Michael Greenberg/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.It takes serious acting chops to hold your own against Queen Latifah and Lorraine Toussaint. Despite starting on The Equalizer as a teen, Laya DeLeon Hayes does.
Hayes plays the daughter/niece of the two veteran actresses. It’s not surprising; Hayes has been acting since she was 8, and was cast when she was 9 as the voice of Doc McStuffins, Disney Junior’s first Black animated character.
In its fifth season, The Equalizer returns with new episodes Feb. 16 on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. It shoots in New Jersey, and Hayes chats via Zoom from her nearby home to answer our “5 Questions.”
1. How do you describe your character, Delilah?
Delilah is very passionate. She has a very big heart. She’s probably one of the most empathetic people that I’ve ever played. She’s incredibly intelligent and cares a lot about the people that she loves and will fight for them as well. I think she’s a very strong-willed young woman.
2. What advice has your costar Queen Latifah given you?
The best part of being the youngest on the show is just being able to observe what Queen and Lorraine do, because most of my scenes are with them. The biggest thing though that I’ve learned from her and from even more of our cast members has been to just make strong choices.
3. Had you considered any other careers prior to acting?
When I was 5, before acting was even a part of the equation, I thought being a teacher would have been the coolest thing ever. On career day, when I was in kindergarten, I dressed up as a teacher. I also had wonderful teachers in Texas who I love and still keep in contact with, so probably that.
4. What’s your ideal day?
I’m a very simple girl. It doesn’t take too much to make me really happy. I do this every other day when I’m not at work. I’ll go to the gym and then come back home, shower. I love to go to local cafes, and I like to find them in the city as well. I like to take my little journal. I like to take my computer and do a little bit of work. After that, meet up with a friend, have dinner at a new restaurant. I’m a big foodie, so I love that as well. And then probably at night, especially in the city, either going to see a movie at one of the older theaters, or I love a jazz club on a special night.
5. Tell us about a time when you were starstruck.
I was a big Hamilton fan, and still am. I got the opportunity to go when I was 12, and it was actually my first time coming to New York City. My dad made it the most incredible experience. There was a super kind security guard who was talking to my dad and had asked us if we wanted to go backstage, just randomly. … Christopher Jackson, who played George Washington, took a picture with me. I was so starstruck, I could not contain myself. He posted it on Twitter the next day, because they found out I was Doc McStuffins, and Lin-Manuel Miranda reposted it. Leslie Odom Jr. had liked the tweet, and my 12-year-old Hamilton-lover brain had exploded.
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