Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Madeleine Maiya. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Madeleine, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I write this with a tender heart, sitting in the bittersweet feelings of saying goodbye to my beloved horse BB, who passed this last Friday. Her passing opened a floodgate of memories—streams from my childhood that had long been stored away. I remember my early animal companions, the countless hourless days spent by the cornfields of Indiana, rolling around with them, and the heartbreak of saying goodbye time and time again.

As I reflect, I can so clearly see how both of my parents shaped me, and how their influence echoes through every part of my life and work today. Both of them had deeply unique, passionate callings—callings they stayed true to, devoting their lives to and turning into careers. They showed me, by example, that a life fueled by the heart is possible.
My parents come from two seemingly opposite worlds: my dad from a small Illinois town and a life on a hog farm, who then joined the Air Force as a B-52 pilot and later became a commercial airline captain; and my mom, born in Tokyo, raised in Fort Worth, Texas by her widowed first generation Japanese mother, began training intensively in classical ballet at a young age—including at the prestigious School of American Ballet in New York—and went on to dance and teach professionally thereon after.

A ballet dancer and a pilot-farmer. Though their journey together had its share of challenges, something beautiful emerged in the middle. Their worlds blended into a one-of-a-kind childhood for me—one that gifted me a lens on life I wouldn’t trade for anything.

I spent hours outside with animals, completely immersed in their worlds, pulled into something so peaceful and grounding. I also spent countless hours inside the studio, taking dance classes and then watching my mom teach classes late into the evenings. I often wanted to skip dance in favor of never having to shower or leave my wild child farm life bubble, but deep down, I loved it. I was ping-ponging between two universes. And in retrospect, it makes perfect sense—I was meant to stay deeply immersed in both.

Today, the artistic side of me has taken shape through acting, photography, writing, and filmmaking. I still dance for recreation too. The country side of me tapped on my shoulder after 11 years of living in the city, and has now taken me so far down a bumpy dirt road, with a sanctuary full of animals under my care, that my friends can’t always make it back to visit. These two sides of me don’t compete anymore—they feed each other. My animals inspire me to film them. Filming them helps me understand them more deeply, which inspires me to film them. And the cycle continues, until all boundaries between art and life dissolve. It becomes one. A seamless harmony.
I’ve always been a dreamer—my head in the clouds, with visions that didn’t always make logical sense. My dad always saw that in me. He could see what I was seeing, even when others couldn’t. He stood by me through every twist and turn that led me to this path.
My impulsiveness and wild spirit only became tempered and honed in to be productive rather than destructive through the inevitable trials of the adult world—and it was then that I realized one of the things my mom had given me: the ability to show up, day in and day out, no matter how steep the climb. To keep creating, to keep crafting, to keep dancing, even with blisters.. just to learn how to tape them up right and when to treat yourself to a epsom salt soak.

When BB passed, I was still getting auditions throughout the days leading up to it and the days after. I FaceTimed my most reliable reader—my mom—and we knocked them out. Not bringing up BB until after we finished taping, once we got the take, we cried together. She taught me how to show up even with tears in my eyes. To know when it’s time to get the job done, and when it’s time to let yourself break down a little.

This morning I called my dad for the first time since BB’s passing. We talked about my purpose. About my deep love for animals, and the mission of the path I’ve chosen. He reminded me to pray, and to keep following my heart.

I have two parents who are passionate enough to believe in this journey with me. Through it all, they never made me feel like I was wrong for wanting what I wanted. And because of that, I was able to fully bloom and begin creating from the deepest parts of my heart.

They let me live fully as a child, even as I fell apart again and again from the loss of the animals I loved. And now, they hold me through it all over again as an adult—as I grieve the loss of BB. I wear my bleeding heart proudly. Because a heart that bleeds is a heart that beats.

My parents gave me a heart made of gold that holds a burning fire of passion and art within it. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a melting pot and culmination of many things at this point in my life. Growing up dancing while living in the country with my animals. Later, I enlisted in the Air Force National Guard and was trained as a military photographer, before moving to Los Angeles to study acting and writing.

Midway through my LA journey, I was hired to care for horses at a mental health facility that claimed to offer equine therapy—only to discover the five horses they had were being severely neglected, lacking even basic care like regular feeding, veterinary attention, and farrier visits. They had these horses only to ‘get client numbers up’, and hired me after two yers of neglect, because animal services was being called my the clients and staff. That moment awoke my purpose within me deeply and catapulted me onto the path of animal activism, where all of my skills now come together in service of that calling.

