Rickaya Sykes is an actress and storyteller from a small town in Virginia, where her love for performing started early. At just six years old, she was writing scripts, acting them out in the living room, and turning everyday moments into scenes for her family. She didn’t know the word for it yet—but she already knew what she was called to do.

In middle school, she found her way into forensics competitions—using dramatic monologues to express herself—and began performing in community productions. By high school, she joined the theatre club and started modeling, discovering a second creative outlet that allowed her to show up fully as herself.

Rickaya went on to attend Virginia Commonwealth University, earning her BFA in Theatre Performance. While in school, she acted in a range of productions and also worked with Richmond’s local theatres, continuing to build her foundation and find her voice as an artist. Throughout her college years, she also continued to model—pushing back against limiting beauty standards around size, height, and skin tone. For her, modeling has always been about more than the clothes—it’s about being seen and reminding young girls who look like her that they belong too.

After graduating, she moved to New York City to deepen her training. She studied at the historic Billie Holiday Theatre, where she connected more deeply with her roots and the artists who paved the way before her. It was there that she began to understand that this work is ancestral, spiritual, and far bigger than herself.

Rickaya graduated from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in June 2025, where she spent two transformative years developing her technique, discipline, and devotion to telling the truth in every performance.
Her dream is to perform on Broadway and to bring layered, complex characters to life on television—stories that leave a mark, start a conversation, and reflect the world as it truly is. At the heart of it all, Rickaya sees this work as a calling to serve. Whether on stage, on screen, or in front of a camera—she’s here to tell the stories that matter.