My first recollection of seeing Cody is vividly planted in my memory. Flipping channels one lazy afternoon a few years ago I spotted Grand Avenue on a cable station and, surprised and intrigued to see Native American actors in a modern day setting, I put the remote down and immersed myself in it. I’m Anglo and, although I have native friends and more awareness than most whites, this was an eye-opener for me. Cody was very young at the time but played his role skillfully.

The Lightning siblings Crystle and William are all seasoned performers under the watchful eye of their mother, actress and producer Georgina Lightning. Seventeen year old Cody’s filmography contains some other well known titles like Geronimo (with Harrison Lowe, renaissanceindian.com’s founder), Smoke Signals, Tecumseh (with his siblings), My Brother, and the much anticipated DreamKeeper which was televised December 28-29 on ABC. Georgina was the Associate Producer and the Aboriginal Advisor on the series that won four out of five awards at the AIFI film festival and even more impressing, DreamKeeper garnered 7 awards at the 12th Annual First Americans In The Arts. His latest film, Manic, will be in theatres in January and another, Edge of America, about a girls basketball team in which he plays a nerdy high school DJ which opened the Sundance Film Festival this past February 2004. Which received raving reviews at Sundance. And also scheduled for The Tribeca Film Festival May 2004.

You may have seen Cody on Walker, Texas Ranger since he was in two episodes of the popular series. He also had roles in Arli$$, and The X Files. Rounding out his TV appearances is a voice over credit on The Wild Thornberrys.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the grown up, 17 year old, Cody recently from his temporary home in Idaho where he is living while earning his GED. Cody explained that his acting career had taken him away from his studies so many times that he was falling behind, but an education is important to him and he took a break from acting in order to complete the requirements. Getting a degree in Theater Arts is next, at a college yet to be chosen in California or New York. In college he hopes to get back into sports, an activity that he also had to give up for his career. Cody used to play hockey and football but missing too many practices wasn’t fair to the team, so he put it aside. Still very active, he skateboards, snowboards and works out at the gym a lot. As a boy, he yearned to be a stuntman rather than an actor and was always jumping off things…..and getting hurt a lot.

Besides his gym workouts, studies and career, Cody is developing as a musician with hip hop and rap being his preferences. Currently, he’s working with Heather Rae, actress and former programmer for Sundance, taking programs about art, acting, and music to the reservations. They are also working on a documentary about native youth and hip hop. Actor and musician John Trudell is pitching it to Def Jam records and Trudell is looking for a native rapper for his recording work. Seriously into the youth music scene, Cody says that hip-hop is catchy, getting trendy. To him it’s a lifestyle. “Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live…it’s an attitude, how you talk , how you dress. A lot of reservation life is similar to the ghetto and hip hop is what they turn to”.

I asked Cody to describe some acting experiences that stood out. “Smoke signals was a great opportunity. It was one of the most fun movies I’ve worked on, I clicked with Adam (Beach) right away. And DreamKeepers….I didn’t know how many native actors there really are. It kind of hit me that there a lot of us. There are two main actors, but so many supporting. It was a bonding of all the native actors. It was cool.”.

In closing, I asked if there was any thing he wanted his fans to know about him. “ It feels weird to talk about fans. Even with my friends I don’t talk about acting. And they don’t even know until I bring them over and ask if they want to watch a film I was in. It’s my job, I don’t want to be all cocky and ego. I just have to say thanks for all the support . I would like to see a lot more native youth in the industry, in music and television and feature films.”

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