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Merit Leighton's K-pop obsession is *so* #relatable
We're always stoked for Fridays, but this week we're especially antsy to get to the weekend. Why? Tomorrow Netflix drops Alexa & Katie, a new show about a teen dealing with cancer as she starts her freshman year of high school.
The show stars Paris Berelc (Alexa), Jack Griffo (Dylan), Isabel May (Katie), Emery Kelly (Lucas) and the delightfully enthuastiac and kind Merit Leighton as Alexa's friend, Hannah.
Merit has been a voice actress for years (you might know her as Lucinda the Witch on Disney's Sofia the First!). "Voiceover is different because you can be anyone or anything. You can be a fish or a tree or a little witch—anything you want to be. And you can use your body and your face to change how your voice sounds. I've heard people put cotton balls in their mouths to change the sound of the voice...and you definitely can't do that on camera!"
When asked on what her dream voice-acting gig would be, Merit revealed her passion for japanese culture. "I would love to do an english dub of an anime," she said. After that? Possibly even one in Japanese once she gets fluent! This girl has been studying Japanese for a *year*—that's some serious dedication.
"I have always wanted to travel to Japan since I was a little kid. I want to travel to Korea, China—just travel around Asia in general."
Merit is so passionate about Japanese culture that she even has a YouTube channel called, KawaiiHappii (kawaii is Japan's culture of cute). The channel is about topics such as, anime, video games and K-pop.
"I love K-pop because of how beautiful the music videos are, how humble and talented the people that are in K-pop groups are and how catchy the songs are." Her favorite groups? EXO and Red Velvet. Peep her reaction video to EXO's music video "Ko Ko Bop." This girl is a die-hard fan!
Catch Merit in Alexa & Katie when it drops on Netflix March 23!
What is something that you are passionate about and why? Let us know in the comment section below!
Photo credit: Brett Erickson
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