Kiawenti:io Tarbell, also known as Kiawentiio, is an Indigenous actress, singer, and artist born on April 28, 2006, to a Mohawk family in Akwesasne, Ontario, Canada, and is a member of the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne.
She was raised on Cornwall Island, part of the Akwesasne Reservation, situated in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, right on the US border. Kiawentiio received her education at the Akwesasne Freedom School and the Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School, one of the oldest schools in Canada.
In 2019, she landed the recurring role of Ka'kwet in the Canadian TV series "Anne with an E" after prevailing against 235 competitors in a public casting call. Her breakthrough performance came in 2020 with the lead role in the film drama "Beans" by Mohawk director Tracey Deer, where she played 12-year-old Tekahentahkhwa, also known as Beans, who experienced the Oka crisis in Kanesatake in 1990.
The film won Best Canadian Film at the Canadian Screen Awards, and Kiawentiio received the Vancouver Film Critics Circle One to Watch award for her performance. She then made guest appearances in the American sitcom series "Rutherford Falls" and as a voice actor in the animated Marvel anthology series "What If...?".
In 2024, she can be seen in the live-action series remake of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as Kantara, a role she was cast in at the age of 14 after her success with "Beans". Kiawentiio is a fan of the original Nickelodeon animated series and grew up with the characters, but as a little native girl on the reservation, she never thought she could embody one of the main characters in the future.
As a singer and songwriter, Kiawentiio released her first EP "In My Head" in 2021, featuring four songs she wrote herself. She also sang the title song of the film "Beans". She has been active as a painter and artist since a young age and shares her paintings and drawings on her Instagram channel with her 660,000 followers.
Kiawentiio currently lives alternately in Ottawa, Montreal, and New York and holds both Canadian and US citizenship.
