Sofia Carson, the actress who has become Netflix’s latest sure thing

“What I do – and my love and passion for art, film and music – is so much more than what I do. It’s who I am.” This is how Sofia Carson, 32, defines her acting career.

Her dream began as a child. Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of Colombian descent, she always knew that, one day, she would be an artist. She was so sure of it that, at the age of 18, she packed her bags, bought a one-way ticket and moved to Los Angeles, in order to pursue her dream of becoming someone important in the film industry.

Today, Sofia Carson can boast about being one of the most frequent faces in Netflix productions. She has become a safe bet for the streaming platform. So much so that, on Saturday, May 31, she was in charge of hosting Tudum, Netflix’s annual event where the company shares its much-anticipated new releases. Thousands of people around the world follow the updates. “This is like coming full circle,” Carson said, in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE.

But the road to get here wasn’t easy at all. Before rising to fame thanks to her role as Evie in the Disney Channel production Descendants (2015), Carson tried her hand at music. “Every single night, I was up until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, on my piano in my dorm, trying not to wake up my roommate. I would write a song every night,” she explained in a 2019 interview with Cosmopolitan. This was when a record label had asked her to submit a demo album. She didn’t convince them. “It was obviously heartbreaking,” she confessed.

She undertook her musical projects while also majoring in Communications and International Relations at UCLA. On top of that, she would prepare for acting auditions: “I think I probably [went] on 200 auditions in that year,” she told Cosmopolitan.

Finally, she received the call to play one of the leads in Descendants, a role that Zendaya had also auditioned for. “I thought, never in a million years am I going to get it. I had just finished final exams when I got a call from my agent saying that I got the part,” she recounted last March in an interview with The New York Times. She knew it was the opportunity of a lifetime and jumped at the chance: “It’s a combination of preparation – preparing as much as you physically can – passion, luck and a little bit of pixie dust,” she told Cosmopolitan.

After that, new made-for-TV movies related to the teen franchise continued to arrive. However, she quickly disengaged from it, to instead focus her efforts on other projects that meant something to her. “Facing the grandness of all that was coming my way, even though it was, of course, overwhelming, was much easier than if I was a child,” she told the American newspaper.

Her career path has been nothing like what one would expect from an actress from the Disney Channel who’s just beginning to take her first steps in the film industry. She’s been able to choose what she wants and discard what she doesn’t wish to pursue. She can decide to be the kind of performer she wants to be, without allowing anyone to label her.

“Not taking the pop star route has felt natural to me,” she mused in the aforementioned interview, adding: “I find such joy and fulfillment from storytelling through film. And I also am finding a lot of joy in doing a music career my way.”

Carson has faced criticism for being clear about what she wants and not letting herself be manipulated: “I would be offered songs that, to me, were demeaning toward women, that were derogatory, that were too sexual. Songs that I wasn’t comfortable singing. I was told by one of the most powerful executives in the industry that if I didn’t wear less clothing, sing more about sex or curse more, I would never make it,” she recalled, while speaking with The New York Times.

In 2020, she got her first break with Netflix, starring in the film Feel the Beat. Other projects followed, such as Songbird (2020), Purple Hearts (2022), and Carry-On (2024). Her latest major project – The Life List (2025) – was released in March. Her next film – My Oxford Year (2025) – will be released in August, also on the streaming platform. And she’ll star alongside Elisabeth Moss in Last Night at the Lobster, a film that’s already in pre-production. At the moment, it’s unknown whether it will be released in theaters or via a streaming platform.

Carson is already a safe bet as an actress in romantic dramas, but she knows what types of roles not to accept. “Telling the stories of extraordinary women has always been paramount for me in my career and the roles I choose to play. I wanted to ensure I wasn’t playing a damsel in distress in a male-driven action movie,” she explained, in an interview with the US edition of ¡Hola! in December of 2024.

Focused on acting, music has become a secondary passion. In 2022, she released her first and only album, titled Sofia Carson. She has over four million listeners on Spotify and continues to release singles from time to time.

“When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being lucky enough to be an artist. I would listen to Andrea Bocelli and tell my mom that the day I was fortunate enough to sing with him would be when all my dreams would come true. And this year, I got to live that dream many times, which is extraordinary,” she confessed to ¡Hola!

Duets (30th Anniversary) – the fourth compilation album put out by the Italian singer – includes Carson, along with other stars such as Karol G, Céline Dion, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. “Singing with him is everything and so much more than I could have ever imagined. There’s something just so magical that happens when we hold hands and harmonize together (...) it feels like heaven,” she sighed.

In her rise to fame, Carson has also learned that the loudspeaker she wields can help raise awareness about global causes. She’s been a UNICEF ambassador since 2020 and has participated with the organization on humanitarian trips. “The greatest honor of my life is being an ambassador for UNICEF. It’s the most significant role that I’ll ever play. I was very lucky to travel with them earlier this year to Tanzania, where I went on a field trip with an incredible team and watched the work that they’ve done around girls’ empowerment and girls’ education.”

Carson has also achieved something unusual in the industry: completely separating her personal and professional lives. She doesn’t share details about her private life, nor does she give away too many details about what she does off-camera. Everything related to her relationships remains a mystery. On her Instagram account – where she has more than 20 million followers – she practically only posts work-related content. What is certain is that she’s become an essential piece of the Netflix puzzle.

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