Rising Hollywood star McKenna Grace is favourite to land the lead role in the live-action version of Tangled – but how much do you know about the star?
News has emerged this week that rising Hollywood star McKenna Grace is leading the race to take on the role of Rapunzel in Disney’s live-action adaptation of their beloved animation Tangled.
While it was thought that Disney was shelving its live-action remake program after the under-performance of Snow White, it is quietly still putting together a cast and crew for Tangled, with McKenna top of the list to play Rapunzel, ahead of others such as Sadie Sink and Emma Myers.
Should McKenna get the role – and its still a big if at the moment – it would be arguably her biggest role to date and another move into the Hollywood A-list.
But how much do you know about McKenna Grace? Here are some facts you might not know.
Her great-grandmother inspired her love of acting
McKenna’s passion for acting and showbusiness developed at an early age, and her great-grandmother helped to inspire her. It was her great-grandmother who gifted McKenna a collection of DVDs of films starring Shirley Temple, who was a renowned child star in movies in the 1930s such as Bright Eyes and Now and Forever, when she was four.
After watching those movies, McKenna was hooked and soon starting acting lessons. By the age of five, she secured her first part, which was in a commercial.
She started out on Disney XD
McKenna has been acting from an early age, and one of her earliest TV roles came on the Disney XD show Crash & Bernstein, which ran from 2012-14. She played Jasmine Bernstein, one of central character Wyatt’s sisters.
Another early role was in the soap opera The Young and the Restless where she played Faith Newman from 2013-15.
She competed in beauty pageants
When McKenna was very young, her mother would enter her into beauty pageants – and with some success too, with McKenna being crowned ‘Tiny Miss Texas’ on one occasion.
When she was a young child, she also trained in cheerleading, gymnastics, tap and ballet dancing, before her acting career took off.
McKenna is a successful singer
As well as her acting career, McKenna has also developed a successful side-hustle as a singer. Her debut single, Haunted House – which she co-wrote with Lily Kincade – was released in 2021. The track was also included on the Ghostbusters: Afterlife soundtrack – a movie she starred in as Phoebe Spengler.
In addition, she recorded Bark to the Beat for the soundtrack to the PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie Soundtrack. McKenna has also released several other singles and a couple of Eps over the past three years.
McKenna has also appeared at the legendary music festival Lollapalooza.
She was diagnosed with scoliosis
McKenna has had health issues, being diagnosed with scoliosis at age 12. She was instructed to wear a back brace to correct her spine during the filming of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but found it uncomfortable so didn’t wear it as much as she was prescribed to.
The condition gradually worsened and, to prevent it impacting her lungs, she underwent spinal surgery in October 2022, which significantly reduced the curvature.
Mother Gothel fan
That McKenna is linked to Tangled is appropriate as one of her favourite movie characters is Mother Gothel from Tangled – the old woman who seeks the powers that Rapunzel has so she can stay forever young and beautiful. Scarlett Johansson has been linked with this role in the live-action version of Tangled, but no actor has yet been confirmed in the role.
