LIHUE — Natlee made her first appearance in Hawaii Saturday on the Nickelodeon channel. She was appearing in the first of six episodes which will be aired this year as part of the “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn” television series.
LIHUE — Natlee made her first appearance in Hawaii Saturday on the Nickelodeon channel.
She was appearing in the first of six episodes which will be aired this year as part of the “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn” television series.
“You don’t act the part,” said Siena Agudong, a vivacious and energetic sixth-grade student at Island School. “You become the person. It’s not acting, it’s kind of like morphing into the person. You’re nervous, yes. But you use that nervousness to become the person.”
Siena plays Natlee in the television series which has already had two episodes air, starting in 2015.
There are four more episodes coming up, Siena said. In each one, Natlee has longer and longer parts.
Agudong also landed a role as a student in “Teachers,” another television series which will be airing shortly on TVland, demonstrating her ability to become characters in more sophisticated adult situation portrayals. Those episodes include “Kid in a Ceiling” and “Last Day.”
Siena first made her television appearance in 2014 when she landed a part on the Killer Women television series, which aired on the ABC network, said her mother, Karen Agudong. She had six of the eight episodes filmed that year, portraying Lulu Parker on the show.
That was young Siena’s introduction to life in front of the lights and television cameras. She started acting when she was about five years old.
“Three years ago, my sister and I got to go to Los Angeles after attending a workshop here and we were involved in pilot season where the writers come up with different pilots,” she said. “We were part of the pilot auditions, and it was fun to get the scripts from the writers because you just did not know what they would come up with. It was fun to go through the different genre of characters and situations.”
Siena and her older sister, Sydney, started out as child beauty queens, their mother said.
“I was inspired by my sister who started performing in plays,” Siena said. “I longed to be like her, and when Susie Mains of Trilogy Talent came to Kauai to do a workshop, we talked about it before my mother said to ‘go for it.’”
Karen said Mains met both girls and encouraged them to visit Los Angeles where she set up interviews for them with AEFH Talent.
“It all started from there,” Karen said. “Siena booked her first pilot for ABC in the spring of 2013. She was featured in the Huffington Post in 2013 as one of the ‘16 Most Adorable Child Stars of TV’s 2013-2014 season,’ and in 2015, she was nominated for ‘Best Performance in a TV Series — Recurring Young Actress age 10 or younger” at the Young Artist Awards in Los Angeles.”
When she was 7, Siena won a pageant on Kauai.
“This was really good for me,” Siena said. “Participating in the pageant boosted my self confidence and it made me better as a stage speaker. This helped me a lot, especially in school when we had to do school projects.”
Being a television star is hard work, Siena said.
“You sacrifice a lot, and you need to be committed,” said Siena, who is preparing to leave for Los Angeles for this year’s pilot season from January through the end of February.
“You keep working,” Siena said of her advice to aspiring young children. “Believe in yourself, and your dreams. You will get it.”
