Maia Mitchellwas born and raised in Australia, though some fans might not realize it, since so many of her most popular projects have been produced in America and have her donning a different accent. Her big break was through Australian television in shows aimed at kids and families, and that trend allowed her to break through to a worldwide audience on the Disney Channel.
Mitchell has spent a lot of her professional acting career in the United States, but in 2022 she returned to Australia when the nation was experiencing a flooding crisis. Since then, she’s been an advocate for combating climate change, something she speaks on in between acting jobs. On the way, she’s got a few thrillers and horror projects, including the adaptation of the video gameUntil Dawn, but these projects are her best so far.
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Mortified is an Australian family series that aired for two seasons. The sitcom is something that would likely be at home on networks like Disney or Nickelodeon. The show also happened to beMitchell’s first professional acting gig.
The show followed a young girl whose family’s outlandish antics always embarrassed her. She found solace in her best friend. Mitchell didn’t play any of those characters, but instead, another young girl who lived nearby who often competed with the main character. While the two could be friendly, they often ended up at odds. She booked the role when she was just 12.
Mitchell’s work onMortifiedopened doors in the Australian acting market for her. She followed it up with the seriesTrappedand its sequelCastaway, all of which helped to showcase her growing acting talent.
Mortifiedwon Best Children’s Television Drama from the Australian Film Institute Awards and the Australian Teachers of Media Awards.
Teen Beach 2
Cast
Teen Beach 2 follows high school students Brady and Mackenzie as they find themselves intertwined with characters from a 1960s beach movie musical. Navigating both real-life and movie-world challenges, their adventures explore relationships, friendship, and the clash between different cultures and eras. Directed by Jeffrey Hornaday, this Disney Channel sequel continues the themes of musical exuberance and youthful escapades from its predecessor, Teen Beach Movie.
It used to be very rare for Disney Channel Original Movies to get sequels. Movies likeHalloweentownandHigh School Musicalhelped to change that. A lot more Disney Channel properties are given the chance to tell more stories with the same characters now, like with theTeen Beach Moviesequel.
It’s not quite as good as the original, but that’s not the fault of the cast. The movie sees the characters in the movie within the movie transported to the real world in this sequel. Mack and Brady (Ross Lynch) have to show their new friends how to get by in the modern day, which is very different from the 1960s beach musical life they’re used to.
Much like the first movie, Mack helps her new female friends realize that they don’t simply have to be someone’s love interest or backup singer, but can live their own lives.
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Hot Summer Nights
Daniel, a sheltered teenager, spends a wild summer in Cape Cod, getting entangled in the local drug trade with a rebellious partner. As he falls for his partner’s mysterious sister, Daniel’s life spirals out of control amidst the tension of love, crime, and growing up.
Maia Mitchell has appeared in a handful of thrillers alongside the family fare of her career so far.Hot Summer Nightsis one of the less successful of the batch, but it does offer a stellar cast alongside her.
The movie follows Daniel (Timothée Chalamet), a young man who is set to spend his summer with relatives in Cape Cod, though he doesn’t really want to go. His summer vacation becomes complicated when he takes a job at a convenience store that sees him hiding drugs from the police for another teenager who comes in. The two end up going into business together, working for the same dealer.
Daniel dates the daughter (Maia Mitchell) of the police officer on the trail and the younger sister (Maika Monroe) of his business partner at the same time, further complicating his life.Hot Summer Nightsdoesn’t have the most satisfying of endings for any of the characters involved, but it does demonstrate how easy it is for someone to get in over their heads.
Mitchell’s relationship with Disney means that in addition to appearing in DCOMs and guest starring in some live-action shows for the network, she also voiced animated characters for Disney Junior.One of the animated projects in which Mitchell appears isThe Lion Guard.
Mitchell only appears in a handful of episodes throughout the show’s run as Jasiri. The animated series follows Kion (voiced by Max Charles and Aaron Daniel Jacob), the son of Simba and Nala, who is in charge of leading the titular group. The Lion Guard is the group of lions responsible for protecting the Pride Lands and the show’s story takes place right before and during the events ofThe Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.
Mitchell’s Jasiri is the leader of a group of hyenas. She leads a resistance against Scar and allies herself with Kion.
Sitting in Bars With Cake
Based on a true story, Sitting in Bars With Cake is a romantic comedy-drama that follows best friends Corrine and Jane as they explore their twenties in Los Angeles, California. After Corrine convinces her friend Jane to break out of her shell and bring her baking talents to the masses, she receives a medical diagnosis that pushes the two into uncharted territory - changing their lives forever.
…compared to classic stories of female friendship likeBeachesandSteel Magnolias…
Maia Mitchell doesn’t play a large role inSitting In Bars With Cake, but it does add a different kind of movie to her resume. The movie has been compared to classic stories of female friendship likeBeachesandSteel Magnoliasbecause of its premise and its two central characters.
The story is built around Corinne (Odessa A’zion), who is extroverted and encouraging for her much shier friend Jane (Yara Shahidi). As a way to get Jane to meet more people and put herself out there, Corinne encourages Jane to bake a new cake every week and they’ll share it at a new bar every week for an entire year. The idea is inspired when Jane brings a birthday cake she’s made for Corinne out with them. Unfortunately for the duo, Corinne gets a surprising and life-changing diagnosis that threatens to derail them.
The movie got mostly positive reviews from critics and wasawarded Best Feature from The ReFrame Stamp, which is an organization that examines gender equality and rewards productions that aim to have more representation for women in the film industry.
