Everybody knows her name! Olivia Rodrigo got her start as a Disney Channel darling and has since taken over the music world — and beyond.
The California native made her TV debut as Paige Olvera in Bizaardvark, whom she played for three seasons, from 2016 to 2019. Then, she nabbed a starring role in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Amid appearing on the Disney+ series as Nini Salazar-Roberts, Olivia released her debut single, “Drivers License,” in January 2021.
“Everyone’s like, ‘What a weird life, huh?’ But I don’t know, it’s probably not unlike the drastic change that another kid at 18 would have going to college,” the actress told The Los Angeles Times in December 2021 about her whirlwind rise to fame.
Months after Olivia released her first-ever single, the songstress dropped her debut album, Sour, in May 2021. Since the record’s release, her songwriting has been praised by listeners who have also compared her to Taylor Swift.
“I’ve only ever seen myself as a songwriter,” the “Good 4 U” songstress also told the Los Angeles Times. “I remember the first time an article said, ‘Olivia Rodrigo is the next big pop star’ — I was like, There are so many things that go along with ‘pop star’ that I never thought I’d be. But I’ll take it.”
Despite the constant headlines featuring her name, one thing Olivia stays away from is her Instagram comments section.
“Sometimes you see one thing and then you’re thinking about it all day,” she explained during her Los Angeles Times interview. “It’s the antithesis of good creativity.”
After booking a headlining tour and with the hope of a highly anticipated second album on the way, fans wondered if she would return to the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Olivia confirmed her season 3 return in December 2021.
“I just feel like sometimes there’s so much noise and criticism and weird things going on in the world,” she told Teen Vogue in October 2021 about dealing with fame. “I hope people know that deep down, all that I do is write songs and talk about how I feel, and that’s the most important thing to me. Everything else, I think, is not so important.”
Olivia added: “A hard thing for me to grapple with when this whole thing started happening is just, anyone can say anything. You just can’t control … That goes for anyone, like, girls going to high school.”
Scroll through our gallery to see how Olivia has changed over the years.
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