Who Is Alicia Vela Bailey
Alicia Frances Vela-Bailey, also known professionally as Alicia Vela Bailey, has built an unusual career in Hollywood by combining athleticism, dance, acting, choreography, and stunt performance. Born on July 8, 1982, in Alameda County, California, she moved to Hawaii as a young child and was raised primarily in Kailua on the island of Oahu.
At approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall, Alicia has the physical presence and athletic discipline required for demanding action work. Her career, which began professionally around 2005, has taken her from gymnastics and dance stages to some of the biggest action, science fiction, horror, and superhero productions in modern entertainment.
I find her career particularly interesting because she has rarely been confined to one role. She has doubled for major actresses, performed motion capture, helped shape character movement, acted in front of the camera, and contributed to choreography. In many productions, she has effectively been the physical engine behind characters audiences remember.
Her connection to Hawaii remains an important part of her identity. She grew up surrounded by dance and artistic influences, developed an appreciation for the islands’ culture, and carried the discipline she learned there into an intensely competitive entertainment industry.
An Artistic Childhood in Hawaii
Alicia’s parents shaped her early interests.
El Salvador-born Carlos Armando Vela was her father. He owned Jasmine Gardening and performed Aloha Magic of Carlos Armando, a magician. His life included entertainment and practical innovation, showing Alicia how to make a living from talent.
North Carolina-born ballerina, dancer, and artist Cecelia Vela-Bailey was her mother. Performance was more than a hobby for Alicia and her sisters because her parents were artistic.
Competitive gymnast Alicia reached Level 9 with Hawaiian Island Twisters. She joined Marcelo Pacleb’s 24-VII Danceforce after intense dancing training. Her dance training encompassed ballet, jazz, and hip-hop.
She focused more on dancing after an elbow injury. The shift was significant. Dance taught her timing, body control, rhythm, balance, and spatial awareness, which were crucial to her stunt profession.
Her early career includes modeling, commercials, and live performance. In Caesars Palace’s Las Vegas extravaganza, she played Pussycat Doll, adding another chapter to her unique career.
The Loss of Her Father
One of the most significant personal events in Alicia’s life came in October 2003, when her father died in a car accident on Hawaii’s Pali Highway.
The loss occurred before her Hollywood career reached its later heights. Alicia has spoken about discovering after his death just how proud he had been of her. That realization became an emotional source of motivation as she continued pursuing a demanding career.
For Alicia, the memory of her father appears closely connected to perseverance. His influence was not simply about entertainment or performance. He represented someone who worked across different creative and practical fields, and that example seems reflected in Alicia’s own willingness to move between stunts, dance, acting, choreography, and performance capture.
Alicia Vela Bailey’s Sisters
The artistic tradition continued with Alicia’s sisters, Marissa Vela-Bailey and Nicole Vela-Bailey. Both have pursued careers connected to performance and stunts, making the Vela-Bailey family an unusual Hollywood family in which physical performance became a shared professional language.
| Family Member | Relationship to Alicia | Professional Connection |
|---|---|---|
| Carlos Armando Vela | Father | Magician and landscaping business owner |
| Cecelia Vela-Bailey | Mother | Ballerina, dancer, artist |
| Marissa Vela-Bailey | Younger sister | Choreographer, movement coach, stunt performer |
| Nicole Vela-Bailey | Sister | Stunt performer |
| Matt Mullins | Husband | Actor, martial artist, stunt performer, coordinator |
| Alicia’s child | Child | Kept private by the family |
Marissa Vela-Bailey
Marissa has developed her own career in entertainment as a choreographer, movement coach, assistant choreographer, stunt performer, and performance artist.
Her professional work has included involvement with the Avatar films, where movement and physical expression are central to the fictional world. She has also worked on projects such as The Masked Singer and Made for Love.
Her career makes the sisters’ professional relationship especially distinctive. Alicia’s experience as a stunt performer and performance artist complements Marissa’s choreography and movement expertise. Their shared background in dance gives them a common vocabulary that can be useful on physically demanding productions.
Nicole Vela-Bailey
Nicole Vela-Bailey, born September 14, 1984, in Alameda County, followed another branch of the family’s physical-performance tradition.
