Kara Royster

Royster was born and raised in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Her father, former professional baseball player Jerry Royster, is Black, and her mother is white with French Canadian and Irish ancestry.^[3] Royster was inspired to get into acting by her older sister, Kristie, who would practice monologues in front of her. Royster took acting classes at Bak Middle School of the Arts and Dreyfoos High School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida.^[4] At the age of 15, she convinced her parents to move to Los Angeles, California where she attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and majored in theatre.^[5][4] In addition to acting, Royster developed an interest in makeup and was the head makeup artist for her high school's theatre department.^[6]

Royster's early credits include Faking It on MTV, Liv and Maddie on Disney Channel, and Scream Queens on Fox, in which she had a minor role in one episode.^[7][8]

On December 23, 2015, it was announced that Royster was cast in Pretty Little Liars as Yvonne Phillips, the mystery woman Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) met before the five-year time jump. She was originally slated to appear in three episodes of the back-half of season six.^[7][9] Royster appeared as Yvonne in four episodes of season seven.^[10][11][12] Her final episode aired on May 2, 2017, titled "Hold Your Piece".^[13] In 2016, while filming Pretty Little Liars, Royster made her feature film debut in Mono. She portrayed Christina Madison, the "queen bee, mean girl" of the group.^[6] That same year, she landed roles in multiple episodes of K.C. Undercover^[6] and Supernatural.^[8][14] In an interview with Hush Hush Buzz, Royster revealed, "I had heard of K.C. Undercover before it came out, while I was filming Liv and Maddie, and dropped some hints to the casting director that I really wanted to be a part of the show and get the chance to work with Zendaya."^[6]

In 2017, Royster booked a recurring role on The Fosters, Dawn, a flirtatious student who causes jealousy between Callie (Maia Mitchell) and AJ (Tom Williamson).^[15] She then starred in the short-lived YouTube Red series, Youth & Consequences, in 2018.^[16] It was announced in 2019 that Royster signed on to star in Instafame, a social media thriller, directed by Nick Everhart.^[17] In 2020, she starred in the female buddy road comedy-drama film, Unpregnant,^[18] and she recurred in the CBS sitcom, God Friended Me.^[5] She was also announced to star in Don't Log Off, a comedy-thriller set entirely during the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine;^[19] however, the film was never released.

On May 4, 2021, it was announced that Royster was cast in the Dynasty reboot, as Eva, a recurring role officially described as the "newest assistant and protégé" of Fallon Carrington (Elizabeth Gillies). The character was set to arrive later in the fourth season.^[20] On December 20, 2021, Royster made her final appearance in the season five premiere.^[21] Royster also appeared in two episodes of Jupiter's Legacy.^[20]

In 2022, Royster starred the Tubi original thriller film, A Party to Die For,^[22] and the BET+ original Christmas film, The Christmas Clapback.^{[citation needed]}