Nydia McFadden was born in New York City and raised in Brooklyn by an artistic family, German-Jewish grandparents and mother, African-American father and his extended clan. At an early age, Nydia was plucked from public school by Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech to be a part of their school and company. She danced for years, until deciding to pursue writing and a bit of theater at Swarthmore College. Then she took off to study French Cinema and Literature in Paris for a semester, where she was scouted and began modeling. Back in New York, she shot campaigns for the Gap, Levi's, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Covergirl and numerous commercials which led her to Los Angeles to try her wand at acting. Her first audition there and film debut was Judd Apatow's "Funny People" where she plays a PR rep who falls briefly for her crush, "George Simmons".