Christy Carlson Romano

Christy Carlson Romano
Romano in 2019
Born (1984-03-20) March 20, 1984 (age 39)
Alma materBarnard College (BA)
Occupations
  • Actress
  • podcaster
  • singer
Years active1996–present
Television
Spouse
Brendan Rooney
(m. 2013)
Children2
Musical career
GenresPop
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active2000–present
Labels
Notes

Christy Carlson Romano (born March 20, 1984) is an American actress, podcaster, and singer. She is best known for playing Ren Stevens on Even Stevens and voicing the titular character from Kim Possible, both of which aired on the Disney Channel.

Early life

Romano was born in Milford, Connecticut, the youngest of four children of Anthony and Sharon (née Carlson) Romano. Romano was raised Catholic. She is of Italian descent. She began her career at six years old when she was cast in several national tours of Broadway shows, including Annie, The Will Rogers Follies with Keith Carradine, and The Sound of Music with Marie Osmond. She made her first feature film appearance in 1996 as a singing "Chiquita Banana" in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You. She also appeared in Henry Fool (1997) and Looking for an Echo (2000).

Career

Romano in 2009

Acting

Romano made her Broadway debut in 1998 as Mary Phagan in the musical Parade by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown. In 2002, Romano acted in three Disney Channel projects simultaneously, supplementing her work on Even Stevens with a starring role in Cadet Kelly, alongside Hilary Duff, and voice acting as the title character in Kim Possible. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for her work on Kim Possible. The show inspired an adventure scavenger hunt activity at Disney's Epcot which ran for over five years, as well as two Disney Channel movies Kim Possible: So the Drama and Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time.

She voiced Yuffie Kisaragi in the English version of the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, as well as in the Disney/Square game Kingdom Hearts. Throughout her teens and twenties, Romano starred in movies for ABC Family and Disney Channel, including Campus Confidential, Taking Five, The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold, and The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream. Various other appearances include MTV's Kaya, CBS's Joan of Arcadia, The WB's Summerland, and TNT's Hawthorne.[citation needed]

In February 2004, Romano began a 31-week run as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. Romano was the youngest actress to portray the character on Broadway. She reprised the role in Atlanta's 2005 Fox Theatre production of Beauty and the Beast. In September 2008, she joined the Broadway company of Avenue Q as Kate Monster for several weeks. She starred as Michelle off-Broadway in White's Lies at New World Stages in 2010, alongside Betty Buckley and Tuc Watkins.

Romano penned a novel, Grace's Turn, for Disney literary subsidiary Hyperion, which received accolades by the New York Public Library (NYPL) as the 2007 Teenage Book of the Year. In 2012, she directed a music video for Steph Gold's "THE SUN" which was accepted into the Los Angeles Shorts Fest 2012.[citation needed] Amongst other titles, Romano has appeared in many films since her Disney days including Lifetime's Deadly Daycare, Wes Craven's The Girl in the Photographs, Loosies, and Christmas with the Andersons. In March 2016, she directed her first feature, Christmas All Over Again starring Nickelodeon's Sean Ryan Fox and YouTube star Todrick Hall; Lionsgate released the film for Christmas 2016.

Romano appeared as pop star Poppy Blu in the live action Kim Possible television movie which premiered on February 15, 2019. Starting that year, Romano started her own YouTube show called Christy's Kitchen Throwback, in which she would cook recipes with former child actors and Disney stars as guest hosts. In August 2020, it was announced that Romano would host the cooking show Bucket List Bistro for Fox.

Beginning March 4, 2022, Romano and her old Kim Possible co-star Will Friedle began co-hosting a podcast called I Hear Voices available on Romano's YouTube channel and other podcast providers. Among the notable guests have included Eric Bauza, Shelby Young, Kevin Conroy, E.G. Daily, Phil LaMarr, Andrea Romano, Jason Marsden, Dan Povenmire, and Tara Strong. On June 7, 2022, the 20th anniversary of Kim Possible, the podcast had a special episode with creators Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley and voice actors John DiMaggio (Drakken) and Nicole Sullivan (Shego), as well as a brand new Kim Possible scene with the four actors written by McCorkle and Schooley and directed by original voice director Lisa Schaffer.

Music

While working at Disney, Romano recorded songs as part of soundtracks for Kim Possible and other Disney projects. She first sang on the Disney Channel on a musical episode of Even Stevens which led to more singing on the series and with Disney in general. In 2004, Walt Disney Records released Romano's debut album Greatest Disney TV & Film Hits. After her Broadway run of Beauty and the Beast Romano signed a record deal with Jason Flom at Atlantic Records. Flom was fired before Romano released her first album and Romano's deal was not honored. She continued to write music with Kara DioGuardi and The Matrix and placed her songs in several movies.

Other ventures

After her singing career, Romano began narrating audiobooks, including Pop Princess by Rachel Cohn, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin, and Beautiful Blue World by Suzanne M. LaFleur. She also narrated audiobooks To Catch a Killer by Sheryl Scarborough, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong, Kaleidoscope Hearts by Claire Contreras, and the Adventures of Owl Series by Kristi Charish. On August 22, 2006, she published her own novel, Grace's Turn, for which she provided the narration as well.

In 2023, Romano launched a company called PodCo, a podcast network that will focus on rewatches hosted by the stars of popular TV series such as Wizards of Waverly Place, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Even Stevens, and others.

In a 2023 Fox News Digital article Christy stated "I don’t identify as a celebrity at all, by the way. I think ‘public person’ probably makes more sense, or now content creator. I think that the term celebrity is so gross and outdated."