After a long and difficult battle with the company that owned those horses, I officially adopted them in 2023. (You can read more about that story on my website.) Soon after, I expanded my animal family that already included my rescue dog and kitties, to include chickens. I spent a year and a half filming my chickens from babies into adulthood for Uncaged, a self-filmed documentary that offers an intimate glimpse into their nature-filled lives, complex behaviors, and emotional capacity for connection. I named the little oasis I’ve created for my animals Vivor’s Sanctuary, after my dog Vivor—whose name is short for “survivor.”

My Air Force photography training has been well-used: I often get lost for hours photographing my animals. I’ve also turned my lens toward awareness work—documenting horse auctions and retired battery cage hens being resold at feed stores. I remain active as an actor and have expanded into fitness and lifestyle modeling as a form of income, but over the past four years, my voice and passion have become undeniably clear: it is with the animals.

My photography, art, documentary work, and writing are all housed on my website for those who want to take a closer look.

What I offer is unique because of my approach to animal activism. At around 19, I felt a strong pull to study meditation and became devoted to self-help and spiritual teachings. I attended two 10-day silent Vipassana retreats (which I highly recommend—each course is donation-based and accessible to anyone who feels called). The time I’ve spent studying meditation, combined with my acting background, has cultivated a pace and sensitivity within me that’s palpable in my creative work.

Although I sometimes shed light on the darkness animals face, most of my work is rooted in metta—a form of meditation that cultivates love, compassion, and well-being for all beings. I believe animals won’t truly be free to live safely and harmoniously until we, as humans, are also whole. That’s why I center my work around healing frequencies and the deep magnificence I witness in animals.

When people are open to receiving it, this form of advocacy can be just as powerful and transformative as more aggressive activist tactics. My work is a love letter—to nature, to animals, to the Divine, and to humanity—and it’s expressed through the array of creative skills I’ve been lucky enough to collect along the way.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Absolutely. Most simply put, my mission is to help people see animals.

It’s what naturally pours out of me creatively. It requires me to truly see animals myself—an ever-expanding skill to open to their depth and presence—and to keep an open, loving heart toward people as well. It’s as beneficial to the world as it is to me. Because this is what I would do every day regardless, and in offering it to others, I fulfill my mission.

A specificity of that mission is to provide sanctuary to as many animals as I can care for, one-on-one. A space free from exploitation and oppression, forever. With no obligations or expectations placed upon them.

The only thing I ask is that they allow me to capture their beauty—so I can share it through various mediums, helping that beauty ripple into Seeing, and that seeing ripple into change.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being a creative and an artist, for me, are the moments I feel I am truly experiencing something.

When life shifts from a broad-stroke, general seeing—into a moment of being emotionally moved in a Divine way. Moved by the simplicity of the sun shimmering on a strand of hair. The colors swirling into themselves on the coat of my horses. The cowlicks and crevices I get lost in.

The reward is being able to see an entire universe within the eyes of a being. To sense the dawn of time through the piercing gaze of my chickens. To witness a heartbeat, a thought, a moment-to-moment existence breathed as one with the earth when I watch an animal.

And then, that sacred opening extends to humans. The dark ring of brown around his chestnut-colored eyes. The way her eyebrow lifts. The love inside someone’s heart. The fear weighing them down—and the prayer I send for their peace.

I begin to see all beings as magical, wondrous creatures. And in being an artist, that work pulls me deeper into that seeing. It puts me face to face with exactly what I came here to witness. And then, it requires me to translate it—in any language I am fluent in: through colors, frames, sounds, images, words, stories.

It asks me to become clear in my mission and purpose. It asks me to see the beauty, oneness, and uniqueness in all things. It requires me to be endlessly brave and tender, and as bright as the sun.

It demands that I allow my heart to shatter—and then pick up the pieces and turn them into something new: into words and colors, into love and light.

The reward is the experience.
Oh, how deep it flows.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vivorssanctuary.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilovecatsandwater/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/Jjq8bS2Xr6g?feature=shared

Image Credits

Ari In Watercolor – painted by Me

All Of My Animals in Harmony – drawn by Me

Photographs and film stills – by me

Black and white portrait – Matt Kallish

The last three photos are in honor of my beautiful Bean Bear. Eyes as deep as the ocean, running forever free in my heart. Rest easy sweet girl. I love you eternally.