Dove Cameronis currently known as a pop singer with an impressive voice, but before she had a professional recording contract, she was an actress. She got her start in local theater productions, so it makes perfect sense that Cameron would both act and sing professionally. In addition to her work in TV, movies, and on music, Cameron has also continued to perform on stage.
Cameron’s big break, like many young actors before her, came courtesy of the Disney Channel. Not only did she star in her own series there as a teenager, but she also guest-starred in other projects for the network. Thanks to Disney, her career blossomed and she’s earned fans who will likely continue to grow with her and follow her work on more mature projects. These particular movies and TV shows are the best of her current acting catalog.
10Barely Lethal (2015)
As Liz Larson
Barely Lethalgot mixed reviews when it debuted, butit’s notable for being Dove Cameron’s first feature film. Prior toBarely Lethal, all of her work had been on television or on stage for her acting career.
Barely Lethalfollows Hailee Steinfeld as a secret agent from an organization made up of teenage girls. When she goes missing on a mission, she decides to pretend to be a regular high-schooler until she is found by her superiors. She pretends to be a transfer student named Megan and is assigned to live with Liz’s (Dove Cameron) family. Liz is standoffish and doesn’t like Megan. Cameron, who was largely known for playing good girls on the Disney Channel at that point, got to play a slightly edgier and more sarcastic teen, though still a family-friendly one.
Critics might have found the movie formulaic as an action-comedy aimed at teens, but it also helped critics to see that Cameron could work well outside of the Disney Channel.
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Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors
Cast
Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors is a Disney Channel original animated movie that follows several superheroes headed up by Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, and Kamala Khan as they attempt to find their place in the world of heroes. When a super extra-terrestrial threat threatens their world, the group of super-powered teens will band together to be the heroes the Marvel Universe needs.
When Cameron was cast in another Marvel project the same year, many presumed she would be bringing Gwen into live-action…
Marvel Risingwas comprised of animated shorts and television episodes centered on several female Marvel characters, including the Ghost-Spider version of Gwen Stacy. Chloe Bennet reprised herAgents of SHIELDrole as Daisy Johnson (Quake), Cierra Ramirez voiced America Chavez (Miss America), Sofia Wylie voiced Riri Williams (Ironheart), and Milana Vayntrub voiced Dorreen Green (Squirrel Girl).
The animated episodes were meant to introduce a younger audience to some of the lesser-known characters that could potentially appear in other Marvel projects, or in some cases, already had. There was a line of toys, comic books, and even music that accompanied the show.
Cameron provided strong voiceover work as Gwen since the entire series kicked off with her on the run, suspected of the murder of her friend.When Cameron was cast in another Marvel project the same year, many presumed she would be bringing Gwen into live-action, but that wasn’t the case.
Dumplin'
2018’s Dumplin' was written by Kristin Hahn and directed by Anne Fletcher. Starring Danielle Macdonald, Odeya Rush, and Jennifer Aniston, the comedy release follows a young high school girl who is raised by her pageant-loving aunt as she enters a pageant with friends in protest.
Inspired by the Julie Murphy novel of the same name,Dumplin’follows a young woman (Danielle Macdonald) whose mother (Jennifer Aniston) is a pageant queen. Having spent more time hosting pageants and preparing the next generation of contestants than with her own daughter, the mother and teenage girl don’t get along, especially considering the teenager doesn’t look like the typical pageant girl. When her aunt dies right before the start of a pageant in their hometown, she decides to enter in tribute to her aunt, who wasn’t able to as a teenager.
Dove Cameron stars as one of the other contestants. In fact,Cameron’s Bekah is the frontrunner to win the pageant, excelling at all of the pageant practices she participates in, and is taken under the wing of Aniston’s character. She isn’t fully a mean girl here, but instead, more like the small-town version of herLiv & Maddiecharacter, Liv, on the Disney Channel. It isn’t fully removed from a character she’s already known for, but it’s certainly a fun role for her.
The movie is a better showcase for Macdonald than it is Cameron, but it shouldn’t be skipped.
7The Lodge (2017)
As Jess
The Lodgeis a Disney Channel UK series set at a small hotel in the English countryside. It is staffed by mostly teenagers, and due to the interesting nature of their jobs and relationships, they actually end up as the subjects of a reality television series. The show is also a musical.
The show aired around the same time asLiv & Maddie, soCameron wasn’t one of the stars. Instead, she appears in four episodes as a competitor in a biking competition. Biking is one of the interests that most of the teens in the series share, and her character is introduced in the second season as a way to introduce another love triangle into the series.She’s very capable in the role, but unfortunately, the show was canceled after the second season, leaving just what happens with her character up in the air.
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6Vengeance (2022)
As Kansas City Shaw
B.J. Novak both wrote and starred inVengeance. He also made his directorial debut with the dark comedy that doubles as a mystery-thriller. Novak plays a journalist who gets contacted by the brother of a woman he was hooking up with to tell him that when she died, he believed she was murdered. He decides to travel from New York to Texas to investigate her death alongside her brother for his podcast.
Dove Cameron stars in the movie as Kansas City Shaw, the younger sister of the dead woman.The Shaws make up an interesting ensemble as Novak’s Ben gets to know them and understands that their family isn’t picture-perfect. They might be living what appears to be the rural Texas fantasy, attending rodeos and loving country music, but they’re also aware of the darker sides of the world around them, ignoring them until a family member ends up dead.
