Maya Boyd settles in for a video call after a minute or so of figuring out how to turn on her phone camera. It’s hard not to notice the rock band–esque black T-shirt she says she’s wearing for the first time, intentionally for this interview. It’s adorned with a woman’s face detailed with heavy black eye makeup and eyelashes decorated with sequins. It looks like it could have been purchased at an A-lister’s concert — only she actually has no idea whose face it is because she thrifted the shirt.

“I loved the detailing — that’s what drew me to this shirt,” the actress tells Broadway Direct, noting she’d love to do a photo shoot in it. A quick Google search reveals the shirt is actually haute couture from Chanel’s 2021–2022 Cruise Collection.

For the past two months, Boyd has been starring in her first leading role: as Juliet in & Juliet on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Not only that, she’s been doing double, duty finishing up her last semester of college at the University of Michigan. Boyd spent the better half of her senior year in the ensemble of Merrily We Roll Along, an impressive feat for someone who initially had no idea that a career in musical theater was even an option.

“I truly found my calling that I didn’t know I ever saw myself doing before, and it just clicked,” she says of marking her second Broadway credit in the musical that flips the script on the classic tale of Romeo & Juliet. It examines what might have happened if Juliet had a second chance at life and love, and is paired with a crowd-pleasing Max Martin pop score.

Boyd, a twin, grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in a large family of seven who all have careers outside of the performing arts. Her parents are both doctors: Mom is a pediatric cardiologist and Dad is a plastic surgeon. Her three older sisters danced, and as many impressionable kids do, she wanted to follow in their footsteps. Her sister Christian, who choreographed numerous dance solos, “saw the potential in me for dance before anyone else really did,” Boyd says of why her mom signed her up for Russian classical ballet classes from 11 years old through her senior year of high school.

She took a handful summer intensives, including at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, San Francisco Ballet, and the Indiana Ballet Conservatory. As Boyd got more serious about ballet, her mom started warming up to the idea that she might take the leap to become a professional ballerina and not go to college like her older sisters did.

“I told myself I’m either gonna have to stop doing ballet and be a doctor, because that’s what I would have gone to school for if I hadn’t found musical theater. I was really struggling with that my senior year. I really thought [ballet] would be my future. It was a hard thing because all my sisters who danced, did visual arts, or played instruments stopped to pursue something pragmatic.” One sister is now a software engineer, another works in marketing at Google, and her oldest sister has her master’s in art research. Boyd’s twin sister is still in school for interdisciplinary arts after taking a gap year.

It was one of her older sister’s friends who suggested Boyd apply to the University of Michigan’s musical theater program — right in her own hometown. Boyd had sung karaoke (her go-to is “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Etta James) but had never even performed in a musical before; she’d only gone with her family or school to see shows such as The Lion King or Hamilton.

Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party was the first musical Boyd ever performed in, during her sophomore year of college. She played Nadine. Hair, Sophisticated Ladies, and RENT followed with roles in the ensemble.

In May of her junior year, Boyd signed with an agent, who got her an audition for Merrily We Roll Along as it was headed to Broadway.

She booked it. There was only one problem: She was still in school and had one more year to go.

“I made sure that I could finish school too,” she says of accepting the job in the ensemble of Merrily while understudying Gussie, Meg, the Waitress/Claudia, and KT. When rehearsals started in August 2023, Boyd was entering her senior year. The good news was she didn’t have many credits left and her advisors let her finish remotely.

“There were a good couple moments when I was at work and in class at the same time,” Boyd says, noting that it was thanks to the flexibility of her professors who helped her make this dual schedule realistic.

At the first preview at the Hudson Theatre, her parents were in the audience to cheer her on.

“It was very surreal and affirming that I can do this,” she says of making her Broadway debut and first professional job. She went on for Meg and the Waitress a few times during the run.

With stars Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez leading the cast of Merrily, Boyd was able to learn so much from watching them from the wings. She saw Groff celebrate the start of the overture with a dance party before he went on stage. Or, at the end of the show, Groff would exit through the same wing she was to enter from and he would give her a hug or dance before she went on to take her bow.

“I learned how to be a professional,” she says with a chuckle. “They all have their different ways of getting to where they need to be, and witnessing their preparation and how they live on stage has been so insightful. What it taught me was that there is no one way to do something. Storytelling can be very personalized, and how you become your character and tell a story.”

While in Merrily, Boyd got another call to audition for the title role in & Juliet to replace Lorna Courtney, who was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal.

“There’s no way!” was her reaction when she got the part — and she still hadn’t finished senior year yet! She joined the company in mid-May and was even able to fly home for graduation.

“Being here and leading a show wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t allow myself to change gears and do something else.” she says. “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made!”

Boyd says her time in Merrily was well spent, as it taught her how to lead a company. Two months into the role, she’s settled into the character. “Juliet is desirable. She’s a little awkward. She tries her best. She’s so giving and she’s loving. She has a cool side — she’s dancing hip-hop,” Boyd says of her interpretation. She’s even found a moment backstage to lean into her own dance-party rituals with castmates just like Groff did.

But she’s still learning the ropes. “There are still things I have to get better at, like how do I talk to the audience? Those kinds of things I might have to do in the fall that I might have to practice and gear myself up toward,” she says about the possibility of making curtain-call speeches, especially during fundraising season.

Boyd hopes her place on stage sets an example for people who didn’t necessarily grow up doing musical theater.

“It’s been fantastic, more regarding the impact that I seem to have on little girls who I see at the stage door,” she says. “To be inspiring to them is such a lovely thing to feel.”