If you're obsessed with Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin like me, then you know the iconic Maia Reficco. The 22-year-old plays Noa Olivar, a high school track star who recently got out of juvie, and she's an absolute delight to watch.
Most recently, Reficco appeared in the Netflix teen comedy movie Do Revenge — starring Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke — as the character Montana. If you haven't seen the film yet, you're missing out.
And she's just getting started! Here are 13 facts to know about Maia Reficco:
🚨 Minor "Pretty Little Liars" (OG and "Original Sin") spoilers ahead!!! 🚨
1. First off, she's the first Latine Liar in the Pretty Little Liars franchise.
Reficco is Argentinian. She was born in Boston, but grew up in Buenos Aires and speaks fluent Spanish. "Honestly, as a Latina and as a first Latina Liar ever, I think for me, my biggest priority was to represent my people and the stories that we're telling in the most accurate, responsible, and respectful way I could," she said in an interview with People.
Reficco has also opened up about the difficulties she's faced in the industry as a Latine actor. "When I’m in the U.S., I definitely do feel less welcomed," she said in an interview with Refinery29. "Speaking in Spanish almost feels like a political decision sometimes, which is really heartbreaking. Life here in the U.S. — honestly, it is harder. I’m having to justify my life, and my existence, and why I’m here so many times a day."
2. She's bisexual. When a fan asked if her character Noa was bi, Reficco responded: "Idk about Noa but I sure as hell am."
idk about noa but i sure as hell am https://t.co/EsMZI962ts
In fact, OG Pretty Little Liars character Emily Fields (played by Shay Mitchell) had a big impact on Reficco's personal coming out journey. "I'm bisexual, so Emily was also very important in my coming to terms with everything," Reficco explained in an interview with Teen Vogue.
3. She describes Lucy Hale — who played Aria Montgomery on the OG Pretty Little Liars — as her first "girl crush."
"I had a girl crush on [Aria]; she was like the first girl I liked," Reficco told BuzzFeed. "I was like, 'Am I gay?' Then I took a BuzzFeed quiz and realized I was."
4. She's also a total super-fan of the original Pretty Little Liars in general.
"I was such a huge fan! I loved it. I was obsessed with Lucy [Hale]. I was obsessed with Aria. I was obsessed with Hanna and Caleb. I was obsessed with Emily. I was obsessed with all of them," Reficco gushed in an interview with StyleCaster.
She further explained in an interview with Glamour: "This show meant so much to me. I grew up in Argentina, but I was born [in the U.S.] so I connected to this country through shows like Pretty Little Liars. I lost it when I got the part. I literally couldn’t keep myself together. At all."
When Reficco was a teenager, she used to be a big fan of Aria and Ezra's relationship — she even wrote "Ezria" on her bed with white nail polish. However, she definitely doesn't support the student-teacher pairing now. "It was a couple that now in hindsight I don’t support anymore," she told StyleCaster. "But as an impressionable viewer, I was a 13/14-year-old kid who was buying into the narrative I was being fed. Understanding what I was supporting, I now obviously don’t agree with it at all."
5. In fact, she's such a big fan of Pretty Little Liars that she even asked to visit the Warner Bros. set for her birthday one year.
"For my birthday, I asked to go to the Warner Bros. lot [where Pretty Little Liars filmed]," she said in an interview with StyleCaster. "And I live in Argentina — that was not an easy thing.”
6. She actually messed up during her Pretty Little Liars audition — but her mistake ended up paying off.
"It was funny because what they liked about my audition is that I forgot to edit a part out where I messed up," Reficco revealed in an interview with Glamour. "I was like, 'Ergh, no! I messed up!' But executive producers Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring said, 'That’s when we saw Noa.'"
7. In addition to acting, she's also a talented singer and musician. In fact, she's literally been playing music her whole life.
"My mom’s a singer so I was always surrounded by music," Reficco said in an interview with Tmrw Magazine. "My godfather, he’s a piano player. He literally sat me on the piano bench the second I could do it, so I was 2 years old and already starting to play the piano because I was just surrounded by music."
8. She's an athlete like her character Noa. While Noa is a track star, Reficco is a gymnast.
Her gymnastics skills definitely came in handy while filming Original Sin, especially for an intense chase sequence in Episode 4. "That was so exciting," Reficco said of the scene in an interview with TVLine. "I remember Lisa Soper, our director for that episode — and for episodes 1, 2, 5 and 10 — coming up to me and saying, 'This is your moment. Enjoy it.' I started sobbing, because it was such a surreal, pinch-me moment."
You can watch the full scene below:
View this video on YouTube
9. Speaking of sobbing — despite playing a tough, fearless character like Noa, Reficco admitted that she's actually a big crier in real life.
Reficco revealed that she and Bailee Madison (who plays Imogen on Original Sin) almost cried on the first day of rehearsals when the producers showed them the blueprints for the OG Pretty Little Liars locations. She and her cast-mates agreed that her and Madison are the biggest criers out of the group.
10. Prior to Original Sin, she starred on the Nickelodeon Latin America series Kally's Mashup.
Reficco even performed at the Kids' Choice Awards Mexico in 2018, where she sang "World’s Collide" and "Unísono" with her Mashup co-stars.
11. She's also been on Broadway. Most recently, Reficco starred as young Eva Perón in the New York City Center's production of Evita alongside Solea Pfeiffer (who played Eliza in the first national tour of Hamilton).
"That was such a dream come true," Reficco spoke about the role in an interview with Tmrw Magazine. "That was one of the most surreal moments of my whole life. As an Argentinian performer who grew up in theatre, that is quite literally just the dream. ... It changed my life because that’s how I started working here. I don’t know, it truly was everything I could have ever asked for. It inspired me. I learned so much from it."
Reficco added that she would love to get back to Broadway someday and revealed that her dream role would be Wendla Bergmann in Spring Awakening.
12. She has an album coming out soon!
fun fact my album is all in english & @MaliaPyles @ChandlerLKinney and @JordanLGonzalez were my focus group
👀 👀
13. And finally, she loves every single Noa ship on Original Sin 🤗.
YALL I LOVE THAT U SHIP NOA W EVERYONE LMAO😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
You can stream Do Revenge on Netflix and all of Season 1 of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin on HBO Max now!
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