From the Virgin Islands to Orlando to Hollywood, Mekia Cox’s journey and rise to stardom is the result of years of dedication and determination.

Long before she was a star on a hit primetime television show on a major network, Mekia Cox was a wide-eyed 2-year-old living in Saint Croix getting ready to perform her first solo song-and-dance routine. While many in the audience may have been puzzled to see such a young girl on stage by herself in the spotlight, her instructor had no doubt that this was one talented star in the making.

“Her name is Linda Reiger; I love that woman,” Cox says matter-of-factly. “She took me under her wing and she is honestly the reason I am where I am today.

“My mom said I came off that stage and I tapped her and said, ‘You know, Mom, I really liked it up there.’ And she said, ‘OK, well if that’s where your love and joy is, let’s continue.’”

A handful of years later, Cox and her family left the Virgin Islands and relocated to the Orlando area, but thanks to Reiger, her passion for performing had only grown. (The two remain close friends to this day.) And so it was no surprise that after arriving in Central Florida, Cox found herself taking advantage of the local offerings and was booking gigs with Disney and Nickelodeon.

“You could not tell me I had not made it at that time,” Cox says with a laugh.

After attending Dr. Phillips High School and then Florida State University where she earned a degree in musical theater, she traveled the country as part of two national Broadway tours for both Fame and Smokey Joe’s Café. Seemingly destined for a career on stage, things changed after a fateful trip to Los Angeles where she auditioned for and booked her first few television roles. The rest, as they say, is history.

“[Theater] was what I thought I was going to do for sure. My plan was to move to New York and so right out of college I went on tour for two years. I landed in LA by accident, that was never the plan. I auditioned for a couple of things and ended up booking them, and what was supposed to be me staying out there for a couple of weeks turned into a month, then turned into months, then turned into a year,” she says.

Now a married mother of two daughters, Cox still makes her home in Los Angeles, where she has been quite busy over the years. After breaking into the industry with smaller roles on shows like One Tree Hill, CSI: NY and Bones, she went on to make appearances on award-winning shows such as Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy and The Mentalist, as well as on the big screen, including sharing scenes with Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell in Crazy, Stupid, Love.

After spending a few years starring in Chicago Med, Cox now shines on screen as the no-nonsense detective Nyla Harper on ABC’s The Rookie, currently enjoying its seventh season. A fixture on the show since its second season, Cox relishes the chance to play such a multi-layered character.

“It’s a challenge, but us actors, we like challenges,” she says. “[Nyla] has evolved a lot over the last few years and to play such a complex character is really fulfilling.”

We spoke to Cox further about The Rookie, growing up in Orlando and her fondness for the area, what life is like for her when she’s not on the set and much more.

First off, with everything that has been going on out in Los Angeles with the fires recently, I wanted to check to see how you and your family are doing. What has it been like trying to deal with this tragedy?
In all honesty, it’s been pretty tough. Pretty much everyone in Los Angeles, if they have not lost everything themselves, knows at least one other person who has lost everything. And dealing with that and dealing with the trauma that they are going through, it really weighs on you.

I’m lucky, I’m in a space that has not been affected by the fires. But it happened to be a strangely beautiful day on one side of my house, but then on the other side there was smoke and ashes and it was really strange. I talked to friends today who are still saying it’s been hard for them to sleep because they just don’t know if there’s going to be an evacuation notice that they miss because they are asleep. It’s been tough on all of us. But we are trying our best to get out there and volunteer where we can. We raised some money for my friend who lost everything on GoFundMe, so I am trying to lend a hand wherever we can.

Has there been an increased sense of community seeing everybody come together during such a wild time?
A really wild time. That has been the one comfort, seeing the amount of people that have donated, whether it be financially or that they donated their time—that has been really lovely to see.

So let’s talk about The Rookie, which is in the midst of its seventh season right now with a lot of buzz surrounding the show. What are you most excited about this season?
Well, the fact that we’re in season seven still blows my mind. But, you know, there’s a lot to be excited about, starting with the new rookies. The actors that play these roles are fantastic and they’ve come in here and they’ve really proven themselves. So I like it because it’s this new fresh energy that is brought to the show and that’s always fun when there’s something new like that.

And then just for me, it was like every episode that I read this season was a page-turner and emotionally gripping and scary and suspenseful. There’s a lot happening for Nyla this season and you get to see the depth of this character. I remember there was an episode that I read while I was on a plane and I cried. I’m on this plane by myself reading a script and crying. The people next to me were probably wondering what is wrong with this woman? But the fact that [a script] can still do that to me after seven seasons; kudos to the writers because they do a really great job.

What’s the most rewarding part of playing Nyla?
She is a character who plays characters as well, you know, from her undercover past. She has these different characters that she’s had to play, so in some episodes I’m not just playing Nyla Harper, but I’m playing one or two other characters as well, which as an actor is [kind of] crazy.

What’s that dynamic like? It’s got to be a little bit different, right?
It’s fun, it’s challenging. It’s also hard because you’re like, OK, I’m not playing this second person as myself, I’m playing this second person as Harper. And so you have to figure out what that sort of is. And I have my certain isms that Harper has, and then this new character on top of that has to have the Harper isms combined with whatever the new character is.

