We were lucky to catch up with Maya Delgado recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maya , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Right now I’m working on an EP, and the songs are really important to me. I journal just about every day, so most of my music comes straight from diary entries and free writing. Through that process, I have realized that even in the simplest of things, you can discover a song or a story that’s really important to you, and possibly someone else.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Maya Delgado and I’m a 17-year-old singer, songwriter, and actress from Los Angeles. I have been singing and acting professionally since 8 years old. Most recently, I guest-starred on All American as “Valarie”, and before that, I worked on Ghost Writer on Apple TV+ and Diary of a Future President on Disney+. Recently I have been working on writing and recording music which will be released by the end of the year! I’m very excited about this because I have been learning a lot about music production, songwriting, and how I express myself through music. I am also the founder of a non-profit organization called “HeARTs of Maya”, where we award scholarships to youth who want to train in the arts (singing, acting, and dance). To date, we have awarded 50 scholarships to deserving youth who want to pursue the arts.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being creative is when others resonate or relate to what I’m creating. For example, I performed live at the Federal this past summer and many of the songs I prepared were original songs. Being able to sing and have people dance or sing along with me is really rewarding. Also, seeing people have a good time while I’m on stage is really the whole reason I love performing so much. After that performance, people came up to me talking about my originals, and I was so happy that people were relating to what I was singing about.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

A goal I have as an artist and actress is to make people feel happy or understood through my work. Through HeARTs of Maya, I am completing a part of my goal by encouraging youth to be a part of the performing arts and providing resources like arts classes to help youth in need of arts education. People build communities, acquire confidence, and feel happiness when performing or working on their craft. The arts for me and many other people can be very therapeutic. In addition, through every character I’m playing and in every song I write, I’m telling a story. My goal is that people can connect personally with a character or a song I’m singing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mayadelgado.com
• Instagram: @mayasdelgado
• Youtube: @mayasdegado
• Other: https://linktr.ee/mayasdelgado

Image Credits
Rochelle Rodin