Sofia Carson: The Disney Channel To Mainstream Celebrity Pipeline Has Evolved

I am fascinated by Sofia Carson.

I admittedly had never heard of her before Netflix’s original rom-com The Life List captivated audiences earlier this year, but as I looked into her career and filmography, I arrived at one very important conclusion/hypothesis: The Disney Channel star to mainstream celebrity pipeline has evolved.

When I was in high-school, watching people my own age charm and entertain my younger sister (who is six years younger than me) I negotiated a living-room cease-fire deal by allowing Hannah Montana to play on the TV during that gap of time between school and my parents arriving home from work where I was “in-charge”.

By the time I reached college, that same generation of starlets, which included Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez, was breaking into mainstream media with major record deals and going through the problematic, overly-sexualized transition pioneered by Britney Spears also known as “not a girl, not yet a woman”.

Fast-forward to today, and we think of these same starlets (and their careers) as completely separated from the Disney Channel and its media machine. They’ve succeeded in casting that part of their history aside, like a spaceship that jettisons its rocket boosters as it reaches higher and higher altitudes.

But that spaceship formula has changed, or I’ve simply become more oblivious as I’ve gotten older. I opt for the former hypothesis because I refuse to underestimate the reach of consumerism. If the trend is big enough, it’s going to creep into retail and register on our radar, whether we are the intended customer or not. Hannah Montana wasn’t just a teenie-bopper trend, she was a household name, worthy of Jeopardy question status.

But now Carson is joining the ranks of a different kind of club, one headed up by Sabrina Carpenter, Keke Palmer, and Zendaya—entertainers who were active on the Disney Channel circuit (Nickelodeon in Palmer’s case) in their younger years, but achieved massive fame only after they reached adulthood.

Instead of riding a wave of child-star fame into adulthood, as the first group did, they hone the experience they gained as child entertainers to create a major splash in their adult careers, one that doesn’t necessarily have to separate itself from a juvenile character or musical library. I would argue that Ariana Grande lives in the liminal space between these two groups.

But let’s get back to Carson, who made her Disney debut as a guest star on the series Austin & Ally, and was then cast as Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen, in the Disney musical fantasy film Descendants, and its sequels. She also scored roles in the Disney Channel Original Movies Adventures in Babysitting and A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits. 

Now she’s developed a similar relationship with Netflix, building up a series of straight-to-steaming films ranging from roles as a dance instructor, an aspiring singer with diabetes who enters into an insurance-fraud marriage with a soldier, a pregnant airport employee who is threatened by terrorists, and a millennial woman whose deceased mother is forcing her to confront lost dreams through her last will and testament and a series of pre-recorded DVDs.

The streaming giant also coronated Carson as their golden goose by having her officially host their livestreamed Netflix Tudum 2025 event, which compared her filmography to the MCU, by dubbing it the “Sofia Carson Universe”. Having now watched all four films, I can say they may be getting ahead of themselves, but, if Carson’s upcoming rom-com, My Oxford Year, arrives to rave reviews this Friday that are on par with The Life List, she might just be on her way to household name status.