Caroline Mohr Sunshine (born September 5, 1995) is an American political aide and former actress, who previously worked as a White House staffer during the

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

administration in 2018. As an actress, she is best known for her co-starring role as flashy, rude European exchange student Tinka Hessenheffern on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

series '' Shake It Up''. Sunshine has also appeared in the feature film ''Marmaduke'' (2010) and the

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

film ''The Outfield'' (2015).

Early life

Caroline Sunshine was born on September 5, 1995, in Atlanta, Georgia, to parents Thom and Karen Sunshine. She was raised in

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

, and has two younger brothers, Johnny and Christopher. Sunshine began studying ballet at the age of 3 and landed her first lead role playing

Goldilocks "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an impudent old woman who enters the forest home of three anthropomorphic bachelor bears while th ...

in a kindergarten play. She later moved on to acting with the Orange County Children's Theater and dancing competitively with the South Coast Performing Arts studio in

Tustin, California Tustin is a city located in Orange County, California, United States, within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2020, Tustin had a population of 80,276. The city does not include the unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated communit ...

Career

Acting

In 2004 Sunshine started in theater and her stage credits include '' Annie Warbucks'' at the Orange County Children's Theatre, ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' at the Academy of Dance and South Coast Performing Arts, and ''

Stage Door ''Stage Door'' is a 1937 American Tragicomedy, tragicomedy film directed by Gregory La Cava, and starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Samuel S. Hinds, and Lucille Ball. Adapt ...

'' at the Lutheran High School of Orange County. In 2006, Sunshine began going to professional auditions at the age of 11, and landed her first role in a commercial for Amazing Allysen the talking doll, as well as commercial work for Yoplait Go-Gurt, and Cap'n Crunch. In 2010, Sunshine filmed her first pilot for the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

sitcom, ''Team Spitz'', co-starring as the teenage daughter of a high school coach played by Rob Riggle. In the summer of that same year, she gained popular notoriety for her role as Barbara Winslow in her first feature film, ''

Marmaduke ''Marmaduke'' is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson (cartoonist), Brad Anderson from November 15, 1954 to 2015. Publication history The strip was created by wri ...

'', based on the

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

of the same name. In the fall of 2010, Sunshine landed what would become her most famous role as a co-star on the

original series, '' Shake It Up'' as European exchange student, Tinka Hessenheffer alongside

Kenton Duty Jeffrey Kenton Duty (born May 12, 1995) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for his recurring role as "young Jacob" on the final season of the ABC primetime drama, '' Lost'', and for his co-starring role as the flamboyan ...

as her flamboyant twin brother, Gunther Hessenheffer. The glitzy brother/sister duo of Gunther and Tinka is said to be inspired by Ryan and Sharpay Evans of Disney's ''

High School Musical ''High School Musical'' is a 2006 American Musical film, musical television film produced by and aired on Disney Channel as part of the network's List of Disney Channel original films, slate of original television films. The first installmen ...

'' franchise. She was a recurring cast member during the first season, but was promoted to a regular character for the second and third seasons. The series ended in November 2013. Sunshine appeared on the

Christmas album '' Holidays Unwrapped''; her cover version of "

All I Want for Christmas Is You "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from her fourth studio album and first holiday album, ''Merry Christmas'' (1994). She wrote and produced the song with Walter Afanasieff. It was released a ...

" was featured as the tenth song on the album. In June 2014 she filmed a Freeform

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

called '' Recovery Road'' based on Blake Nelson's novel of the same name, in which she co-starred alongside Samantha Logan. Neither Sunshine nor Logan would appear in the actual series, however. Logan was replaced by Jessica Sula and Sunshine's character was removed from the script. During 2015, Sunshine appeared the television film ''Go Four Broke'' as Tiffani Brand. Earlier that year, she appeared in the big screen production of ''

The Outfield The Outfield were an English pop rock band formed in London in 1984. The band achieved success in the mid-1980s and are best remembered for their hit single "Your Love (The Outfield song), Your Love". The band's lineup consisted of guitarist J ...

''. After appearing in the television film ''Mommy I Didn't Do It'' in 2017 as Sylvie Garrett, Sunshine retired from acting to become a White House staffer the following year.

Activism

In February 2011, Sunshine became the spokesmodel for the teen fragrance "Puppy Love 4 Girlz". "Puppy Love" Fragrances is committed to helping homeless dogs and puppies, with a portion of all proceeds of the perfume going to local animal shelters. In May 2011, Sunshine was named one of ''Dream Magazine's'' "Top 16 Under 16". In addition to her work with "Puppy Love", Sunshine is involved in several other charitable causes including the "Joyful Sewing Organization," which makes blankets for cancer patients, "Working Wardrobes," which provides assistance to underprivileged women and victims of domestic abuse, the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center, which offers in-home parenting classes to families to break the generational cycle of abuse, the "Adopt A Hero" program, which provides for the needs of soldiers and their families; the "Loaves and Fishes Ministry" which helps to feed the homeless, and the "Thirst Project," which is dedicated to providing clean drinking water to communities in developing nations.

