The Stars Have Aligned for Olivia Sanabia

by Aida Toro

The stars twinkle and shine a little brighter for Olivia Sanabia. She ended the year starring in A Snow White Christmas opposite Michelle Williams and debuted her new song "Stars Crossed." 2020 is just getting under way and looks to be shining bright for this young lady.

If you’re a big fan of Disney’s “Coop & Cami Ask the World” or Amazon’s “Just Add Magic”, then you are in for a treat for Seraphina’s first issue of 2020. Many of you have probably seen Olivia Sanabia and her gorgeous smile on these two shows. Although she is a sensation on the screen, she has quite a story to tell.

Olivia’s quest to stardom began at the age of two when she would sing the song “Tomorrow” from “Annie” the musical. “Tomorrow” was her anthem and of course, she auditioned to play Annie and landed the role.

“Once I got the part, I was beyond excited,” said Olivia. “Working on the show is something I will absolutely never forget. It was just one of those awesome moments in life where you get to play your dream role and it definitely lived up to my expectations.”

Aside from being part of Annie’s production, Olivia has been in Anastasia, Seussical, Fiddler on the Roof, and others. After playing roles in all of these theater productions, Olivia jump- started her professional career at the age of seven in a print job alongside the ever sweet Jennifer Garner.

“She’s fantastic. She was very motherly and kind to me,” said Olivia about Jennifer.

So far, she’s been in over 25 commercials. Her passion for acting on television arrived when she first saw the movie “Ramona and Beezus”. The movie permitted Olivia to view a young girl her same exact age on screen, which made her realize that being on television was something she wanted to pursue.

Olivia has already worked on “Coop & Cami Ask the World” and “Just Add Magic”, in which she actually relates to the characters she played. “Coop & Cami Ask the World” is based on two middle school-aged siblings who make decisions on the opinions they receive from their millions of online followers via social media. These siblings either make the typical “correct” decision or simply crazy ones, which are all decided by the views and opinions on “Would You Wrather”, Coop's online channel. The siblings are joined by their other two siblings, Charlotte and Ollie, as well as their mother and Coop’s best friend.

In the show, Olivia stars as Charlotte, who is the oldest sibling in the show. Olivia explained that Charlotte comes out of her shell in the second season as in the first season she is viewed more so as a motherly figure and older sibling.

“I have a big family, like Charlotte does, so I can understand that aspect of her life,” said Olivia. “In some ways, Charlotte and I are similar, but she does tend to worry a lot more than I do.”

In “Just Add Magic”, Olivia plays Kelly Quinn. The show is about Kelly Quinn and her two best friends where they find Kelly’s grandmother's cookbook in the attic and reveal some odd recipes, which are indeed magical at the end of the day. The themes of the show are friendship and being kind to one another, said Olivia. In addition, she said there are so many great moral aspects along with mystery and fun in the show.

“I love being a part of that show,” she said. “I definitely aspire to be like Kelly because she is one of those people that you would consider to be a natural-born leader. She’s always juggling the magic and doing the best she can.”

Aside from being on the big screen and musical theatre productions, Olivia released a debut single called “Stars Crossed”. As music has always been a part of her life, releasing her own original music was in the books for her. She mentioned she wanted to learn her craft, learn to play more instruments, strengthen her voice, and discover who she was as an artist prior to releasing her single.

“I wrote this song many many months ago and I was just kind of brainstorming and was in a place where I was just writing a ton and this one lyric popped into my head and it was ‘I think we got our stars crossed’,” said Olivia. “That was what inspired the whole song and it’s the first line of the chorus.”

Olivia is super excited for people to listen to her song. Although she’s already released a song, Olivia is challenged by writing and finding her sound. She wants to be able to honestly share who she really is to her fans since she’s been posting covers of other people’s songs on her Instagram and YouTube channel for years.

“I’m more than excited for people to hear who I am as an individual,” expressed Olivia.

Throughout her downtime, Olivia gives back to a charity near and dear to her heart. This charity is Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Her love for the charity began when a child in her community was battling pediatric cancer. Olivia and her community pulled together to fundraise to assist the child and his family throughout this battle. Unfortunately, he passed away.

“From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to do something to help pediatric cancer research because such a small percentage of funding goes into pediatric cancer research,” said Olivia. “I wanted to use my platform to give back and to inspire others to give back.”

Overall, Olivia said the entertainment industry has allowed her to find her strength. As there are many rejections in the industry, she said it can be taken as motivation and strength to work harder and be better.

“I have a great support system that has inspired me to let that rejection light my fire,” said Olivia.