Kayla Ewell is a survivor of the CW’s golden era of supernatural teen angst. She has that specific kind of Los Angeles energy that feels both high-octane and grounded, a byproduct of navigating a career that spans from the daytime melodrama of *The Bold and the Beautiful* to the high-stakes genre world of *The Vampire Diaries*. These days, she is holding court as Nora Truman on *Roswell, New Mexico* while balancing the chaotic reality of motherhood and a thriving podcast.
I caught up with Ewell during a rare quiet moment in her schedule. She has a way of speaking that suggests she is always three steps ahead of the conversation, a trait likely sharpened by years of pilot seasons and fast-paced sets. We got into the weeds about her career, her family and her surprisingly deep ties to the Great White North.
The conversation naturally turned to her husband, Tanner Novlan, a man whose Canadian roots have clearly rubbed off on her. Their origin story sounds like something pulled straight from a mid-2000s treatment, back when music videos were still the primary currency for young actors looking to break out.
"Tanner moved to L.A. over 10 years ago and he and I have been together for almost a decade. His mom’s American and his dad’s Canadian so he was living here with a green card and we met doing a music video for the Australian band Sick Puppies that was a top 40 hit called Maybe, which isn’t a very good omen for our marriage," she says, laughing at the irony of the title. "We really became friends first, texting back and forth and I had left my sunglasses on set and so did he, so he went to the makeup artist and grabbed mine too. He said 'I knew if I grabbed your sunglasses I’d get to see you again' and that led to our first lunch date and the rest is history."
But the "history" part of that equation recently involved the claustrophobic reality of a global pandemic. For a high-profile couple in Hollywood, the lockdown was less about red carpets and more about the raw, unpolished labour of parenting a toddler without the usual support systems.
"It’s been a huge transition for us, we have a new daughter who is 16 months old and going through both will drive you crazy!" Ewell admits. "It’s also been amazing because we can spend all of this time with her. We’re really making sure we’re cultivating her to be a good human being. Los Angeles doesn’t always have the culture to bring someone up to be a specific type of person but my husband and myself having small town backgrounds have certain values we want to uphold with raising her. Having said that, Tanner’s working on The Bold and the Beautiful every day, he and I are both working on Roswell, flying back and forth to Santa Fe so there’s a lot to juggle hence Grandma and Grandpa being here today. My parents are in Long Beach which is pretty close so they help too. I just realize it really takes a village and we have to utilize our village, especially right now."
That sense of isolation peaked during the holidays. For families used to the boisterous, crowded Christmases of the pre-COVID era, the shift to a three-person bubble was a stark reminder of how much the world had shrunk.
"It was so much fun, it was just Tanner, myself and our daughter Poppy because we were quarantined but typically we have big family Christmases. That was difficult, but Santa gave her a kitchen and she was obsessed with it and could not stop cooking. Seeing Christmas through a child’s eyes is so cliché and cheesy but it really is true, it changes you. It makes you want to be a better person, it makes the holidays better," she says.
The industry itself had to pivot in ways that felt like science fiction. Ewell found herself returning to the set of *The Bold and the Beautiful*, the show that gave her a start when she was just 17. But this time, she wasn't there as a contract player; she was there to help the production navigate social distancing rules by acting as her husband’s "intimacy double."
"That show was one of my very first jobs when I started out acting. It was a contract role for three years starting when I was 17 so that show really shaped who I am as an individual. It feels so lovely to come full circle and have my husband on the show in a contract role and to have them ask me to come back to the show to play his intimacy double is pretty interesting. It’s obviously unprecedented because we’ve never been through this in our lifetimes and it does give me an excuse to hang out on set and see all the old friends I had from so long ago. It is different because you have to stay six feet away and everyone has masks on so it’s not necessarily the same camaraderie, but it is really special and fun and really interesting how it all worked out."
Working on *Roswell, New Mexico* presented an even steeper set of logistical hurdles. Filming in Santa Fe meant navigating a gauntlet of travel restrictions and health protocols that stripped away the social glue that usually holds a production together.
"Since it’s filmed in Santa Fe New Mexico, you have to fly in a few days prior and get tested before you fly, tested after you arrive and quarantine in the hotel which isn’t ideal. Everything’s closed; it’s a lonely isolating experience. Once you’re on set, hair and makeup are in hazmat suits and so much of our industry is about spending time with people and the energy you feed off the other person and a lot of that has become a lot more difficult. When you’re off camera and reading with someone they have a mask covering half their face, so to read their expression becomes insanely difficult. It has become a completely different industry in my experience and it’s pretty isolating, you have to really love the art to continue to do it in this time."