She has worked as a stunt performer on productions including Jungle Cruise, Inhumans, Lost, and the 2025 live-action Lilo & Stitch. While Alicia became especially visible through major film franchises and credited acting roles, Nicole has maintained her own career behind the scenes and in physically demanding production work.
The sisters’ careers demonstrate how entertainment skills can pass through a family without every member following precisely the same path.
Alicia Vela Bailey and Matt Mullins
On September 6, 2015, Alicia married Matt Mullins. Their connection united two physical performance professionals.
Matt is an actor, martial artist, stuntman, stunt coordinator, instructor, and fight choreographer. He enhances Alicia’s gymnastics, dance, acting, and stunt skills.
The couple has one child. They discreetly concealed their child’s identify and details. That privacy fits Alicia’s family life philosophy. She occasionally posts family photos, but she doesn’t seem interested in publicizing her child.
Their marriage is also professional. Both have worked in stunt and action, and their skills have allowed them to participate in choreography, physical performance, and coordinating projects.
Her Early Relationship With David Kalakaua Low
Before marrying Matt Mullins, Alicia was in a long-term relationship with David Kalakaua Low, a Hawaii-based skater and mechanic.
Around 2006, the relationship had already lasted several years. The couple had attended the same high school but began dating later. Their relationship also involved periods of long distance as Alicia increasingly traveled for work in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and overseas.
This period provides a glimpse into the transition between Alicia’s Hawaii-centered early life and the international demands of her developing entertainment career.
From Gymnastics to Hollywood Stunts
Alicia’s professional stunt career began taking shape in the middle of the 2000s.
One of her early major credits was as Kristanna Loken’s stunt double in BloodRayne in 2005. In 2006, she doubled for Milla Jovovich in Ultraviolet. Her work on Ultraviolet earned two Taurus World Stunt Award nominations in 2007.
She also spent substantial time training and working in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Those experiences expanded her physical-performance repertoire and exposed her to a demanding international action-production environment.
Her dance training became an important foundation. Stunt performance is not simply about strength. Timing, rhythm, precision, body awareness, and the ability to reproduce another performer’s movement are crucial. Alicia possessed all of those qualities.
The Avatar Years
The defining chapter of Alicia Vela Bailey’s career began with James Cameron’s Avatar in 2009.
She served as a stunt double for Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri while also contributing to movement work and performance. She portrayed multiple Na’vi-related characters, including Ikeyni, the Ikran Clan Leader.
The work required more than traditional stunt doubling. The Avatar films depend heavily on physical performance, motion capture, choreography, and character movement. Alicia’s background made her unusually well suited to that environment.
She returned for Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, again working as a stunt double and taking on performance roles including Recom Zdinarsik, nicknamed Z-Dog. Her work also included doubling for Sigourney Weaver.
She continued her involvement with Avatar: Fire and Ash, released in 2025, including further work connected with Ikeyni, stunt performance, and additional characters.
The franchise effectively became a second stage for Alicia. Instead of merely performing behind another actor, she could combine stunt expertise with character movement and performance capture.
Major Stunt Double Credits
Outside Avatar, Alicia has doubled for a remarkable collection of leading actresses.
Her credits include work connected with Kate Beckinsale, Gal Gadot, Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, Shailene Woodley, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Her stunt career has touched productions such as Underworld, Total Recall, Wonder Woman, Batman v Superman, X-Men: First Class, Lucy, Divergent, Interstellar, Transformers, Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Alita: Battle Angel, and Road House.
On television, she has worked on projects including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Defenders, Luke Cage, Westworld, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka.
These credits reveal the scale of her career. She has repeatedly worked on productions where physical sequences are central to the storytelling.
Alicia Vela Bailey as an Actress
Alicia has also stepped into visible acting roles.
In the 2016 horror film Lights Out, she played Diana, the terrifying supernatural antagonist. The role allowed audiences to see the physical performer directly rather than only through the body of another actress.
She later appeared as Evil Mrs. Mullins and the Demon Hands in Annabelle: Creation in 2017.
Her television work includes Alisha Whitley in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a recurring character with Inhuman abilities. In 2024, she appeared as Owl, one of the Salem Seven, in Agatha All Along.
Her acting career is an extension of her stunt work rather than a departure from it. She can communicate character through movement first, which makes her particularly effective in horror and physically demanding roles.
Personal Life, Hawaii Roots, and Privacy
Despite her extensive professional credits, Alicia maintains a comparatively private personal life.
