Herizen F. Guardiola
Herizen F. Guardiola is an actor, born 1996.
The singing came first, and the order matters. Herizen F. Guardiola, born in Miami in 1996 to the reggae musician Johnny Dread, arrived at acting as a musician. Her breakout was Mylene Cruz in Netflix's The Get Down, a musical drama that needed a lead who could actually sing the material rather than mime to somebody else's take, and she sang on the show's soundtrack.
The music has continued alongside the acting rather than behind it. She appeared on Absofacto's ThousandPeaces EP and on the soundtrack for the Major Lazer documentary Give Me Future, released her own EP Come Over To My House in October 2018, featured on What So Not's We Can Be Friends, and put out the single Focus in April 2019.
On screen she has kept the roles few and specific: Oshun in American Gods, where the part is a deity rather than a person, and Addy Hanlon in Dare Me, a cheerleading drama that wanted the sort of watchful stillness The Get Down never had the tempo for. It is a short filmography with no filler in it, which is rarer than a long one.
Movies (1)
TV (3)
Where to start with Herizen F. Guardiola
Everything begins with The Get Down. It is the only thing here built to use everything she does at once, and the musical numbers are not decoration: her voice carries narrative weight the dialogue then does not have to.
Dare Me is the better-written show and the one to watch second. Addy Hanlon is a harder part, told mostly through what she does not say, and the series treats teenage ambition with an unnerving seriousness.
American Gods is a single striking appearance in a series with a great deal going on around her, so treat it as a scene rather than a role. The Lost Husband is a gentle small-town film and the least demanding thing on the list, which is fine if that is the evening you had in mind.