Sofia Carson

"I remember when I first watched the show years and years ago, she was one of the first people to write in a gay character, and in such a beautiful way. All of her females are so strong and empowered and each of them is so different. I’m so excited to work with Marlene, as a female director, as well."

- Sofia about PLL and working with Marlene.

Sofia Carson (born Sofía Daccarett Char on April 10, 1993) is a Colombian-American singer and actress. She is best known for her role as Evie, a main character in the Disney Channel Original Movies, Descendants and Descendants 2. She currently stars as Ava Jalali in the Freeform series, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.

Life and Career
Carson was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to José F. Daccarett and Laura Char Carson, who had moved to Ft. Lauderdale from Colombia. Through her mother, Carson is related to the Char family of Colombian politicians. At the age of three, Sofia started her dance training, which continued to do for seventeen-years, and trained in ballet, pointe, jazz, musical theatre dance, hip hop, flamenco, modern, contemporary and tap.

In 2001, Carson starred in her first musical production as Dorothy from the “Wizard of Oz” at the Riviera Theatre in Miami. One year later, she was accepted into the University of Miami’s Musical Theatre Summer Intensive, where she trained in dance and vocal performance, and performed in multiple musicals throughout the summer. She has competed in multiple renowned National Dance Competitions, such as Star Power, Onstage, and Hall of Fame, where she won top performance awards (for dance, vocal performance, musical theatre, and acting) such as First Place Award (for group and solo performance), Critics Choice Award, Triple Threat Award, and Broadway Diva Award, to name a few. In 2006, Carson started classical vocal training. She attended St. Hugh School and graduated from Carrollton School in Miami.

She later attended In Motion Dance Studio, where she was part of the IMPAC Youth Ensemble program. Because of this, she was able to compete in dance competitions all over the United States. After she was finished touring, she enrolled in UCLA where she majored in Communications and Minored in French.

In 2012, Sofia started her musical career when she was signed as a singer-songwriter to the record-label, BMI.

Her acting career, however, started in 2014 on Disney Channel, when she was cast as a guest star on their hit-series series Austin & Ally where she played Chelsea. A few months later, Sofia was cast as recurring guest star on MTV's series Faking It as Soleli. She was then cast in a starring role in the Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants, as Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen, in the same year..

On January 9, 2015, she was cast in the co-lead role in the upcoming Disney Channel original movie, Adventures in Babysitting starring alongside Sabrina Carpenter. The project was planned to begin filming in Spring 2015, for an early 2016 television premiere. In an August 2015 interview, Sofia stated she was working on her first album. Sometime around September 1, 2015, Carson was added on the list of Hollywood Records artists. Previously, some of Disney Channel Europe websites reported the incorporation of Sofia to the label.In March 2016, Hollywood Records and Republic Records officially announced that Sofia had signed a joint worldwide record deal with both respective companies. Her debut single is "Love Is the Name", an interpolation of Opus' "Live Is Life". The song was followed by her singles, "I'm Gonna Love You" and "Back to Beautiful". In 2016 she was also cast in another installment of the Cinderella Stories, A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits. In 2017, she reprised her Disney role as Evie in the Descendants sequel, Descendants 2.

On January 29, 2018, it was announced that Sofia would be playing Ava Jalali on Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, the spin-off of Freeform's hit tv-series, Pretty Little Liars. She will be joining Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish as a main cast member.

Additionally, Sofia 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 was a presenter on ABC's Disneyland 60th Anniversary Special.

Filmography
Television

Trivia

 * Sofia narrated three audiobooks for Melissa de la Cruz's Descendants novel series (Isle of the Lost, Return to the Isle of the Lost and Rise of the Isle of the Lost)
 * Her favorite Disney Princess is Belle, and her favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast.
 * Her favorite Disney villain is the Evil Queen.
 * Her favorite old-school Disney movie is Cheetah Girls.
 * Her favorite Disney prince is Eric from The Little Mermaid.
 * She originally auditioned for the role of Audrey, called Gigi at the time. A couple of months later, while auditioning for a role in Liv and Maddie, she got called to read for the role of Evie, which she booked.
 * She chose the stage-name "Carson" after her American maternal grandmother, Lauraine Carson.
 * She is a UCLA graduate, and majored in Communications and minored in French.
 * She is an advocate for Chance to Dance a charity that gives children the chance to learn how to dance. She was able to teach one of the classes that prepares the children for the Gala.
 * She was a big fan of Pretty Little Liars before she was cast in the spin-off, was obsessed with it, and believes that it was a phenomenon. She has also seen every episode.
 * She found out the Monday before her casting was announced that she was playing Ava Jalali. Marlene was the one that called her and gave her the news.
 * She actually didn't audition for the role of Ava the first time but another character (possibly Caitlin). She later got called to try out for Ava.
 * She is fluent in Spanish, English, and French.
 * She is best friends with Dove Cameron, whom she has acted alongside a number of times.
 * She is a fan of Bruno Mars.
 * She is often mistaken for Lily Collins, which she finds flattering as she is a fan of Lily and thinks she's gorgeous.
 * She is obsessed with the NBC show, This Is Us.
 * She loves Italian foods, specifically spaghetti.
 * Her favorite turn-up song is anything by Adele, or Sorry by Justin Bieber.
 * She wrote her first song at the age of ten.
 * Her ultimate icon is Cher, while her other favorite singers include Elvis Presley, Pink, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift.
 * Her main goal with her platform is to empower women and girls.
 * She ships Haleb, and thinks they are amazing together.