Whether as a leading actress in a television series, recording a Spanish-language album or on stage on Broadway, Maia Reficco (pretty Little Liars, A quick movement) can’t imagine her life without the arts. “I love what I do,” Reficco, 24, said in a recent interview with Latina Media Co. “It makes me so happy. No matter what the role, it fills my soul.”

Boston-born Reficco, who holds dual U.S. and Argentine citizenship, began in the entertainment industry in 2017 when she landed the lead role in the television series Kally’s Mashup on Nickelodeon Latin America. The series is about a 13-year-old piano virtuoso who dreams of becoming a pop star.

The following year, Reficco released her first digital album, Kally’s Mashup: The Musicwith original music from the television series. Over the next five years, she continued to release music, including the singles “Tuya”, “De Ti”, “Tanto Calor” and “Rápido y Furioso”.

In 2024, Reficco booked the role of Eurydice in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hadestownbased on the Greek mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice. It made its Broadway debut last month.

As her career progresses, Reficco plans to decide whether she wants to record, perform on Broadway or work as an actress. “Hopefully I can do all three things,” she said. “I think what connects me to art is emotions. There are so many ways to express them. As long as I can do that, I’m happy.”

Now Reficco is starring in the second feature film of her career. A quick movement. The sports drama, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, follows Wes (KJ Apa, Riverdale), a recently released convict and aspiring motorcycle racer who is reaching out to his estranged father (Eric Dane, Grey’s Anatomy, Europhia) to help him start his racing career.

In A quick movement, Reficco plays Camila, a waitress and single mother who falls in love with Wes and supports him in his dream of racing motorcycles. Camila has her own dreams of one day becoming a Broadway star. Although it sounds like it was a detail added after Reficco was hired, she said it was already in the script.

“It’s crazy that I’m talking about this movie now and that I’m on Broadway,” she said. “It’s surreal.”

Reficco shares her connection to Broadway, screen and musical performance with another of her co-stars in A quick movementOscar-nominated actor Edward James Olmos (Stand and deliver). In the film, he plays Abel, a motorcycle shop owner who hires Wes as his employee. Before making films, Olmos was the lead singer of his own band in Los Angeles and had great success when he starred as El Pachuco in the Broadway play Zoot Suita role for which he received a Tony Award nomination.

“I don’t think we would be here without the people who came before us,” Reficco said. “It was a great honor to work with (Edward). We have to be conscious of the things that have allowed us to get into these areas.”

Although Latino representation in Hollywood has increased since Olmos’ film debut in the 1970s, Reficco recognizes that there are still challenges for our community in the industry. Today, she focuses on avoiding stereotypical characters in every project that lands on her desk.

“As a Latino, there are definitely hurdles we have to overcome,” she said. “I don’t want to be pigeonholed. Ultimately, we have to advocate for ourselves because often there are no Latinos in the room. No one else is going to do it for me.”

For Reficco, being part of Hollywood is a “huge responsibility” and she wants her contribution to the industry to matter in the most meaningful way possible.

“I want Argentine and Latin American girls to feel recognized in an authentic and not symbolic way,” she said. “These are the things worth fighting for.”