Collazo shot the pilot in Vancouver in late 2019 before COVID brought all productions to a screeching halt. It would be almost a year and a half until filming resumed in

New Zealand, but Collazo took that time to really sit with Maeve. She journaled as the character, made Pinterest boards, and put together playlists. But a lot was still unknown about Maeve’s arc. In the book, Maeve is very much a side character, but Collazo was told early on that her role would be much bigger in the show. “I just knew there would be changes to expand on my character,” she tells me. “I had theories, but I had no idea where they were going to go with her. So it was really scary because I was like, ‘What if I have all of these ideas and they take it in a completely different direction?’” Lucky for Collazo, all of the prep work paid off. “I swear I stepped into New Zealand, and once I got my haircut and my costume fitting, I was like, ‘Maeve’s back. We’re good,’” she adds.

Rich character development is a Collazo specialty. In fact, the more challenging a role is, the better. Although she is still early in her professional career, the 21-year-old has been in front of a camera for most of her life. She grew up on news sets with her parents (her mother was the news director at the Latin American station Telemundo) and landed her first gig at age 5 when an entertainment reporter called out sick. She led kid-friendly news segments until she was about 12. At that point, she was inspired by Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana to pursue acting seriously. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she gets to live a double life. If Hannah Montana can do it, then so can I.’” She got her first agent at 16 and started booking jobs shortly after: a small part on Stranger Things followed by a role in the short-lived TV series Swamp Thing and last year’s horror comedy Freaky.