…a modern-day comedy of errors…
Many of Mitchell’s best roles demonstrate her great comedic abilities. While that’s most often seen in her more family-friendly projects,Never Goin’ Backalso is a great showcase for her flare for comedy.
Never Goin’ Backis in the vein of classic buddy comedies likeDazed and Confused.The movie follows Angela (Mitchell) and Jessie (Camila Morrone), a pair of best friends who also happen to be waitresses and high school dropouts just looking to have a good time. They want to take a vacation but find everything stacked against them when their roommate uses their portion of the rent money in a bad drug deal, their home is broken into, they end up arrested for possession, and they get fired from their job.
It’s a modern-day comedy of errors for these two, and the actors really pull off the heightened sense of comedy in the movie.It’s both a stoner comedy and a coming-of-age film for the teenage protagonists, and easily some of Mitchell’s funniest work.
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Teen Beach Movie
Teen Beach Movie is a Disney Channel musical film where teenage surfers Mack and Brady accidentally transport themselves into a 1960s beach movie. There, they find themselves entangled in a rivalry between bikers and surfers, jeopardizing the plot of the film and their own chances of returning home. The film stars Ross Lynch and Maia Mitchell and features a mix of modern and nostalgic musical numbers.
Mitchell might have worked for Disney before appearing inTeen Beach Movie, but this DCOM was her breakout role in the United States.
The movie sees Mack (Mitchell) and Brady (Ross Lynch) about to be separated when Mack leaves to attend the private school her mother wanted to send her to before her death. Before she goes, Mack decides to surf a massive wave, and she and Brady end up swept up by it - right into Brady’s favorite surf musical.
The movie is an homage to beach movies of the past, but it has a lot of thesensibilities ofHigh School Musicalwhile it riffs onWest Side Story. (The movie within the movie is even calledWet Side Story.)Teen Beach Movieshowcases Mitchell’s comedic abilities as well as her musical talents. Though Mitchell sings and plays the guitar in real life, she’s never pursued a career as a musician.
Maia Mitchell also starred in the pilot ofZombies and Cheerleadersa year beforeTeen Beach Moviefor Disney Channel. It didn’t move forward, but was eventually reworked intoZombies, the 2018 DCOM starring Meg Donnelly.
The Artful Dodger
The Artful Dodger is a Hulu original series that delves into the double life of Charles Dicken’s famous character, Jack Dawkins, from his novel Oliver Twist. The crime drama stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Jack Dawkins, alongside David Thewlis and Maia Mitchell.
…the series was developed for a limited run…
There likely aren’t very many people who would have been interested in a follow-up to Charles Dickens’sOliver Twistbefore this series premiered. Period pieces, however, have increased in popularity thanks to the steamy romance ofBridgertonand the thrilling drama ofThe Terror.The Artful Dodger,however, is more like a hybrid of a medical and crime drama.
Following the events ofOliver Twist,Dodger has gone from a child pickpocket to a Royal Navy surgeon named Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster). When thieving figures from his past resurface while he works in Australia, his life becomes more complicated than it already is. He agrees to help with one last job, but as he does, he also agrees to help train the governor’s daughter (Mitchell) in medicine.
It used to be that in period dramas, the main female character would be little more than a love interest. Here,Lady Belle Fox bucks tradition, speaks her mind, and takes her future into her own hands in the hope of becoming the first female surgeon in Australia. Mitchell is perfect for the role.
The only downside is that the series was developed for a limited run, intending to only be a single season, so it’s unlikely audiences will get to see more of the story.
The Fosters
Airing between 2013 and 2018, The Fosters is a family-style Drama that was created by Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige and lasted six seasons. The plot revolves around a multi-ethnic blended family and the daily struggles they go through.
After appearing in Teen Beach Movie, Mitchell likely had quite a few young fans follow her toThe Fosters. The series premiered on Freeform, then still ABC Family, to showcasea modern take on what it means to be a family.
Callie (Mitchell) and her younger brother are placed in a foster family consisting of two moms, their son from one of their first marriages, and their adopted son and daughter.Callie is initially the more troubledof the two, unsure if this placement will work, full of sarcasm, but unflinchingly loyal to her little brother. She decides to try her best to make the placement work because she believes it will be best for her brother, not necessarily for her, and that begins a season-long story of their journey to become a family.
The show goes heavy on the melodrama for some storylines, butas a result of that melodrama, it gives the entire cast a chance to show off their acting range, including Mitchell, who gets some pretty emotional storylines.
The series was nominated for multiple GLAAD Media Awards and NAACP Image Award during its run.
Good Trouble
Two sisters move to Los Angeles to start their careers and navigate adult life. They settle in a communal living space, where they encounter diverse neighbors and face various personal and professional challenges.
Mitchell’s best project to date wouldn’t have been possible withoutThe Fosters.Good Troubleis a sequel series, or a spinoff,starring Maia Mitchell and Sierra Ramirez fromThe Fosters.Ramirez played Mitchell’s adopted sister in the original show and the spinoff saw the two move to Los Angeles following a timeskip to pursue their careers.
Callie worked as a law clerk during the show while her sister was a software engineer.The series was as much about the two of them trying to find a way to do good in the world as it was about the relationships they formed with those who lived in the same apartment complexas them. It provides a fantastic balance of soapy relationship storylines and real social issues.
Though only the first season has aggregated critical reviews on the site, Good Trouble holds a perfect 100% onRotten Tomatoesfrom critics, which is rare for television.Maia Mitchellleft the series during the fourth season to move back to her native Australia, but she agreed to appear for guest spots instead of walking away from the show. Her character went to work for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) across the country, but would still communicate with her sister through video calls.
