Kira Mayo was born and raised in St. Louis in a family of musicians. She trained in classical ballet, rhythm tap, and jazz for 10 years before starting theater at 14. Robert Reed Jr. invited her at age 11 to join the St. Louis Jr. Hoofer's Club, which performed in the St. Louis Tap Festival and the Bruce Bradley Tap Festival. She appeared in the MUNY's children's chorus of Peter Pan in 2002, and was a featured teen dancer in 42nd Street in 2004. She did 3 tours of The Nutcracker and 1 tour of Beauty and the Beast with the St. Louis Ballet School/Company, and was cast in the local children's auditions for the Moscow Ballet's touring production in 2002. In summer 2009, she produced and performed a solo 'Evolution of Tap Dance' program for the KC Fringe Festival. In 5 years of theater, she has performed in 18 shows in a wide range of roles, notably Betty in Goodnight, Children Everywhere and Lt. Comm. Jo Galloway in A Few Good Men. She also loves the technical aspect of theater, and has run props and costume crews and assistant stage managed. Kira has played the piano since she was five, and accompanied for 3 shows. She won 2nd prize in the 2005 Piano Pops Festival, and participated in District and State MMTA piano competitions for 2 years, as well as the state level of National Federation of Piano Teachers (Guild) for 4 years. She also studied violin for 6 years, mainly with St. Louis Symphony member Hiroko Yoshida. She played in orchestras for 2 years with the St. Louis Symphony's Young People's Concert (as 1st violinist) and Symphonic Orchestras. She studied voice for 3 years; in 2007, she was selected for Opera Theatre of St. Louis's Artists-In-Training program, in which she studied with Webster U.'s Dee Pavelka.
Kira currently lives in Kansas City, planning on graduating from UMKC in May 2010 with a BA in Theater Performance, a BLA, and a minor in History. She interned at Metropolitan Ensemble Theater for a year, and now works as a 7th grade classroom assistant and tutor at SWECC.