And yet, there is a sense of continuity in her work. The "Plec-verse"—the creative ecosystem surrounding producer Julie Plec—has a way of keeping its players in the rotation. On *Roswell*, Ewell is surrounded by familiar faces from her days in Mystic Falls.
As an actor though, I have to say it’s really fun to play someone you’re not. I remember for Vampire Diaries, my character Vicki Donovan did a lot of drugs and my mom sat me down and said “Honey, I need to talk to you. Do we need to find you help, what’s happening?” and I said “Mom, this is the biggest compliment, you actually think I know what I’m doing on screen.”
"Absolutely, including behind the camera. Julie Plec is one of the creators of Roswell and she also executive produced Vampire Diaries. Carina MacKenzie works on it and also worked on the Originals which was a spin-off of Vampire Diaries and one of the stars of Roswell, Michael Trevino also was in The Vampire Diaries. Michael Trevino is one of my husband and mine’s best friends so it’s really fun to have a close friend like that, especially in these experiences where it is so isolating to have someone you can trust who you can say that you and I have both been tested, maybe we can take our masks off and feel normal for a minute. Our industry is so massive but then times like that it feels small and you end up feeling like family, I’m always so grateful for those times because there are many moments when you feel like a fish out of water."
It is impossible to talk to Ewell without acknowledging the massive, lingering shadow of *The Vampire Diaries*. The show has achieved a level of immortality on streaming platforms that most network dramas only dream of.
"I think so, vampires became such a huge obsession for a long time, Twilight was huge then, Vampire Diaries followed and True Blood. Tanner and I were talking about that the other day and how one of those shows becomes like a Melrose Place or the original 90210 where it sort of supersedes time. That show is now on Netflix and it’s bigger than ever. I think now because of COVID and quarantine we need that stimulation, we need to escape to another world and why not some fantastical world like that."
The show wasn't just a career milestone; it was a social incubator. Ewell lived with lead Nina Dobrev during the early days, and her friendship with Candice King has evolved into a business partnership.
"Everyone loves a Romeo and Juliet forbidden love story and that’s exactly what that is only told in a high school setting and let’s be honest, all of us want to redo high school so it was fun to be able to redo high school through the television. I lived with Nina Dobrev through the first season and it was fun. I think you really know someone when you live with them. Candice King and I now have our podcast together, she was in my wedding. I feel like I have really cultivated relationships from that show that will last a lifetime. We were all in our young twenties and I think you’re still learning who you are as an individual and so we were learning to grow together and I’ll always be so appreciative of that experience."
Their podcast, *Directionally Challenged*, was born from the kind of existential dread that hits every actor when the cameras stop rolling. It started as a raw conversation between friends and turned into a legitimate platform.
"We were sitting on Candice’s bathroom floor, feeling a little lost in life and genuinely wondering, what do we do next? We thought, we feel this way, I’m sure many other people feel this way too, so let’s just start recording it and if it fails, so what, we tried it and if it turns into something, great! I think there’s something really beneficial about feeling it’s ok to fail. Feeling like hey, if this doesn’t work out it’ll disappear and it’ll be fine. So we just kind of did that and now it did become something so it’s nice."
The show has since moved beyond simple lifestyle chat, tackling politics and social justice with guests like Virginia Senator Jennifer McClellan. It’s a pivot that reflects Ewell’s own evolution.
"I agree, we had Jennifer McClellan on recently who is a Virginia senator who is running for re-election and that was a fascinating conversation, someone who I never thought I’d interview in my lifetime and that is what this podcast has done. It’s interesting how free you feel when you admit you don’t have everything together and that’s exactly what we do on the podcast. We don’t know everything and we’re going to try and become better so let’s interview people who we think have their shit together and see if we can learn something from them. There’s a lovely local company that we just interviewed called The Valley of Change and they believe in equality and Black Lives Matter and they’re trying to make sure our world is a better place. We also have Paul Wesley on from The Vampire Diaries and he’s one of the Sexiest Men Alive in People Magazine this year so some episodes are really fun and some are a little more serious. All in all, it’s fun to do it with one of my best friends and learn and grow, especially during this pandemic and it’s something we can do from home. I had my baby during the podcast so to be a new mom and also to have a job was really great and Candice just had a new baby in quarantine so she feels the same way. We’re just having fun doing it, it’s really great. There are so many podcasts out there now, the market is really saturated so I’m glad we started when we did."
