Future Asian & Pacific History Month: Hayley Kiyoko's Quest for Connection

Fuse is celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month by looking at a variety of rising forces who are creating Future Asian and Pacific History before our eyes. Today we're training our sights on Hayley Kiyoko, singer, songwriter and actress.

Kiyoko, 26, was born in L.A. to American voice actor and comedian Jamie Alcroft and Sarah Kawahara, the Japanese Canadian figure skater who won Emmys for choreographing Scott Hamilton Upside Down and the 2002 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. (She also choreographed Will Ferrell's Blades of Glory.) Hayley started acting in commercials at a young age, and as a teenager joined The Stunners, a five-piece girl group that included Tinashe. Their rocky four-year run ended in 2011 with just one EP and a few singles on the books, but Kiyoko was not deterred from her showbiz aspirations. She had already acted on a few episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place and Unfabulous and played Velma in a pair of Scooby-Doo TV movies; her debut solo EP A Belle to Remember came in 2013.