Baye McPherson is, in many ways, a typical 13-year-old. She loves horseback riding, Marvel movies and curling up with a good book, as well as spending time with friends on the weekend. However, since joining the cast of the CBC family comedy-drama series Heartland last summer in the role of Katie (daughter of Lou), Baye’s life has been anything but ordinary.

“It’s an absolute thrill being on set,” says Baye, a grade 8 student at Vista Virtual School. “I still sometimes can’t believe it when I’m there. I could never take this for granted.”

For the young Calgary native, the acting bug was planted early on by her mother, a professional actress and acting coach, and her 17-year-old sister who plans to take a year after graduation to seek out acting work in Vancouver. After starting acting four years ago, Baye quickly found herself an agent and began seeking out roles, while also seeking out training opportunities in Vancouver and Los Angeles as well as locally.

“I fell in love with acting from the moment I started doing it,” she explains.

“The fact that both my mom and my sister are also actresses has really helped me navigate the industry. This role (with Heartland) has been a great opportunity for me to launch my career.”

Like many current VVS students, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that precipitated her move to full-time distance learning two years ago as a grade 6 student at Rideau Park School in Calgary. However, the structure of VVS’ distance learning has proven particularly beneficial to Baye when her life suddenly became more complicated.

These days, Baye is extremely busy. In addition to her burgeoning acting career and her studies, she is active in numerous extracurricular activities, including dance classes, playing drums and piano and horseback riding. She also takes every opportunity to further hone her craft through acting classes and regularly takes part in auditions, which she says can range between none for months to as many as three in a week.

When filming for Heartland is underway, hers is a typically full-time job. While the show’s setting is conveniently located an hour outside of Calgary, days on set are usually nine hours long (plus commute time), which includes hair and makeup. In the times when filming coincides with the school year, Baye is supported by an on-set tutor who helps her with schoolwork during breaks from filming.

Baye expresses gratitude to VVS for providing her with the flexibility that her growing career requires.

“VVS has really helped me out with my filming schedule and allowed me to plan ahead,” she asserts.

“Distance learning was a challenge at first because there are so many distractions while you’re working in the house. But it was nice having my sister doing it as well; we can call each other out when we’re getting distracted. For sure I miss seeing people my age all the time, but I have some close friends that I try to see every week.”

“My teachers all reached out to me early on and told me about how the courses worked, and how to do everything,” she adds. “Anytime I had questions, my teachers were very quick to answer. It was super stressful for me as a grade 7 student figuring out how to navigate final exams online, but I had a lot of support.”

Baye’s recommendation to VVS is that the school help facilitate more opportunities for students to connect with one another, something she feels is lacking.

“You don’t really get a chance to communicate with other students,” she says.

“There was an attempt at one point to start student clubs and I joined the Marvel club, but there was only one other student that joined it. If the school could make it possible to connect with other students socially, that would be great. It would be nice to be able to study with other students, share class notes, and so on.”

Her advice to an incoming VVS student?

“It pays to get ahead. The teachers give you a timeline but it’s easy to fall behind if you lose focus. If you get ahead, it makes everything way easier. Also, take as many notes as possible. What I do is if there’s something I think is tricky to remember, I always take notes and section it off for each different course and unit. Also, it helps to keep all your assignments in a folder so you can look back at them.”

With high school not far away, Baye is unsure what her future holds but is determined to continue pursuing her passion for acting through high school and beyond as a full-time career. She says she’s open to all kinds of roles, that she would love to be in a period piece, and that being in a Marvel movie would be a dream come true.

“I love acting and it’s what I want to do,” she says. “I’m very fortunate to know what I want to do with my life. I plan on pursuing it full-time as soon as I can.”