Sabrina Carpenter placed third in a Miley Cyrus talent search before Espresso
At ten, Sabrina Carpenter was posting YouTube covers of Adele and Christina Aguilera from a home studio her father built. A decade of Disney roles and four modestly selling albums followed. Then a label switch, a playful single called Espresso and a sixth album brought number ones, two Grammys and global stardom.
Born on 11 May 1999 in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby East Greenville, she was homeschooled, started voice lessons at six and moved to Los Angeles at thirteen. Her father is a step-brother of Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson. In October 2008 she entered The Next Miley Cyrus Project, an online contest with 7,000 hopefuls, and finished third in 2010.
Acting came first. After a guest part on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2011, she voiced Princess Vivian on Sofia the First and in 2013 landed the role of Maya Hart on Girl Meets World, Disney Channel's sequel to the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World, which lasted 72 episodes and ended in January 2017. She signed with Disney's Hollywood Records in 2014, but albums including Eyes Wide Open and the two Singular releases made little impact. Films followed, among them The Hate U Give and Netflix's Tall Girl and Work It, and in 2020 she played Cady Heron in Mean Girls on Broadway.
The turn came after she joined Island Records in 2021. Emails I Can't Send in 2022 produced the multi-platinum Nonsense and Feather. Short n' Sweet in 2024 topped the Billboard 200 and won two Grammys, with Espresso and Please Please Please becoming worldwide number ones; the latter was her first chart-topper in the United States. Man's Best Friend in 2025 also went to number one and delivered the hit Manchild.
Recognition piled up. Time put her on its 2024 list of rising names, she has both hosted and performed on Saturday Night Live, and her executive producer credit on a 2026 Muppet Show special earned her an Emmy. She now counts a Brit Award and several MTV and American Music Awards too.
Source: Sabrina Carpenter
