EXCLUSIVEHollywood's Next Big Star: Kynlee Heiman, 8, Aiming for Disney Role After Starring in 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever'
Kynlee Heiman stars as Gladys Herman in 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.'
The holidays are here and so is Hollywood's next big star — Kynlee Heiman!
At age 8, the young actress is starring in her first feature film, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which hits theaters on Friday, November 8.
Kynlee Heiman is an 8-year-old actress, gymnast and pageant queen.
During an exclusive chat with OK!, Heiman gushes over her "new Christmas movie," which she was "so excited to see." Her role seemed like the perfect fit, as she is a pageant queen in real life! Although, Heiman says this only "kind of helps," because the imperfect pageant her character, Gladys, crashes with the help of her siblings in the film isn't like any of the ones she's won in the past.
What does help, however, is that Christmas is her "favorite holiday."
'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' hits theaters on Friday, November 8.
"I love everything about it. I love that it's Jesus' birthday. I love the songs. I love everything," Heiman, who enjoyed forming friendships with her costar and on-screen sister Beatrice Schneider during filming, says.
While memorizing lines as an 8-year-old might seem tough, Heiman's hard work ethic and confidence makes things easy.
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Kynlee Heiman wants to be on Disney.
"I [sometimes] get a tiny bit nervous [when filming], but not really. You just have to be in the moment, feel the scene, [and] pretend like it's actually happening," the Red Lilies star — who also is a competitive gymnast in addition to being a top pageant queen — explains.
As a fellow child star, Heiman's favorite celebrity is Selena Gomez, who she hopes to meet some day. And as a gymnast, the multi-talented actress is also a big fan of Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Nastia Liukin.
Kynlee Heiman also has dreams of being in the Olympics one day!
With Gomez as an idol, Heiman also has big dreams of landing a television or movie role at Disney.
After visiting Disney World "many, many times," Heiman — whose favorite character is Princess Ariel — says she would ideally love to be in a recurring role on a TV series at the company if she could chose where she would act next.
"God gave me gifts and I want to show them [because] he gave me lots," the Family Ornaments actress declares. "Some of them are pageants, some of them are gymnastics, some of them are acting, and I just have to let those moments shine."
Kynlee's mom, Angel, tells OK! she "believes in" her daughter when it comes to becoming Hollywood's next big star.
"She's amazing and she's talented and, you know, at home she's just a regular kid [who] fights with her brothers or competes with them, and I think she just believes [she can do it] with all of her heart," Angel shares. "I weirdly remember [her saying], 'Oh, at 7 years old I'm going to have 1 million followers.' I don't know if it's God or why, but then she got 1 million followers. She'll probably be at the Olympics [some day]."
