After her album “Short n' Sweet” became No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, Sabrina Carpenter was nominated for several 2025 Grammy Awards.
Many of her fans know her for her music, but there are others who know her from her Disney Channel days.
So how did she go from being a child actress to a pop sensation? Here’s what happened.
A Disney Channel breakthrough
According to Biography, Carpenter started her acting career at age 11 when she made appearances in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” as well as “Phineas and Ferb.”
Her big break came in 2014, when she played the lead, Maya Hart, in the Disney Channel series “Girl Meets World,” a reboot of the ’90s show “Boy Meets World.” The show went on to have three seasons.
After acting in other Disney films and shows, she got roles in various popular movies such as:
- “The Hate U Give” (2018)
- “Tall Girl” (2019)
- “Tall Girl 2” (2022)
- “The Short History of the Long Road” (2019)
- “Work It” (2020)
- “Emergency” (2022)
Transforming to a popstar
Following in the footsteps of other Disney stars like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, Carpenter’s time with Disney also brought her talent as a singer to light.
Her very first record deal was with Disney Music Group’s Hollywood Records, when she was 12 years old, where she released four albums:
- “Eyes Wide Open” (2015)
- “EVOLution” (2016)
- “Singular Act I” (2018)
- “Singular Act II” (2019)
The pandemic changed things for many people and Carpenter was no exception.
“For the people who love those early records and listen to them, I love you for that,” she told Variety. “But I personally feel a sense of separation from them, largely due to the shift in who I am as a person and as an artist, pre-pandemic and post-pandemic.”
In January 2021, Carpenter signed with a new record company, Island Records. The next month, her new song “Skin” hit No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The hits kept coming as she released “Feather,” which hit No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. In 2024, “Espresso” rose to No. 3 on the Hot 100, with “Please Please Please” quickly following and becoming her first “Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper,” according to Biography.
Carpenter’s fame also took off when she was asked to open for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” in Latin America, Australia and Singapore.
Carpenter told Biography that Swift and others have been great mentors to her, especially in her rapid rise to fame.
“It’s no accident that everything is falling into place the way she always wanted,” Island Records co-CEO Imran Majid told Variety. “Sabrina’s instincts and creative vision are incredible. She’s always thinking 10 steps ahead of the market.”