LOS ANGELES — Britney Spear’s career started to light up while she was on the Disney Channel series “The Mickey Mouse Club.” Hilary Duff found fame through “The Lizzie McGuire Show” on, you guessed it, the Disney Channel.
And Miley Cyrus has used “Hanna Montana” — yes, on the Disney Channel — to become the biggest star since … well since Britney.
Now, Demi Lovato, a Texas native, appears to be the next young female headed toward stardom on the Disney Channel express.
Lovato stars in the new cable series “Sonny With a Chance.” She plays a cast member on a kids’ sketch-comedy TV show. Most of the stories will focus on the rivalry between the comic kids and the stars of a teen angst series that films on a neighboring set. The series airs Sunday evenings.
Lovato, 16, never thought she could be funny enough to be the star of a Disney Channel series, though she had been acting and singing professionally since she was 8.
“I had gone through a period of time in school where I had just been dealing with a lot of rejection in my life, especially working in acting and auditioning and not getting anything,” Lovato says.
“I took an entire year off, maybe even a year and a half. But it was when I quit that I realized that I have a true passion for acting.”
Two years ago, she decided to again concentrate on her acting career. She landed a role in the film “Princess Protection Program.” But in “Camp Rock” last year, she showed she had the acting skills and musical experience to be part of the Disney Channel’s parade of teen superstars.
She also sang on the “Camp Rock” soundtrack and had a hit CD with “Don’t Forget.”
Producer Brian Robbins knew about Lovato’s singing ability, but then saw her acting skills in “Camp Rock.” He has a track record of picking young talent. Robbins tapped Nick Cannon for “The Nick Cannon Show” and his “All That” teen comedy series produced Amanda Bynes, Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson.
Robbins says he is in awe of the talent of the actors, including Lovato, in “Sonny With a Chance.”
While Lovato is confident of her music skills, she still is working on comedy and acting.
She’s as confident as a 16-year-old can be, considering she is working on the same channel as megastars Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.
At least she has an escape. When her confidence gets a little shaky, she turns to writing music. She wrote or co-wrote most of her album, “Don’t Forget.”
“I always had it in the back of my head (songwriting), but it never came out of me until about the seventh grade when I started home schooling. Ever since then, I’ve written probably around like 200, 300 songs. And ever since then, it’s kind of like therapy for me.
“It is what I do in my spare time, and I can’t live without it,” Lovato says.
