Jayli Wolf

Jayli Wolf (born 23 November) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress, and filmmaker. She began her music career in collaboration with Hayden Wolf under the name Once A Tree. As a solo artist, she broke out with her single and music video "Child of the Government", which made CBC Music's top 10 Canadian songs of 2021 and won Best Music Video at the Venice Short Film Awards.

For her debut solo EP Wild Whisper, Wolf was nominated for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2022. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the American Indian Film Festival for her performance in the film Run Woman Run (2021).

Early and personal life
Wolf was born in Creston, British Columbia to a teen mother of Danish descent and raised in a trailer with her maternal family. She was told she was half-Mexican growing up, only to learn she was First Nations at the age of eight. Her father reached out to her with the discovery that he was unwittingly taken in the Sixties Scoop and had his ethnicity covered up on his adoption papers. He found his family in the Saulteau First Nation near Chetwynd.

Wolf is bisexual. She grew up a Jehovah's Witness in what she has described as a Doomsday cult. She convinced her collaborator Hayden Wolf, whom she met online through mutual friends, to join her in leaving the religion. They married in 2012 and moved to Toronto together when Jayli won a songwriting contest. She dropped out of university to pursue a career in music. She has reconnected with her paternal family and indigenous heritage as an adult.