Naya Rivera’s son, Josey Dorsey, is following in his late mother’s footsteps as an actor six years after she tragically died.
The 11-year-old is set to make his acting debut alongside his father, Ryan Dorsey, in the forthcoming Evan Coury-directed film “The Burning Valley,” according to his IMDb page.
His role is currently listed as “Boy,” while Ryan’s is “Father.”
Filming for the project started in Pennsylvania earlier this week, and the cast will head towards the Allegheny River in the western end of the state next month.
“The movie is about a steelworker who loses his job when the mill announces a shutdown,” Coury told TribLive in an interview published Sunday.
“It sets him on a journey as he wanders through his Rust Belt town.”
Coury described the forthcoming movie as the emotional truth of deindustrialization.
Josey’s debut on the big screen comes after Rivera died in a drowning accident while on a boat with her son at Lake Piru in California on July 8, 2020. She was 33.
At the time, Josey, who was 4, was found asleep on the boat by another boater.
During an interview with Page Six in July, Ryan, 43, told us his son’s recollection of the horrific accident, explaining how she wasn’t wearing a life jacket and used her strength to get him back on the vessel before disappearing into the water.
The “Glee” alum’s body wasn’t recovered until five days later. She was best known for her role as Santana Lopez in the musical TV series, and as Hillary Winston in the early 1990s series “The Royal Family.”
Ryan gushed over Josey preparing for his role in “The Burning Valley,” telling Page Six in July, “He’s been taking piano lessons for a little over a year now, and he’s getting pretty good. It’s the one thing I connected with his mom.”
Aside from acting, Josey has kept his mom’s memory alive by learning how to play the piano.
“He’s been taking piano lessons for a little over a year now, and he’s getting pretty good. It’s the one thing I connected with his mom,” Ryan told us.
“I said, ‘Your mom — she’s always listening … You don’t understand now, but one day when you’re an adult or maybe even a teenager, you’re going to thank me. You’re never going to quit as long as you’re living with me.’”
Additionally, Josey and Ryan have a garden with roses and flowers in the yard of their West Virginia home that they call “Mommy’s Garden.”
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