From Disney darling to mystery show goddess, Olivia Holt has totally made a name for herself over the years!
Before nabbing her starring role as Kate Wallis in Summer 2021’s hit Freeform series Cruel Summer, the actress got her start on DisneyXD as Kim Crawford on the series Kickin’ It. Throughout her time on the series, which lasted for four seasons from 2011 to 2015, Olivia also appeared in the 2012 Disney Channel Original Movie Girl vs. Monster. Two years after the premiere, she nabbed a second Disney series. From 2014 to 2015, she played Lindy Watson in I Didn’t Do It.
“It definitely has been a challenge for me, but I feel like it’s all in baby steps,” she told Entertainment Weekly in May 2017 about making the transition out of her Disney days. “Just like how I may not be ready for something and need to ease my way into it, my fans are the same away, so it’s all a process. I’ve decided I’m just going to take one day and a time and not make any rash decisions and be mindful of who I am. I don’t want to just shock people with something crazy to let them know I’m now mature and ready.”
After I Didn’t Do It came to an end, Olivia went on to star in Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger from 2018 to 2019 and kicked off her music career with her 2016 self-titled Olivia EP. Over the years, she’s released singles like “Bad Girlfriend” and “Love U Again,” among others. In June 2021, she dropped the track “Next,” which she told Entertainment Tonight was the door to her next phase of life.
“I finally had reached a point where I was able to feel confident about my opinions, to be vocal about how I feel about any subject matter. I was in such a special place in my life where I felt like I was the best version of myself, the most confident I had ever been in every category of my life,” Olivia gushed. “This song, I felt like, screamed that to the fullest extent — from the romantic aspect, from the confidence aspect, to the liberating, fun sound it has. It struck the right chord in me, and I knew that it was the next song that I wanted to put out.”
Amid her music release, Olivia was busy making headlines with her Cruel Summer role.
“I just really fell in love with every single aspect of [the show],” the Disney alum told Collider in May 2021. “I was captivated by every single scene and all of the characters and how many layers there are to each character. I was drawn in from the first script and so grateful to be part of this show and this sort of storytelling because it is really unique.”
Scroll through our gallery to see Olivia’s complete transformation over the years.
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