Christy Romano

Christy Carlson Romano (born March 20, 1984) is an American actress, podcaster, and singer. On the Disney Channel, she played Ren Stevens on ''Even Stevens'' and voiced the titular character from ''Kim Possible''.

Early life

Romano was born on March 20, 1984, 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

Film and television

Romano made her Broadway debut in 1998 as Mary Phagan in the musical ''Parade'' by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown. In 2002, she 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''. Romano 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''.

Romano 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''. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information. Throughout her teens and twenties, she 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' ''Joan of Arcadia,'' The WB's '' Summerland'', and TNT's '' Hawthorne.''

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. Romano 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. 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.

On November 15, 2024, Fox announced that Romano was one of fifteen contestants to appear in the third season of reality quasi-military training television series '' Special Forces: World's Toughest Test''.

Podcasts

Romano hosts several podcasts. She hosts ''Vulnerable'' where she interviews former child stars. She also hosts ''I Hear Voices'' with her former ''Kim Possible'' co-star Will Friedle. She also hosts ''Even More Stevens'' with her former ''Even Stevens'' co-stars Nick Spano and Steven Anthony Lawrence.

In 2023, Romano launched a company called PodCo, a podcast network that focuses 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.

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'', a compilation of previously released soundtrack appearances and new material. 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.

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. They have two daughters.

On February 7, 2025, Romano was shot in her right eye during a clay pigeon shooting outing with Rooney for his 42nd birthday, which was accidentally caused by another party. Rooney assessed the situation and had Romano taken to a hospital. Some of the shrapnel was removed, but one shotgun pellet fragment was lodged behind her eye and was left alone due to being too risky to remove. In June 2025, Romano spoke publicly about the shooting. She revealed that the fragment lodged behind her eye remained, along with another pellet fragment in her forehead.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Theater

Discography

Album

* '' Greatest Disney TV & Film Hits'' (2004)

Cast recording

* ''Parade'' – Original Cast Recording (1999)

Other album appearances

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Romano, Christy Carlson
1984 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
American child actresses
American child singers
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American people of Italian descent
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American film and television podcasters
Food and cooking YouTubers
Atlantic Records artists
Barnard College alumni
Actresses from Connecticut
Disney people
Singers from Connecticut
Actresses from Manhattan
People from Milford, Connecticut