“I’m just a regular degular shmegular filmmaker making content for humanity"

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Kayla “Kay” Bennett was a bashful and clever fibber growing up. She gained her storytelling skills by analyzing bystanders and creating stories for her younger siblings for their entertainment as her parents completed chores and shopped.

In high school, Kayla was given a digital camera and her love of storytelling evolved when she casted her classmates on her Facebook series, “Caught While Sleeping”. In the beginning years of Facebook, she personalized memes and short-form videos before it became trendy. Unaware of how to make a career of her quirky talents that didn’t make her a favorite person in the graduating class of 2011, Kayla was sent to Los Angeles, California to attend film school.  

She got in one little fight and her grandmother got scared and said "You're moving with my mama in South LA”

Kay graduated in 2015 from the Art Institute of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science in Digital Filmmaking and Video Production. She worked as the lead assistant editor for a cannabis media start up called PROHBTD (Prohibited). In this position, she was the first and last person to have hands on a project working as the Digital Image Technician and even doubling as camera operator on set as well as the person doing the final quality control feedback before uploading to their website and on streaming platforms. Kay only spent three years at PROHBTD but it was beneficial for her learning the power of social media.

In 2025, Kay finally decided to return home to Cleveland, Ohio after spending almost ten years with Sanctuary of Hope, a youth development organization as the communications and digital media coordinator, in which her duties are creating content to tell the story of at-promise youth from South Los Angeles. Since May 2015, she’s raised over $500,000 for the nonprofit through her content creations.