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At what age do we start keeping secrets? We all have them, but rarely do we remember the very first secret we kept, or the moment when we became self-aware enough to have one of our own. Secrets are inherently human, a representation of the complexities of morality and free will, constructs which are only known to us as people. For young actor Zaria, secrets are what make a character worthwhile, “I always look for a female character that has a secret,” she explains. “I try to avoid any flat female character, because I just think humans are so dynamic. And us as women, we are just now starting to get these characters that are rich.”

Without question, Zaria has found this character quality in her upcoming HBO Max reboot project, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. “I had the secret thing before I got Pretty Little Liars and now I’m thinking it’s just so fitting,” she laughs. “It’s like I manifested it or something.” Featuring an entirely new set of Liars in an entirely new town, the show leans into the horror aspects of the Pretty Little Liars, universe in a way that audiences haven’t seen before. In addition, the series explores the relationships between parent and child on a deeper level than the original, bringing the adults—notably the mothers—into the heart of the mystery. “I don’t think I personally have ever seen such a storyline that connects the mother daughter bond,” Zaria considers. “And I thought it was an ingenious way of keeping the story about women. It gives our mother characters the ability to be more than just a mother—not to say ‘just’ as a demeaning term—but giving them the dynamic of being a whole human who gave birth to a separate, whole human—giving them their own secrets.”

Zaria plays Faran, a young ballerina who dreams of making it out of her small town while struggling to deal with the barriers and prejudice that is so ingrained within the world of ballet. “I spent more time exploring that and exploring what it meant for her to be a Black ballerina,” she shares. “She’s a bit different than the girls, and she’s dealing with something that is her secret. But she prides herself in not asking for help. And I think we’re different in that way. I think it’s a beautiful thing to ask for help because, you know, that’s the only way to live—to live in community. Everyone needs help sometimes.”

Zaria exudes an infectious, calm confidence that is unexpected for an actress still so young in her career. Perhaps it comes from her years of speech and debate training, or maybe it’s that she has been practicing her crafts since she was a child. The actor, writer, songwriter, dancer, abstract painter, and sculptor is a rising star, proof that we all can find the time to pick up a new hobby—it’s just a matter of deciding to do it. “It’s hard to say which one came first,” Zaria says of her different artistic outlets. “My best friend in high school—she’s still my best friend to date, actually—she was using poetry as an outlet, just in her phone. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna try that.’ To this day, if I’m thinking about, you know, what we just witnessed in the Supreme Court, I take to my phone to write because it’s such a release for me. So I think that came first.”

There is a certain weight in stepping into a universe that has already been built and extolled like Pretty Little Liars, not to mention one with such a well-established following. For some, this weight comes in the form of an anxiety-inducing pressure, but for Zaria, there is only excitement. “I’m honored to be able to step into a fandom,” she says with a smile, “to step into an already revered piece of art, because I think the most inspiring part of art is that it inspires more art. It’s really exciting to be able to take up that mantle for people that worked so hard on a series that people loved. So maybe I’m a bit too naive to be scared yet, but I’m really excited.”

In many ways, this project is a first for the young actress, considering that, on a bigger scale, it’s the first time Zaria will be featured on a series in a leading role. Yet on a smaller scale, it was the first time she saw a headshot of herself hung up in her trailer—a reminder of the newfound scale of this moment in her career. “I had never seen my headshot up on the hair and makeup room,” she recounts. “It was so beautiful to look up and be like, ‘That’s me.’ That’s such a magical feeling.”