Do You Remember The Hudson Valley Woman Who Conned Hollywood in the 90s?

A video circulating on social media details the wild story of Riley Weston a Dutchess County woman trying to make it big in Hollywood in the 90s.

However, her story takes a turn after she gets caught lying about her age.

Who is Riley Weston?

If you look up Riley Weston now you'll find social media accounts of country music artist working in Nashville.

You may even come across an interview with Riley Weston on The Wolf a Townsquare Media of the Hudson Valley radio station in Poughkeepsie New York. Weston opened up for Lee Brice at the MJN Center (previously the Mid-Hudson Civic Center) back in 2015.

READ MORE: Riley Weston Joins Us Live in Studio

However, Riley Weston's real name is Kimberly Seaman. She was born in Poughkeepsie in 1966 and graduated from Arlington High School in 1984.

The TikTok account Cult of Megs, a pop culture and true crime content creator, dove into the wild life of Riley Weston and how she conned Hollywood into thinking she was a teenaged prodigy in the 90s.

Poughkeepsie Woman Cons Hollywood in the 90s

According to CultofMegs, Kimberly wanted to make it big. So after graduation she left the Hudson Valley for the bright lights of Hollywood. There, she changed her name from Kimberly Seaman to Kimberly Kramer.

Seaman/Kramer landed roles on shows like Growing Pains and 3rd Rock From the Sun in the 80 and early 90s. However, by her 30s Kimberly wasn't striking it big like she had planned.

The Dutchess County woman took her small size, she was 4'11'', and decided to changed her whole persona. She was now known as 18-year-old Riley Weston.

Re-read that however many times you need to. A 30 year old woman was pretending to be a 18-year-old.

Weston was picked up by an agency and made a name for herself in the writers room of the 90s teen drama, Felicity starring Kerri Russel, Scott Speedman and Scott Foley.

Riley wrote 7 scripts for the show and even worked closely with the shows creator J.J. Abrams.

The con came to an abrupt end when a former employer ratted her out in 1998. A casting director that once used Riley as a babysitter, saw her in a magazine and called her connections debunking the 19-year-old prodigy writers story.

Watch CultofMegs break down the details flawlessly below:

@cultofmegs I love a good Hollywood “Catch Me If You Can” scam story! #90s #90skids #90sthrowback #2000s #2000sthrowback #nostalgia #storytime #fyp #viral #romanempire #rileyweston #felicity #hollywood #scandal ♬ original sound - Megs

Fans Show Riley Weston Support on TikTok in 2025

The video, which was posted on several social media platforms, has garnered 15.1 thousand likes on TikTok and over 212,000 views in a 16 hour time frame.

While Riley/Kimberly's story is a wild ride and some may think it was a con, the comment section praises the entertainer. One comment, with over 300 likes, states:

I’m really not mad at her at all.

Another reading "She’s kinda amazing for this. She beat them at their own game …. At least she tried to." Several of the comments agree that Hollywood looks at women of a certain age differently.

Others compare Riley's real life story to the fictional plot line of the television show Younger starring Sutton Foster.

It looks like Riley Weston is still performing. Getty Images captured photos of her performance at the 2024 Dance Party to End ALZ Benefiting the Alzheimer's Association at AVALON Hollywood in October.

Personally, I think if Kimberly/Riley did this in 2025 she would get praised for trying to beat the Hollywood ageism system.