Whether starring in a TV series, recording a Spanish-language album, or taking the stage on Broadway, Maia Reficco (Pretty Little Liars, One Fast Move) can’t imagine what her life would be like without the arts. “I love what I do,” Reficco, 24, told Latina Media Co during a recent interview. “It makes me so happy. Regardless of what capacity, it fills my soul.”
Born in Boston, Reficco, who has her citizenship in both the United States and Argentina, got her start in the entertainment industry in 2017 when she landed the lead role in the TV series Kally’s Mashup on Nickelodeon Latin America. The series is about a 13-year-old piano virtuoso who aspires to become a pop star.
The following year, Reficco released her first digital album, Kally’s Mashup: La Música, featuring original music from the TV series. She continued to release music over the next five years, including the singles “Tuya,” “De Ti,” “Tanto Calor,” and “Rápido y Furioso.”
In 2024, Reficco booked the role of Eurydice on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hadestown, based on the Greek mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice. She made her debut on Broadway last month.
As her career moves forward, Reficco plans to choose between being a recording artist, appearing on Broadway, and working as an actress. “Hopefully I’m able to do all three,” she said. “I think what connects me to art is emotion. There are so many ways to portray that. As long as I get to do that, I’ll be happy.”
Now, Reficco stars in the second feature film of her career, One Fast Move. The sports drama, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, follows Wes (KJ Apa, Riverdale), a recently released convict and aspiring motorcycle racer who reaches out to his estranged father (Eric Dane, Grey’s Anatomy, Europhia) to help him kickstart his racing career.
In One Fast Move, Reficco plays Camila, a waitress and single mother who falls for Wes and supports him in his dream to race motorcycles. Camila has her own dreams to one day become a Broadway star. Although it sounds like a detail that was added after Reficco was hired, she said it was already in the script.
“It’s crazy how I’m talking about this movie right now and that I’m on Broadway,” she said. “It’s surreal.”
Reficco shares her connection to Broadway, the silver screen, and music performance with another of her co-stars in One Fast Move, Oscar-nominated actor Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver). In the film, he plays Abel, a motorcycle shop owner who hires Wes to work with him. Before making movies, Olmos was the lead singer of his own band in Los Angeles and hit it big when he starred as El Pachuco in the Broadway play Zoot Suit, a role that earned him a Tony Award nomination.
“I don’t think we would be here without the people that came before us,” Reficco said. “Getting to work with [Edward] was a huge honor. We have to be aware of the things that allowed for us to get into these spaces.”
While Latino representation in Hollywood has improved since Olmos made his film debut in the 1970s, Reficco is aware that there are still challenges for our community in the industry. Today, her focus is to steer clear of stereotypical characters in any project that comes across her desk.
“Being Latino, there are definitely hurdles that we have to jump over,” she said. “I want to stay away from being pigeonholed. At the end of the day, we have to advocate for ourselves because a lot of times, there are no Latinos in the room. Nobody else is going to do it for me.”
For Reficco, being a part of Hollywood is a “huge responsibility.” She wants her contribution to the industry to matter in the most reflective ways.
“I hope to make Argentinian and Latina girls feel seen in a way that feels authentic and not tokenizing,” she said. “Those are the things that are worth fighting for.”