The movie might not have won Novak, Cameron, or any of the cast members accolades on the award show circuit, but it did snag Best Film in the American Indie Film competition at the Leiden International Film Festival.
Descendants
The Descendantsfranchisespans Disney Channel Original Movies, shorts, animated specials, and novels. Each medium has more parts of the overall story, giving the audience, especially the tweens that the stories are aimed at, a more complete picture if they engage with all aspects of the story.
In the first three movies and most of the specials and shorts, Cameron is Mal, the daughter ofSleeping Beauty’svillain Maleficient. She is given the chance to attend the same school as the children of Disney heroes in the first movie. While she initially intends to help her mother gain revenge against the heroes, she grows to actually enjoy the new school and getting to know her new classmates.
The series is flashy with brightly colored costumes, high-energy dance numbers, and very catchy songs. It also allows Cameron to showcase both her acting skills and her singing voice, which most of her best projects also do.
Liv and Maddie
Liv and Maddie is a Disney Channel TV show that follows identical twin sisters Liv, a famous actress returning home from Hollywood, and Maddie, a high school basketball star. Starring Dove Cameron in dual roles, the series focuses on their contrasting personalities and the dynamics of their family life. The show explores themes of identity, family, and friendships in a comedic and heartwarming manner.
The dual roles will likely be some of Cameron’s most iconic in the same way that Lizzie McGuire is for Hilary Duff and Hannah Montana is for Miley Cyrus.
Though Cameron had a few professional roles on television before getting cast as the stars ofLiv & Maddie, this is definitely her breakout role. Cameron plays both titular characters, twin sisters who couldn’t be more different.While Liv is an actor who spends most of her time on movie and TV sets, Maddie lives at home and plays basketball with her friends. Liv is as “girly” as a teenage girl can be and Maddie is much more of a tomboy. They can get on each other’s nerves, but they would also do anything for one another.
Cameron playing two very different roles, complete with affecting a completely different voice for each character, shows how immensely talented she is right away.She also recorded the theme song for the series, and her career effectively being launched by Disney allowed her to release music as well. The dual roles will likely be some of Cameron’s most iconic in the same way that Lizzie McGuire is for Hilary Duff and Hannah Montana is for Miley Cyrus.
3Hairspray Live! (2016)
As Amber Von Tussle
While not technically a movie or TV show, Cameron did star in a version ofHairspray. She starred inthe live version put on for television. The story sees a plus-sized teenage girl become a sensation on a musical program where teens dance to popular music.Hairsprayis set in the 1960s amid racial tension in Baltimore. Though Tracy (Maddie Baillio) is a young white girl, her open heart leads to her wanting to include Black teens on the series on a regular basis. She’s a proponent of integration, making her even more of an outsider.
Cameron appeared as the mean girl and one of the villains of the stage musical, Amber Von Tussle. Amber is one of the stars ofThe Corny Collins Showand she resents Tracy taking the spotlight from her. Amber’s mother (Kristen Chenoweth) aims to get Tracy off the show and Amber back in the spotlight.
The live nature of the show meant that the cast had to sing and dance live.Hairsprayhas several dance-intensive numbers, demonstrating everyone’s, including Cameron’s vocal abilities and endurance.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a television series that follows Agent Phil Coulson as he assembles a team within the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division to investigate mysterious phenomena, safeguarding the world from extraordinary threats. Debuting in 2013, the series expands on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s exploration of covert operations.
Agents of SHIELDmight exist in the gray area of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, butthe beloved Marvel showran for seven years before the MCU exploded into the multiverse. Cameron appeared as a villain in six episodes of the fifth season.
Cameron played Ruby Hale, a character created for the television series instead of one from the pages of the comics.Ruby is a teenage girl who was engineered and trained to be the perfect weapon.Obsessed with Quake, Ruby takes drastic measures to become even more dangerous. Cameron’s performance as the character wavers between quietly sociopathic and loudly unhinged.
It’s great to see Cameron in a role like this because it’s so far removed from anything else she’s played.She also gets to do a few fight scenes against Chloe Bennet which are fantastically done.
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Schmigadoon!
A couple on a backpacking trip stumbles upon a magical town where life is a perpetual musical from the 1940s. As they interact with quirky residents and navigate spontaneous song-and-dance numbers, they must rediscover their love to escape the whimsical, tune-filled world.
The setup of the series allows Cameron to play two very different roles and showcase her range.
Schmigadoon!is an AppleTV+ series that only lasted for two seasons.Each season both homages and satirizes musicals of a specific era.While the first season focuses on the golden age of musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, thesecond season goes for the darker musicalsof the 1960s and ‘70s. The entire concept, however, is kicked off like the classic Brigadoon, on which the title is based, with a couple stumbling on a magical town where the inhabitants live in a musical.
While the main couple stays the same in both seasons, the rest of the ensemble plays different characters in seasons 1 and 2, including Dove Cameron.The first season sees her as a character inspired by Ado Annie inOklahoma!The second season sees her as a cabaret performer inspired specifically by Liza Minnelli’s take on Sally Bowles inCabaret.The setup of the series allows Cameron to play two very different roles and showcase her range.
She also gets to showcase her skills as a singer since the show is a musical. Dove Cameron also got to appear alongside such stage veterans as Chenoweth (again), Aaron Tveit, and Ariana DeBose. It’s really a dream show to give the audience just an idea of how talentedDove Cameronis.
