coast representative, Radamiz, in a freestyle battle in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, on March 15, 2013. After winning that MC battle, LightningCloud received the opportunity to work with

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, he is widely acclaimed for his distinctive production work and "stuttering" rhythm ...

in the recording studio.

Filmography

Film

Short film

Television

Video games

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lightning, Crystle 1981 births 20th-century Canadian actresses 20th-century First Nations people 20th-century First Nations women 21st-century American women 21st-century Canadian actresses 21st-century Canadian rappers 21st-century First Nations people 21st-century First Nations women 21st-century women rappers Actresses from Edmonton American child actresses American female models American film actresses American voice actresses American video game actresses Best Actress in a Drama Series Canadian Screen Award winners Canadian child actresses Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian female models Canadian film actresses Canadian voice actresses Canadian video game actresses Canadian women rappers Cree actresses Cree musicians Enoch Cree Nation people Living people Musicians from Edmonton Naturalized citizens of the United States