Despite her sunny disposition, Ewell has a knack for playing characters with a dark streak. Her portrayal of Vicki Donovan—a drug-addicted, troubled soul who became the first major casualty of *The Vampire Diaries*—was so convincing it actually worried her family.
"It’s really fun to play the villain but people are starting to think it’s who I am in person, and then they meet me and say whoa, you’re the opposite of the characters you play. As an actor though, I have to say it’s really fun to play someone you’re not. I remember for Vampire Diaries, my character Vicki Donovan did a lot of drugs and my mom sat me down and said 'Honey, I need to talk to you. Do we need to find you help, what’s happening?' and I said 'Mom, this is the biggest compliment, you actually think I know what I’m doing on screen.'"
Vicki’s death was a turning point for the series, but for Ewell, it was a difficult professional transition. She had to watch her friends continue on a hit show while she headed back to the audition circuit.
"I know, I blew up the whole town! Vicki Donovan the character dies in the book so I knew it was coming but didn’t know it was coming so soon. So when it happened it was really hard for me to transition to not being on the show anymore, to go through seeing it everywhere, all my best friends still on the show, having to move back home and then getting back to the grind of acting and figuring out what my next job was going to be, that was hard. Also at the time my mom was battling cancer so there was a lot going on at the time and that one year of my life was the one that shaped me the most as an individual, even more so than this past year in quarantine. You learn a lot about yourself when you go through hard times but I felt like Vicki Donovan was so vindicated in the end because so much shit happened to her on that show and in the end she got to burn the whole town down."
She eventually found levity in comedy, specifically in the series *Me and My Grandma*, where she held her own alongside the legendary Rhea Perlman.
"Thanks, I feel that comedy is so much fun and more my natural energy level. I love doing it so much more than drama, instead of crying your eyes out, you’re making people laugh. It’s a bit heightened, it’s a different type of acting but that show was so much fun to do and it was good for me because I hadn’t done a lot comedy, it was a good learning experience. Rhea Pearlman is so professional and it’s nice to meet someone and they live up to your expectations."
Her latest project, *Agent Revelation*, saw her diving into the world of sci-fi action, playing a role that was originally intended for a man. It’s the kind of industry shift that signals a broader change in how female characters are written.
"Agent Revelation is really fun because again, I had never done a lot of stunt work and combat fighting and this gave me that experience. Sci-Fi is such a fun genre to do, talk about escaping into a whole new world. Derek Ting is the writer and director and star, it’s such a passion project of his and it was a collaborative experience. My role of Billy was originally written for a male and I went in for a different role. When I left the room, I got a call and they said hey, this is really interesting, you’re not going to get that role but they really want to work with you so they’ve decided to change the male role into a female role. I thought that was such a high compliment and so cool, especially right now there’s so many people standing up for what they believe in with equal rights so what a great way to honour that. Hence the character Billy was born and I made her this junk food eating, techie, weird funky girl and it was so much fun to play."
The film also gave her the chance to work with Michael Dorn, a titan of the genre.
"Another pro, all of his dialogue was expositional, meaning it explains the story and as an actor that’s quite possibly the hardest dialogue to deliver. He is such a pro, it just falls out of his mouth, he makes you as an audience understand what’s going on and that is really hard to do. I just respect him so much, he’s just classic. And also when promoting the movie right now he’s taking it on and making it his own. I just really respect actors like that who if they commit to a project they’re going to do everything they can to make it successful."
Finally, we circled back to her Canadian connection. Her husband Tanner recently appeared on the cult hit *Letterkenny*, a show that has become a touchstone for Canadian humour.
"Oh, yeah, before Tanner was on the show! I think that show is genius and for whatever reason for a while it wasn’t getting all that much traction and then they put it on HULU and now it’s everywhere. My brother was watching the show not knowing that Tanner was on it and Face Timed us and said, what the heck, you’re on my favourite show! Hats off to those gentlemen and their writing, they know what they’re doing and it’s brilliant."
As for the hockey? Ewell is a full-blown convert, though international play still tests the household peace.
"Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t be allowed to live in this household if I didn’t watch hockey. My brother played college soccer and I found a lot of similarities when I first started watching hockey. Jerry Bruckheimer has a weekly pickup hockey game with some really good actors like Cuba Gooding Jr. and all these fantastic people and it’s a tight knit group of guys and you can go watch them, so I really fell in love with hockey watching my husband play. Now I’m a huge Kings fan, we love The Kings and obviously The Oilers as well because he’s from Edmonton. The only time we’re not together on hockey is during The Olympics. I’m going to go Team USA and he’s going to go Team Canada.
