It should come as no surprise that the son of an acting and musical theater professor would catch the acting bug, eventually. But six-year-old Lynden Miles Ley, son of Ali Angelone and Bristol Town Council member Aaron Ley, seems born to it, in more ways than one.

“Forever!” is the Rockwell 1st grader’s enthusiastic reply to being asked how long he’s been acting. “As long as I remember!”

Angelone, a Bristol native, met Ley when both were young professors at the University of North Dakota (environmental policy is Ley’s area of expertise). They returned to Rhode Island after a handful of years, when Ley was offered a position at URI. Angelone joined the faculty at Dean College in Franklin, Mass., and they started a family. Lynden is their oldest; he has a younger brother named Lincoln.

When Lynden was only 12 months old, he was already speaking in full sentences. “We didn't have any other children, so we didn’t know if that was normal or not,” said Angelone. The pediatrician confirmed that Lynden was unusually expressive for his age.

And it didn’t stop there.

“He never stopped talking,” said Angelone. “He would run around the house dressed in costumes, and make up his own words to songs.” Preschool and daycare teachers told Angelone and Ley that he would pick up and repeat things he overheard adults discussing. “He’s a bit of an old soul, so sometimes we expect him to act older than he is…and then we are reminded that he's six, that he does things that six-year-olds do.”

Lynden has been with a modeling agency in Boston since he was six months old, and he has done print work for companies including Hasbro and Amazon. From there he moved on to local and regional commercials. Then the pandemic hit, and for Lynden’s career, it was a game-changer.

Angelone had to teach from home and she had no space to teach, so she and Ley converted part of their garage to a makeshift home studio. “I teach acting and movement and musical theater and so I couldn't have your typical office space when I was teaching during the pandemic.”
At the same time, she and Ley began to think their son had some real talent.

“At the time I didn’t know if I was just being that mom that thinks her kid has this talent,” said Angelone. “I thought he did, but you know how moms are.” But she thought she’d look into it and get an outsider’s opinion. So she reached out to an acting coach in New York, from home, on Zoom.

“And I said, you know, I have this kid. He's just turned five last week. Do you think you might be able to have a session with him and give him some lines and see how he does? I think he might be good at this.”

The coach — Michelle Aravena, who is currently starring as Miss Argentina in ‘Beetlejuice’ on Broadway — agreed, and liked what she saw. She helped put together a highlight reel, which quickly secured an agent. Aravena has been working with Lynden for about a year and a half now, and for nearly a year he has been with one of the top New York agencies for child actors. He’s worked on three significant projects this year, and the first one to air is an episode of the CBS Original Series ‘FBI’ called “Double Bind.”

According to a description release by the producers, “As the team works to rescue a 5-year-old kidnapping victim, Scola suspects the boy’s mother isn’t being forthcoming about why her son was targeted.” Lynden is a guest co-star in the role of the kidnapping victim. It will air on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8:30 p.m. on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

Other upcoming projects include a supporting role in an episode of ‘Evil Lives Here’ (Investigation Discovery) and a supporting role in the feature film ‘Birth/rebirth’, streaming in 2023 on AMC/Shudder.

While the family cannot reveal any more details about the ‘FBI’ episode, it (and the other upcoming projects) all deal with some adult subject matter. So how does a 6-year-old play a kidnapping victim without getting scared?

For Lynden, it’s all in a day’s work. “It’s not scary,” he said. “It's a good challenge and I believe it's just acting and I just do it.”

“And it's fun.”

But just to be sure, Angelone and Ley note that productions take a lot of precautions to shield young actors from potentially challenging material, including adding sound effects in post-production and making sure the young actors are comfortable with the adult actors they will be performing with. “They are very careful with how they do things,” said Angelone, “He didn't have to see anything that was violent at all.” In addition, guardians of child actors remain on set throughout filming.

So Lynden has never felt scared or nervous on set?

“Well, maybe, when I was a baby,” he admits. But the cool things — like great snacks on set and getting his own trailer with his name on the door — far outweigh any incidental jitters.

These days, with Angelone back to teaching in person, the garage studio is really more Lynden’s. Angelone credits it for being part of the reason he is able to land jobs in the New York market from his home in Bristol. That, and the fact that her professional background lets her work with him between meetings with his coach.

“Theater is very different from film and TV, so that was definitely a new realm for me,” said Angelone with a smile. “But we do okay.”