Personal life

After Even Stevens ended, Romano struggled with depression, self-harm, and alcohol abuse during her late teen years and early twenties. Her experience of playing Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway was taxing on her voice, which was already in delicate condition after she had to have surgery to remove vocal nodules right before her audition. She also admitted that she was pushing her voice past its limit in order to get through her run while trying to make Disney Theatrical Productions proud. Romano later attended Barnard College and received her degree in Film Studies.

Romano and writer-producer Brendan Rooney met in February 2011 while she was studying at Barnard College. They became engaged in November and, after two years of engagement, married on December 31, 2013 at the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta. In June 2016, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child; their daughter was born in December 2016. On August 31, 2018, she announced in People that she and Rooney were expecting their second child, a girl, to whom Romano gave birth in February 2019.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1996 Everyone Says I Love You Trick-or-Treat Child
1997 Henry Fool Pearl
1999 Goosed Gail
2000 Looking for an Echo Tina Pirelli
2005 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Yuffie Kisaragi Voice role
2007 Taking Five Danielle Thompson Direct-to-video film
2009 Wolvesbayne Alex Layton
2010 The Legend of Secret Pass Nica Voice role
2010 Suicide Dolls Amber
2010 Movin' In Ann Beck
2010 Mirrors 2 Jenna McCarty Direct-to-video film
2012 Loosies Carmen
2012 Infected Kelly
2013 Lucky Dog Sharon
2014 Prism Grace
2014 Real Love Brie
2014 Bear with Us Quincy Adams
2015 The Girl in the Photographs Britney
2016 Christmas All Over Again Marilyn Direct-to-video film; also director and producer

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1996 The Many Trials of Tammy B Dani Television film
1999 Guiding Light Erica
2000–2003 Even Stevens Ren Stevens Main role
2001 B.S. Andy Brenner Television film
2002 Cadet Kelly Cadet Captain Jennifer Stone Television film
2002–2007 Kim Possible Kimberly Ann "Kim" Possible Lead voice role
2003 The Even Stevens Movie Ren Stevens Television film
2003 Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time Kim Possible Voice role; television film
2004 Joan of Arcadia Officious Hall Monitor God Episode: "The Book of Questions"
2005 Kim Possible: So the Drama Kim Possible Voice role; television film
2005 Summerland Gigi Episode: "Where There's a Will There's a Wave"
2005 Lilo & Stitch: The Series Kim Possible Voice role; episode: "Rufus: Experiment #607"
2005 Campus Confidential Violet Television film
2006 The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold Jackie Dorsey Television film
2006 Family Guy Quagmire's One-Night-Stand Voice role; episode: "I Take Thee, Quagmire"
2006 Casper's Scare School Mantha Voice role; television film
2007 Kaya Kat 3 episodes
2008 The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream Jackie Dorsey Television film
2009 Hawthorne Alex Episode: "Night Moves"
2010 Iris Expanding Zelda Unsold television pilot
2010 The Penguins of Madagascar Little Girl #1 / Lunacorn Voice role; episode: "Hello, Dollface/Huffin and Puffin"
2012 MyMusic The Devil Web series; episode: "Sabotage!"
2014 Deadly Daycare Gabby Television film
2016 Christmas with the Andersons Caroline Television film
2018 Big Hero 6: The Series Trina Voice role
2019 Maternal Instinct Gloria Television film
2019 Kim Possible Poppy Blu Television film

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
2002 Kingdom Hearts Yuffie Voice role
Kim Possible: Revenge of Monkey Fist Kim Possible

Theater

Year Title Role Notes
1998–1999 Parade Mary Phagan Broadway
2004 Beauty and the Beast Belle
2008 Avenue Q Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut
2010 White's Lies Michelle Off-Broadway

Discography

Albums

MySpace Music

Shared Songs (in order of when released):

Song Months/Year the song appeared
"Simple" November 2005 – February 2006
"Headphones On" November 2005 – January/February 2006
"We'll Awaken" March 2006 – June 2006 (following The Cutting Edge 2 TV premiere)
"Wrong" March 2006 – Originally titled "Hope" later retitled to "Wrong"- October 2007
"Closer to Closure" March 2006 – June 2006
"Junky Love" June 2006 – September 2006 and October 2007 – May 2009
"Just a Song" June 2006 – September 2006
"She Waits" September 2006
"A Boy Like You" September 2006 – November 2006
"Changed" September 2006 – November 2006
"No Such Thing" September 2006 – October 2007
"Running Away" September 2006 – November 2006
"Even a Hero" November 2006 – October 2007
"Friday Night (cover of The Click Five)" March 2007
"Rewind" October 2007 – May 2009
"Celebrity" October 2007 – May 2009
"Point of View" January 2009 – May 2009
Soundtracks
Year Song Soundtrack
1996 "Chiquita Banana" Everyone Says I Love You
1998 Various Songs on the original cast recording Parade
2004 "Teacher's Pet" Teacher's Pet (2004 film)
2004 "Anyone But Me" Zenon Z3 Soundtrack
2004 "Toy Town" Radio Disney Jingle Jams
2006 "We'll Awaken" The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold
2006 "Let's Bounce" The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
2007 "Friday Night" Taking Five
"No Such Thing" Taking Five
"Best Time of the Year" Disney Channel Holiday
2008 "Catch Me If You Can" The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream
2010 "Let's Go Boogie Tonight" Movin' In'

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Work Result Refs
2001 Young Artist Award Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series – Leading Young Actress Even Stevens Won
2002 Young Artist Award Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series – Leading Young Actress Even Stevens Won
2003 Young Artist Award Best Young Adult Performer in a Teenage Role The Even Stevens Movie Nominated
2005 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program Kim Possible Nominated

Notes

  1. ^ a b Romano's birthday is March 20. She was 32 years old on December 27, 2016. Her full birthdate, March 20, 1984, is calculated from these two facts.

This page was last updated at 2024-01-27 22:28 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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