Politics

Sunshine became involved in politics as a

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

intern during the Trump Administration in January 2018, receiving a full-time job as a press assistant by mid-March 2018. Prior to this role, Sunshine had interned for the office of

Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January until he was Remova ...

, then the House Majority Leader; the College Republican National Committee; and the

California Republican Party The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Corrin Rankin. As of October 2023, Republicans represent app ...

. In February 2023, Sunshine became the press secretary and communications director for Eric Doden, a

gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

candidate for Indiana governor. In December 2023, Sunshine was hired as the press secretary for

Vivek Ramaswamy Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy (born August 9, 1985) is an American entrepreneur and politician. He founded Roivant Sciences, a Biotechnology, biotech Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical company in 2014 and was its Chief executive officer, CEO ...

's 2024 presidential campaign. In June 2024, Sunshine was re-hired by

, as the Deputy Communications Director of his 2024 presidential campaign.

Personal life

Sunshine is a graduate of

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

, and Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, California.

Filmography

{, class="wikitable sortable" , + Film roles , - ! Year ! Title ! Role , - , 2010 , ''

'' , Barbara Winslow , - , 2015 , ''

'' , Emily Jordan {, class="wikitable sortable" , + Television roles , - ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" , Notes , - , 2008 , ''What's the Word?'' , Herself , Episode: "Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board" , - , 2010–2013 , '' Shake It Up'' , Tinka Hessenheffer , Recurring role ( season 1); main role (seasons 2– 3); 45 episodes , - , 2012 , '' A.N.T. Farm'' , Ella , Episode: "

Some enchANTed evening "Some Enchanted Evening" is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical '' South Pacific''. It has been described as "the single biggest popular hit to come out of any Rodgers and Hammerstein show." Mast, Gerald''Can't Help Sing ...

" , - , 2014 , ''

Fish Hooks A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English ''angol'' and Proto-Germanic ''*angulaz''), is a hook used to fishing, catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish jaw, fish mouth (angling) or, ...

'' , Alexis , Voice; episode " Algae Day/Bea Saves a Tree" , - , 2017 , ''Mommy I Didn't Do It'' , Sylvie Garrett , Television film

Stage

{, class="wikitable sortable" ! Year ! Title ! Role , - , 2004 , '' Annie Warbucks'' , Orphan , - , 2005 , ''

'' , Doll , - , 2006 , ''

'' , Annie

Discography

Promotional singles

{, class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" ! scope="col", Year ! scope="col" style="width:22em;", Song ! scope="col", Album , - , 2012 ! scope="row" , "

Roam "Roam" is a song by American New wave music, new wave band the B-52's released as the third single from their fifth studio album, ''Cosmic Thing'' (1989). The vocals are sung by Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson. The B-52's worked with a co-writer, R ...

"
(with Davis Cleveland,

and Adam Irigoyen) , '' Treasure Buddies''

Other appearances

{, class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" ! scope="col", Year ! scope="col" style="width:18em;" , Title ! scope="col", Album , - , rowspan="2", 2012 ! scope="row", "The Star I R" , '' Shake It Up: Live 2 Dance'' , - ! scope="row", "All I Want For Christmas Is You" , ''

Disney Channel Holiday Playlist ''Disney Channel Holiday Playlist'' (titled '' Family® Holiday Playlist'' in Canadahttps://music.amazon.ca/albums/B07BB1TLNX ) is a 2012 holiday music album released on October 2, 2012 in the United States, and November 2, 2012 in Canada. The alb ...

'' , - , rowspan="1", 2013 ! scope="row", "Afterparty" (with

Roshon Fegan Roshon Bernard Fegan (born October 6, 1991), known mononymously as Roshon (stylized as ROSHON, formerly stylized as RO SHON), is an American actor, rapper, and dancer. He is best known for his role as Ty Blue on the Disney Channel original ser ...

) , '' Shake It Up: I <3 Dance''

Awards and nominations

{, class="wikitable" , - ! Year ! Award ! Category ! Work ! Result ! Ref. , - , 2011 , rowspan=2,

Young Artist Awards The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

, rowspan=2, Outstanding Young Ensemble in a TV Series
(shared with

Bella Thorne Annabella Avery Thorne (born October 8, 1997) is an American actress, singer, and writer. She first received recognition for her roles as Margaux Darling in the series '' Dirty Sexy Money'' (2007–2008) and as Ruthy Spivey in the drama series ...

Zendaya Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman ( ; born September 1, 1996) is an American actress and singer. List of awards and nominations received by Zendaya, Her accolades include two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award. I ...

, Davis Cleveland,

, Adam Irigoyen and

) , rowspan=2, '' Shake It Up'' , , style="text-align:center;" , , - , 2012 , , style="text-align:center;" ,

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunshine, Caroline 1995 births Living people 21st-century American actresses Actors from Orange County, California Actresses from Atlanta Actresses from California American child actresses American film actresses American press secretaries American stage actresses American television actresses California Republicans Claremont McKenna College alumni Georgia (U.S. state) Republicans First Trump administration personnel