Jayla Neal was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a toddler, she moved to California, and shortly after that, Coconut Creek, Florida, where she grew up for the next ten years and got her first camera, a disposable Kodak. Though Jayla often had a change of scenery, the one thing that remained the same was her love for cameras as her family moved to where she currently lives, Columbus, Ohio. As the years passed, she created YouTube videos and did photography, yet she still didn’t know what she wanted to pursue until she saw Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, which opened up a whole new world and finally answered the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She then enrolled in a 2-year career technical Interactive Media program during her final years of high school and produced, directed, and wrote for various infomercials, short films, and animations. At Ohio University’s School of Film, Jayla is looking forward to learning more about the process of filmmaking and hopes pursuing higher education will help her achieve her goal of becoming a director one day.