She has strong connections to Hawaii and has spoken about the islands as an important part of her upbringing. Earlier in her career, she even imagined eventually raising a family in Hawaii, particularly around Lanikai.
Her social media presence offers occasional glimpses of beach outings, family life, professional projects, and her affection for Hawaii. She has also publicly identified herself as a wife and mother.
A family dog named Kekoa has appeared in her social-media identity as well, adding another small detail to an otherwise carefully protected private life.
Her professional world may involve explosions, monsters, superheroes, aliens, martial arts, and elaborate motion-capture performances. Away from the camera, however, her public persona is considerably quieter.
Alicia Vela Bailey’s Net Worth and Financial Status
Financial details about Alicia are unknown.
Some informal celebrity websites have estimated $1 million, but stunt performers’ contracts, residuals, production fees, investments, property holdings, and other private financial data are rarely publicized.
However, her vast work on major businesses suggests a long career. She has appeared in blockbusters, TV shows, horror pictures, superhero films, and performance-capture franchises.
Her career record shows her professional value more than a public fortune figure. She has spent over two decades using her physical skills to work in high-end commercial films.
Alicia Vela Bailey Family Timeline
| Year | Personal or Career Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1982 | Born July 8 in Alameda County, California |
| Early childhood | Moves to Hawaii and grows up in Kailua |
| Teens | Develops competitive gymnastics and dance skills |
| 2003 | Father Carlos Armando Vela dies in a car accident |
| 2005 | Stunt work includes BloodRayne |
| 2006 | Works on Ultraviolet and receives major stunt recognition |
| 2009 | Becomes part of the Avatar production world |
| 2015 | Marries Matt Mullins |
| 2016 | Plays Diana in Lights Out |
| 2017 | Appears in Annabelle: Creation |
| 2022 | Returns for Avatar: The Way of Water |
| 2024 | Appears as Owl in Agatha All Along |
| 2025 | Continues Avatar work in Avatar: Fire and Ash |
FAQ
Who is Alicia Vela Bailey?
Alicia Vela Bailey is an American stunt performer, stunt double, actress, dancer, choreographer, and performance-capture artist known for major film and television productions.
When was Alicia Vela Bailey born?
Alicia Vela Bailey was born on July 8, 1982, in Alameda County, California.
Where did Alicia Vela Bailey grow up?
She moved to Hawaii as a young child and was primarily raised in Kailua on Oahu. Hawaii remains an important part of her personal identity.
Who are Alicia Vela Bailey’s parents?
Her father was Carlos Armando Vela, a Salvadoran magician and landscaping business owner. Her mother is Cecelia Vela-Bailey, a ballerina, dancer, and artist from North Carolina.
Does Alicia Vela Bailey have siblings?
Yes. Her sisters include Marissa Vela-Bailey and Nicole Vela-Bailey. Both have worked in entertainment, with professional careers involving stunts, choreography, movement, and performance.
Who is Alicia Vela Bailey’s husband?
Alicia Vela Bailey is married to Matt Mullins, an actor, martial artist, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and instructor. They married on September 6, 2015.
Does Alicia Vela Bailey have children?
Yes. Alicia and Matt Mullins have one child. They have chosen to keep the child’s name and other identifying details private.
What is Alicia Vela Bailey best known for?
She is particularly known for her stunt doubling and performance work in the Avatar franchise, as well as stunt doubling for actresses such as Zoe Saldaña, Kate Beckinsale, Gal Gadot, Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, Shailene Woodley, and Anne Hathaway.
What character did Alicia Vela Bailey play in Lights Out?
She played Diana, the frightening supernatural antagonist in the 2016 horror film Lights Out.
What role did Alicia Vela Bailey have in Agatha All Along?
She portrayed Owl, a member of the Salem Seven, in the 2024 Marvel series Agatha All Along.
What is Alicia Vela Bailey’s connection to Avatar?
She has been involved with the franchise as a stunt double, movement specialist, choreographer, and performance-capture artist. She portrayed Ikeyni and other characters and returned for Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
What happened to Alicia Vela Bailey’s father?
Carlos Armando Vela died in October 2003 in a car accident on Hawaii’s Pali Highway. His death became an important personal event in Alicia’s life and later influenced how she viewed her career and her father’s pride in her accomplishments.
