Brittany Raymond

Brittany Raymond (born February 24, 1995) is a Canadian actress and dancer. She is known for her role as Riley in the Family Channel series The Next Step. Early and personal life Raymond was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada on February 24, 1995. She is the daughter of father John Raymond and mother Paula Ventura-Raymond. Raymond is half Portuguese on her mother’s side and a quarter Irish on her father’s side. She started dancing at four years of age, inspired by her older sister Samantha, since she followed in her footsteps. She started dancing competitively when she was six years old, graduated from her studio in May 2013, and is currently a world-class teacher at the Joanne Chapman School of Dance. On 30 March 2018, she revealed she had been suffering from Crohn's disease in a video posted on her and her best friend's YouTube channel - Jo and Britt. She was diagnosed about 2 years prior to the video, just after filming the end of Season 4 of The Next Step. Although her diagnosis came aged 21, she had actually been suffering from the disease since her teen years; she felt lots of stomach pains when she was younger but passed them off as ordinary pains that everyone felt. In October 2017, she filmed Extracurricular, a film directed by Ray Xue, which was released in October 2018. She plays Miriam, one of the central characters. Career From 2013 to 2017, she starred in the Family Channel series The Next Step, portraying the role of Riley. As part of promotion for the series, she has performed in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. From 2015 to 2016, she portrayed Riley in the spinoff series, Lost & Found Music Studios.