Naya Rivera’s son, Josey, is set to make his acting debut six years after his mom’s tragic death.
Josey, 10, booked his first onscreen role in the upcoming feature film The Burning Valley, written and directed by Evan Coury, according to Josey’s IMDb page. His character is listed as “Boy.”
Josey’s father, Ryan Dorsey, is also slated to appear in the film as “Sam Pope.”
“Ryan says he is a very proud dad,” a rep for Dorsey, 43, told People on Sunday, August 30. “Josey has been working very hard and has shown incredible growth as an actor.”
Though a synopsis for the movie is not yet available, Coury told Pennsylvania newspaper The Tribune-Review that it follows “a steelworker who loses his job when the mill announces a shutdown.”
Naya Rivera’s son, Josey, had an emotional reaction to watching 2011’s Glee: The 3D Concert Movie several years after her tragic death at 33. “He sat there and he watched the whole movie, and you could see his eyes welling up a little bit,” Rivera’s ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, told People in an interview published on […]
He continued, “It sets him on a journey as he wanders through his Rust Belt town.”
Coury, a Pennsylvania native, added that he hopes “to encapsulate the history of our region through one guy’s personal experience.”
Coury previously acted in the 2015 short film Adopted and the 2022 film Dear Zoe, starring Sadie Sink.
The Burning Valley began filming in Pennsylvania earlier this month. The cast also includes Tyler Miles, JB Brown, Joseph Ducar, Whip Hubley, Patrick Jordan, Sam Lothard, Joseph Mazza and Sheila McKenna.
Josey previously made his stage debut at age 8 in a production of Seussical Jr. in West Virginia. He is also reportedly set to star in the upcoming film Fairy Boy, directed by Julia Fox.
Meanwhile, Dorsey’s past credits include Yellowstone, Ray Donovan, Justified and Palm Royale.
Josey’s casting news comes six years after Rivera died at age 33 in July 2020. The Glee alum had rented a boat for a day of swimming at Lake Piru in California when the vessel began to drift away. Rivera died in an accidental drowning after she used her last bit of energy to lift Josey, who was 4 years old at the time, back into the boat.
Ryan Dorsey has started dating again five years after the tragic death of his ex-wife, Naya Rivera. “He’s been telling me for years that he wants a brother and a stepmom,” Dorsey, 41, told People of son Josey, 9, in an interview published Friday, February 14. “I’m like, ‘Well, I got to get a girlfriend […]
“I remember laying there with [Josey] in a state of shock,” Dorsey, who was married to Rivera from 2014 to 2018, recalled to Us in July 2025. “Looking at this beautiful boy and grateful that he’s OK. When he woke up, he said, ‘Dad, what are you doing here?’ I said, ‘I came to be with you.’ He told me, ‘They can’t find Mommy. I hope they find her, but I think she might be dead.’ I was devastated for him, for me, for everyone.”
After the tragedy, Dorsey and Josey moved from Los Angeles to the actor’s hometown of Charleston, West Virginia, where he began to rebuild their lives.
“I see how creative [Josey] is,” Dorsey told Us. “He’s been playing piano for a year and he is getting better at that. It’s been awesome to watch him go from poking around on one finger to playing with two hands. He’s starting to really hit the notes when he’s singing. He said to me the other day, ‘Dad, I think I might want to be a musician. My mom is a singer, so why not me?’ I just thought that was a beautiful thing.”
He concluded of his son and Rivera, “Josey is going to be her legacy. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I think he’s going to do great things.”