You’ve referred to Nyla as a “ badass” character. Is there any of Mekia in that role? Where do you find inspiration to play a character like this?
In all honesty, there’s a part of me that’s like [I have] to be in there somewhere. But this character is probably the least like me of any character that I have played. But I will say, if you get me to that point, I’ll pull out a little Nyla Harper [laughs]. But in general, I think I just pull inspiration from other women that I’ve seen. Other strong women out there who are mothers, who are first responders, who are CEOs, who I sort of try and channel and bring into this character.

Now that you’ve been on the show for several seasons now, what do you think resonates with the audience so much?
One thing that I really love about the show is it kind of spans generations. There’s so many people that come up to me and say, “I watch this with my entire family—my grandma and granddad [all the way] to my 15-year-old son or daughter.” Everyone really seems to love this show. And I think it’s because the characters are relatable and the show has a lot of heart. These are real characters that are put in real situations, and so it causes the audience to go, “Oh wow, what would I do in that situation?” Or, you know, “How would I deal with that?” And in general, I think audience members can see themselves in a lot of these characters, which I think is what brings them back week to week.

I know as a child growing up in Orlando you had the chance work with Disney and Nickelodeon. At that young age I’d have to imagine it was a pretty thrilling experience for you.
I had just moved from Saint Croix to Orlando when I was around 7 or 8 and the very first thing I auditioned for was Disney. There was something like 600 kids that had auditioned and only six girls and six boys ended up booking the role. And it was a literal dream come true for a little girl to get to dance on stage at the Christmas Spectacular. We were called the Kids of the Kingdom.

That set me up, I think, for the rest of my life. That joy—I’m actually getting chills even thinking about it. I still to this day remember the joy that I felt being on stage doing those shows.

I think from there, I just was constantly chasing that joy. I had it when I was in my element, when I was doing the things that I loved to do. Even if it were just a stage play at school, I had that same joy. And so I was constantly chasing that until I got to where I am today.

You also went to Dr. Phillips High School, which has produced so many recognizable names in the entertainment world. What do you remember most about your time there?
My freshman year I was actually at Lake Howell High School and my father got a job that was in Orange County and so my parents said we had to move. And I was like, no, I don’t want to move. I was in high school. I’d been with these kids since Eastbrook Elementary School, you know what I mean? I did not want to move.

And my parents’ answer was, “Well, you’re going to go to a performing arts high school.” And I knew it was Dr. Phillips, and for some reason at that time, I don’t know why, I just thought it was like the hoity-toity school, and I’m not going there. But it was the best move that we could have made. I absolutely enjoyed my time while there. I really got to sort of hone my skills in a way that I hadn’t before. I had been taking dance class, I had been singing, but this was the first time that I was able to put it all together and really focus on musical theater, which was a love of mine for a long time. I really, truly enjoyed my time at Dr. Phillips High School.

Growing up in Orlando was key for me, especially at that time, because there was so much going on with Nickelodeon and Disney around the time that I was there. And so I think that all these things, you know led me to where I am now, so I love talking about Orlando.

Do you get back to Central Florida much anymore?

It’s so funny that you reached out at this time because I have not been back, but I’ve been planning to. Honestly, it’s been over a decade since I’ve been back to Orlando.

Just last year, I said it had been a really long time since I had been to Saint Croix and so I was like, that’s it, we have to go back. I wanted my kids to see where I grew up. That was lovely, we had such a wonderful time there. But then I was like, OK, we’ve been to Disneyland out here [in California], but I’m going to need the kids to see Disney World. So we are making a plan to come in the spring.

You career path is so varied with the stage work, then delving into TV and film. But once upon a time you were a backup dancer for Michael Jackson in his This Is It concert film. Do you have fond memories of that experience?
When I first got to this audition, I happened to go into the bathroom and I heard two girls talking and I didn’t know this at the time, but one of the girls said, “I heard they’re only accepting two girls.” And I was like, “I’m sorry, did you say two?” There were so many girls there, I think by the time we got to the auditions, it was around 500 or 600 girls. Before that there was around 1,500 submissions or something like that, from all over the world. It was pretty crazy.

So when they said that, I just thought there’s no way I’ll be one of two girls [chosen], that’s probably not going to happen. But that took the pressure off of me because now I’m just here to have fun. Like the fact that I’m just auditioning for Michael Jackson is [awesome]. So I’m just here to have fun and I think that took the weight off of everything for me. And it was Michael who picked me, and I think he might have [noticed] that this girl’s having fun. And it was a massive, massive honor. Especially because he was, between music, art and dance, he was just the pinnacle of all of that. So to be able to collaborate and work with him was a big honor.

Talk about a life experience.
Exactly. It felt like I was part of history, like a part of musical entertainment history. Absolutely.

When you’re not on the set, how do you like to decompress?
I do spend a lot of time with my family. I am not the best cook, however, I have been baking a lot more because it’s such a great thing to do, I think, with your kids. There’s so much that they can learn from it. It really is like a science, you have to get it right. And so I’ve been baking a lot more with the kids. It’s creative, you get to make fun things—we made some little brownies that were presents for Christmas. They were very cute.

Honestly, doing anything creative makes me happy. We just got done shooting, so we’re on hiatus now and whenever we’re on hiatus I try and get back into a dance class. I also enjoy playing guitar whenever I can, I enjoy drawing whenever I can, reading whenever I can. But the reality of it is I don’t get to do that much stuff as much anymore because of my kids.

You’ll take the trade-off, though, right?
Yes, I will take the trade-off.