Making It Shine
South Jersey native Alyssa Miles talks about her local roots, her love of Victorious and landing a role in the new spinoff series Hollywood Arts.
Sometimes the biggest opportunities arrive when you’re not looking for them.
That was certainly the case for South Jersey native Alyssa Miles, who was wrapping up her senior year at Muhlenberg College when an audition landed in her inbox for a new Netflix series. At the time, Miles was focused on graduating, exploring her creativity and figuring out what kind of artist she wanted to become.
So focused, in fact, that she almost skipped the audition.
“When this audition came into my email, I didn’t do it,” Miles says. “I went to my agent and said, ‘I might not do every audition because I’m pouring into growing myself as an artist.’”
Her mother and agent had other ideas. They encouraged her to submit, particularly after learning that the producers were specifically interested in seeing her.
Miles decided to give it a shot. With the help of a friend, she quickly set up a self-tape.
“I set it up with my friend real quick, and we filmed it—it was really fun and loose,” she says. “It was just a scene and a song, and I got to do this jazzy song I was experimenting with in college.”
At the time, Miles believed she was auditioning for a character named Jen Z. After submitting her tape, however, she received a callback for another character: Emmy.
That was when things started to get interesting.
Miles was working on the audition with her friend Kyle when he noticed something familiar about the material.
“He said, ‘I feel like this is some sort of Victorious thing,’” Miles recalls. “And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Well, you’re talking to a character named Trina.’”
That character was Trina Vega, played by Daniella Monet in Nickelodeon’s hit series Victorious from 2010 to 2013. The new show, Hollywood Arts, is a spinoff of the beloved series, returning to the performing-arts school that served as the setting for Victorious and bringing Monet back as Trina.
Suddenly, Miles realized that the audition she had nearly ignored was for something much bigger than she had initially understood.
Her next challenge was waiting. Miles had no idea what the final decision would look like, so her imagination began running wild.
“My brain, being imaginative, was like, ‘Oh my God, am I going to rock-paper-scissors with this other girl for the role? Are they going to ask me if I would cut my hair? Are they going to have me sing?’” she says with a laugh.
Eventually, she received the call she had been waiting for. But rather than simply telling her she had landed the role, Monet had a little fun with the news.
“She said how awesome I am again, which is why she’s going to be doing the show with me,” Miles recalls. “She prank called me! She did it to everybody, but in different ways.”
The joke was a fitting introduction to what would become one of Miles’ favorite parts of the experience: the cast itself.
Despite Monet’s history with Victorious, Miles says there was never a sense that the returning star was somehow above the newcomers. Instead, the cast quickly developed the kind of chemistry that felt more like a group of friends than coworkers.
“There wasn’t a sense of rankings,” Miles says. “It was just one big family.” And that family dynamic has continued even after production wrapped.
“This did not die in March,” she says. “We text in the group chat every day—sometimes it’s things about the show, sometimes it’s just memes. We also FaceTime. I’ve seen basically everybody since, traveling just to hang out.”
For Miles, the experience has been especially meaningful because Victorious was part of her childhood.
“I only grew up on Nickelodeon,” she says. “I feel like you had your Disney kids and Nick kids, and I was strictly a Nickelodeon girl.”
She loved Victorious so much that she would imagine herself as part of the show.
“Brushing my teeth in the morning, I used to pretend I was in an episode of Victorious—a secret sister that Tori and Trina had,” Miles says. “I’d be like, ‘My name is Emily and I’m going to make it shine.’”
Years later, that childhood imagination has taken on a remarkably real quality. Now Miles is playing Emmy on Hollywood Arts, stepping into a new chapter of the franchise that she once pretended to be part of from her bathroom mirror.
But while Hollywood may be calling, South Jersey remains home.
After the excitement of filming began to settle down, Miles returned to the area to reconnect with herself and take a breath. She grew up in the King’s Grant section of Marlton, surrounded by family, friends and the familiar places that helped shape her.
She credits the area’s natural surroundings with helping her maintain her sense of balance.
“I think my mental health is the way it is because of the walks I can take around King’s Grant, kayaking and the trails,” Miles says.
And then there’s Wawa. “I go to Wawa so much,” she says. “I basically live out of my backpack since I’m not at home that much, but when I’m home, the first thing I go to is Wawa.”
Her connection to the South Jersey arts community goes back much further. As a child, Miles developed her passion for performing through organizations such as the Moorestown Theater Company and the Music Training Center in Marlton.
She later attended Cherokee High School, where she continued pursuing theater and music.
“Cherokee was the best for the arts—I did shows there, choir and everything,” she says.
Miles still maintains relationships with some of the teachers who helped her along the way. One of her elementary school teachers retired the same year Miles left elementary school, but their relationship continued.
“I ended up signing with her kids’ manager, so she became like a second mom, taking me to auditions and film days,” Miles says.
Even when she wants to catch up with a former teacher, she has a favorite South Jersey meeting spot.
“Turning Point—my favorite brunch spot,” she says with a smile. “If I ever have to catch up with a teacher, it’s always the Turning Point.”
As she looks toward what comes next, Miles is keeping the same philosophy that guided her through college: continue pursuing acting, but never stop growing as an artist.
She has original music that she hopes to bring to life, along with ambitions that stretch beyond performing.
“I have years of songs I have written that I am loving,” she says. “I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with them because I am such a believer in live things. I would love to perform live and experience them with people, get strangers to be in music videos, choreograph, write and direct.”
For someone who once imagined herself stepping into the world of Victorious, Miles has already made that childhood dream a reality in a way she never could have predicted.
And if her own personality is any indication, Emmy may not be the only character with a little extra sparkle.
See Alyssa Miles as Emmy in Hollywood Arts, premiering Oct. 15, only on Netflix.
