That Girl Lay Lay comes to life
Teen rapper from Houston is ready for her close-up on Nickelodeon comedy series
That Girl Lay Lay is the Houston teen rapper with more than 1 million Instagram followers. It also refers to her rapidly expanding brand that includes unicorn pendants, tracksuits and lip gloss. And now, it’s the name of her Nickelodeon series.
Lay Lay, whose real name is Alaya High, makes her sitcom debut at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 23 on “That Girl Lay Lay.” She plays an avatar inside a motivational app who magically comes to life after high school student Sadie (Gabrielle Nevaeh Green) wishes on a star. Broad comedy high jinks ensue.
Despite the striking confidence Lay Lay displays in her music videos, the thought of TV stardom made her nervous.
“My anxiety was through the roof,” she says. “There’s a bunch of great actresses and actors in the world. Everyone is gonna want to give you criticism.”
Connecting with her character, however, was the easy part.
“It’s the same. She is no different from how I talk, how I act, what dance moves I do, how I move my hands, my neck. It’s all the same. Lay Lay is not scared to step up to certain people in the show,” she says.
That sass is evident in the first episode. Lay Lay breaks out of Sadie’s phone and immediately launches into a rap. Once the literal smoke settles, she is intent on experiencing life as a teenager — in her own Lay Lay way, of course.
“Wanna make friendship bracelets? Make pizza bagels? Challenge crosstown rivals to a double Dutch contest?” she asks Sadie. “I wanna prank call a convent. I wanna play dress up. I wanna eat cheese out of a can. Hey, how old do you have to be to work a bulldozer?”
Lay Lay’s ultimate mission is to to motivate, and she soon convinces Sadie to run for freshman class president. As an actress, Lay Lay has a natural sense of comedic timing with a keen edge that makes her a
standout among sitcom kids.
She likens the show to some of her favorite sitcoms, including “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “That’s So Raven” and “Sister, Sister.” But there’s a unique quality on display, something she shares with Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion.
“You can ask (production) how many times they had to tell me how to say certain words because of my Houston twang. It just wasn’t working, and they would be like, ‘You’re country, for sure,’ ” Lay Lay says. “They would be like, ‘Just let her say it how she wants to say it.’ They don’t get that it’s hard to not talk like I’m from Houston.”
“That Girl Lay Lay” was created and executive produced by David A. Arnold (“Fuller House”). The first season runs for 13 episodes and is the first part of a larger deal that includes Lay Lay music and merchandise. Lay Lay also performs the show’s theme song. This is her first big acting gig, though she appeared on a recent episode of the superhero sitcom “Danger Force.”
“It was like four words, so it wasn’t that much,” she says. “I definitely still count it.”
“That Girl Lay Lay,” then, is the big payoff after past rejections that left her discouraged.
“I put so much time, I put so much effort into it. To get nothing out of it — oh, it crushed me,” she says. “What’s so funny is when I was on set, my TV show was (filming) next to something I auditioned for that I didn’t get.”
Her own music is still in play. She recently collaborated with Bun B and is working on a song with Jermaine Dupri and Young Dylan, Tyler Perry’s son and fellow Nickelodeon star.
Lay Lay recently saw the first episode and plans to host a watch party in Houston for the premiere. And she hopes it resonates with viewers like so many of her classic faves.
“I was trying not to cry ’cause I do not like to cry around people. It’s amazing to just see the hard work that you put into it. When you film it, you don’t know if it’s bad, so when you finally see it, it’s amazing,” she says. “When I watch my TV show, I want to feel the same way I feel when I watch ‘Sister, Sister.’ ”