As a young Asian-American woman, Kalliyan is an advocate for the movement of minority and LGBTQ+ representation in modern storytelling. She starred in the queer short film, “Maybe”, directed by Kat Renee Cole, which tells the story of Lauren, a teen Filipina girl who discovers her queer identity while struggling with the expectations of gender in her Hawaiian, Catholic-Filipino community. “Maybe” has been showcased at film festivals around the country, including CAAMFEST, LAAPFF, Seattle Queer Film Festival, NewFest, and Reeling Chicago.
When Kalliyan isn’t acting, she enjoys directing and writing her own short films, binge-watching independent movies on Netflix, and producing dream-pop music under the name KAHN. She is also semi-fluent in Mandarin Chinese. With the support of her fellow storytellers, Kalliyan aspires to be a prominent figure in the Asian-American creative community, and through her achievements, hopes to lead change in Hollywood’s new generation of cinema.