Hayley Orrantia

Hayley Orrantia was an American actress who was best known for playing Erica Goldberg on the hit ABC sitcom "The Goldbergs" (ABC, 2013- ). Born in Arlington, Texas and raised in Grand Prairie, Orrantia had the drive to sing, perform and act at a very young age. Being a precocious child, she even managed to convince her parents to allow being homeschooled so that she could devote her time to playing music and acting. Orrantia began singing at the age of 9, and by 13 she was writing her own songs. The following year, when she was only 14, Orrantia released her first album, which consisted mostly of covers of popular songs. With her music career in full swing, Orrantia also soon started acting. She quickly started appearing in TV commercials, while also auditioning for roles on TV shows and in films. Then in 2011, on a whim, Orrantia sent in a YouTube audition to the music competition show "The X Factor" (Fox, 2011-13). The judges, headed by the callous Simon Cowell, loved it, and brought Orrantia on to compete on the show. According to Cowell, Orrantia didn't have the stuff to make it as a solo star, so he paired her up with several other young girls to form the country-pop girl group Lakoda Rayne. The judges, however, eliminated the group during the fifth week of competition. Undeterred, Orrantia continued auditioning for film and TV parts, and in 2013 she landed her biggest break to date when she was cast on the ABC sitcom "The Goldbergs." In 2016, with "The Goldbergs" already in its fourth season, Orrantia was pulling double acting duties by also appearing on the YouTube comedy series "Roommates" (YouTube, 2016). That series, which was available only on the video-sharing website, premiered in late 2016.