Sofia Lauren Daccarett Char (born April 10, 1993), known professionally as Sofia Carson, is an American actress and singer. Her first appearance on television was as a guest star on the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally. In 2015, she received recognition as Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen, in the Disney musical fantasy film Descendants, and later reprised her role in its sequels. She has since starred in the Netflix romantic drama film Purple Hearts (2022).
Carson made her musical debut in 2015 with the soundtrack album for Descendants, and in the same year released the single “Rotten to the Core“. In 2016, she signed to Hollywood Records and released her debut solo single, “Love Is the Name“. In 2022, she released her debut studio album. And she sang the Oscar nominated song “Applause” written by Diane Warren for the film Tell It Like a Woman, which led to a performance at the 95th Academy Awards.
She went to St. Hugh School and graduated from Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami. She attended In Motion Dance Studio, where she was part of the IMPAC Youth Ensemble program, competing across the United States. She subsequently attended UCLA, majoring in communications with a minor in French.
Carson said she is mainly influenced by pop music and admires artists who “tell stories through their music”, cited 20th-century acts like The Beatles and modern acts like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift as influences.
In 2013, Carson participated in a BMI Latina musical artist showcase. She performed as part of the cast on the 2015 Descendants soundtrack, which reached number one on the Billboard 200, including her single version of “Rotten to the Core“.She was also featured on the Descendants 2 and Descendants 3 soundtracks, which reached numbers 6 and 7, respectively, on the Billboard 200.
In an August 2015 interview Carson stated she was working on her first album. In March 2016, Hollywood Records and Republic Records officially announced that Carson had signed a joint worldwide record deal with both companies. Her debut single was “Love Is the Name“, an interpolation of Opus‘ “Live Is Life“, and was released on April 8, 2016. “Love is the Name” had an alternate version featuring J. Balvin, and a music video with Carson and Balvin was released for that version. Carson released a promotional single on August 26, 2016, entitled “I’m Gonna Love You“. Carson has performed in NBC’s 2015 Thanksgiving Parade, ABC’s Disney Parks Christmas Celebration, Univision’s Feliz 2016 (New Year’s Eve Special), and the 2016 Radio Disney Music Awards, and she was a presenter on ABC’s Disneyland 60th Anniversary Special. She performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 2017 A Capitol Fourth, an annual concert at the United States Capitol in celebration of Independence Day.
On January 27, 2017, she released her single “Back to Beautiful” featuring Alan Walker, and on February 15, 2017, she released the official music video on YouTube. “Back to Beautiful” was written by Julia Michaels, who also wrote Carson’s next single, “Ins and Outs”.
On March 26, 2021, Carson released the single “Fool’s Gold”, produced by Stargate and Jeff Jones. It reached number 38 on the Mainstream Top 40. The song was remixed by Tiësto; his remix, “Fool’s Gold (24 Karat Gold Edition)” was released on April 30, 2021. On May 2, 2021, Carson performed “A Whole New World” (from the 1992 film Aladdin) on American Idol with the show’s nine finalists.
Carson was cast in the co-lead role in the Disney Channel Original Movie Adventures in Babysitting. Filming began in spring 2015, for an early 2016 television premiere.[39] In March 2016.
In July 2022, Purple Hearts was released by Netflix, reaching the number-one position worldwide. Carson will star in the Amblin Entertainment film Carry-On alongside Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman. On May 10, 2023, it was announced that Carson will serve as guest mentor on American Idol on its Disney Night themed episode, mentoring the top 5 contestants.