Naya Rivera and Ryan Dorsey’s 10-year-old son, Josey Dorsey, is ready for his close-up. The young star has landed his first role in the upcoming drama, The Burning Valley, alongside his dad.
Josey will play Ryan’s on-screen son in the film, which follows a steelworker who loses his job when the mill where he works shuts down.
While he may be new to the big screen, Josey already has several years of acting experience under his belt. He made his theater debut at 8 and has since appeared in several productions with the Children’s Theatre of Charleston in West Virginia.
The young actor has also joined Fairy Boy, a coming-of-age film directed by Julia Fox.
Josey was already showing an interest in acting several years ago. In 2023, Ryan revealed that his then-7-year-old was talking about getting in front of the camera.
“He wants a YouTube channel, and he wants to make videos,” Ryan told E! News at the time. “He wants to do Batman scenes where he’s Batman and I’m the Joker.”
At the time, Ryan was focused on giving his son a happy childhood and supporting his interests.
“I’m doing the best I can,” Ryan told Entertainment Tonightthat same year. “He’s, overall, a happy kid and I’m trying to keep it together and provide a safe and happy life for him. He’s doing really well in school and he has a lot of friends. He’s such a social kid. Everybody loves Josey and he’s funny.”
Josey’s mom, Naya Rivera, died in July 2020 after drowning during a boating trip with him at California’s Lake Piru. He was 4 years old at the time and was later found alone on the boat.
Ryan has made an effort to keep Naya’s memory alive for their son. During a 2025 interview with Good Morning America, he shared that Josey was taking piano lessons and connected the activity back to his mom.
“I’m grateful that he has memories of his mom still,” Dorsey told Good Morning America in 2025. “And luckily, his mother was on television, so she’s gonna live [on] forever.”
Discussion about this post