Reesa Ishiyama

Reesa Marie Ishiyama was born in Yokohama, Japan. She is the eldest of two daughters to Takeshi and Dianna Ball-Ishiyama. Both Dianna and Takeshi Ishiyama have established carreers in professional Musical Theater in Japan, icluding performances in musicals such as, “Les Miserables,” “West Side Story,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Annie,” “Anything Goes,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Jekyll and Hyde” and many others. Influenced by her parent’s love of the performing arts, Reesa was exposed to music, dance, and acting from the moment she was conceived. In fact, her mother Dianna performed in “The Phantom of the Opera” until she was 8 months pregnant with Reesa. Reesa started performing in front of audiences at the age of 3 and has been in various TV Commercials in Japan. She has also worked in children’s educational media, including English and Japanese language educational DVD’s and vocal recordings. Her first professional stage performance was at the age of 7, when she performed onstage with the “Nakamura Seiichi Jazz Quintet,” singing a jazz version of “I Could have Danced All Night.” Her professional Musical Theater debut was at age 12 when she was cast in the musical “Annie” in Tokyo. Out of ten-thousand children who auditioned, she was selected to join the cast of 28 children. She was also selected to be one of 4 ”Annie” cast members featured in a reality documentary television program following the show titled “The Making of Annie.”

Reesa continued performing in numerous professional productions until she met “The Young Americans” in 2006. At that time Reesa was performing in a professional children’s production of “The Fall of Freddie the Leaf” when she picked up a flyer in the lobby of the theater announcing the next show at that venue. The following show was “The Young Americans ”Tribute” show.” She saw the Young Americans perform at the Yokohama Minatomirai Theatre, one of most prestigious theaters in Japan the following week. Watching that performance changed her life. She auditioned for the Young Americans and moved to the U.S. in 2008. She toured and performed with the Young Americans for 3 years, including National and International tours to Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Japan. From 2010 Reesa began performing in TV and Film in the U.S. In 2012, she moved to LA to pursue her career, performing in various venues including Disneyland, TV, film and Musical Theater. She aspires to one day perform in a Broadway show in New York as well.