Many actors have started their career doing shows for networks like Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. Sometimes, it’s their first ever acting job. For others, it might be their big break. It is easy to count which among the lead stars of a sitcom primarily targeted for a younger audience have since done work for a broader one. Somebody like Miley Cyrus began her career singing songs as a pop star who doesn’t exist. Now, she has done sold out shows. And released music in her own name.
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I do think that it is sort of easy for younger actors to transition from doing kids shows to that of doing shows that appeal to a broader audience. The difficult part is trying to shed the people’s perception of you. I mean, they have spent a good amount of years starring in a show that, honestly, was just okay. People will obviously know you as that star of that one show. But I guess that’s just the first step of stepping into the entertainment industry at large.
One show that I sort of am aware of is “Sonny with a Chance.” The show stars Demi Lovato as the titular character, Sonny Munroe. The premise of it is that Sonny got cast for a sketch comedy show after posting her own sketches online. The show does show clips of the sketch show that they work on. But it mostly focuses on the dynamics between Sonny and the rest of the cast.
Somehow, the show managed to go on for two seasons. Demi Lovato got catapulted to fame, as a lot of lead stars on the Disney Channel do from time to time. The show got picked up for a third season. But Demi had to undergo treatment for her personal struggles. It’s hard to go on with the show without the titular character. So they decided to spinoff the sketch comedy show inside “Sonny” into an actual full-fledged sketch comedy show.
Most of the main cast from “Sonny” came back to reprise their roles for the spinoff. It’s sort of interesting that they were still playing their characters for the spinoff. They kind of stacked characters on top of the characters they already played. Aside from the returning cast, they also hired a bunch of new ones for the spinoff. One of them was Shayne Topp.
There isn’t really much that I could find about Shayne’s early life. His dad was a fighter pilot for the military which meant that he and his family would often move to wherever his dad was based. He spent most of his childhood growing up in Arizona.
Whenever I write about certain personalities, I often notice that there are instances where a certain moment in their life would lead them to the path that they are currently. For musicians, it often had to do with growing up listening to music with their parents. For athletes, it’s mainly just playing the games all throughout high school.
In the case of Shayne Topp, he just got into acting by chance. He took up acting classes with Noah Grossman. He then went on to do a bit of theater stuff here and there. He also did commercials. Soon after, he started doing a bit of film and TV work. One of his performances actually earned him an award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Eventually he got cast in “So Random!”
The show managed to run for that one season. After that, Shayne had a few roles here and there. But he was actually contemplating of moving out of California due to not getting enough work. That was when Noah decided to convince Shayne to join the online comedy channel Smosh. He did manage to join the cast in 2015.
Shayne has pretty much been with the company since then. A few years after, his fellow “So Random!” co-star and friend Damien Haas joined the team at Smosh’s gaming channel. Up until that point, Smosh was with Defy Media. Unfortunately, Defy filed for bankruptcy in 2018. That meant that Shayne and the rest of the Smosh were out out of job.
Fortunately, Mythical Entertainment, founded by YouTubers Rhett & Link decided to acquire Smosh. Production for new sketches and other videos started soon after the acquisition was finalized.
Even though Shayne is still working for Smosh full-time, he still does acting work every now and then. His latest major role is for the show “The Goldbergs.” As of this writing, Shayne Topp has a net worth of $600,000.
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