Everybody welcome Dara Reneé! From her breakout role on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series to Descendants: The Rise of Red, Dara opens up about growing up on set, navigating mental health, and the journey to owning her power. It’s a hilarious, emotional, inspiring ride through Broadway dreams, Disney magic, and the deep inner work it takes to truly love yourself.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 – Intro and catch up!

04:00- Dara’s here!

05:00 – Being homeschooled, raised by a single mom, and growing up backstage. Dara shares her early years of performing (and Beyoncé karaoke)

8:30 - Early Broadway auditions

10:15 – Auditioning for HSMTMTS with no agent, no reel, and no clue she was about to book her breakout role

19:30 - One year later: Freaky Friday reboot and still no HSMTMTS

20:45 - Working on “Black-ish”

25:00 – Origins of HSMTMTS and auditioning for every role except Courtney

27:45 - Callbacks with Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, and Sofia Wylie and booking the show!

31:30 - Dara’s relationship with Olivia Rodrigo

32:30 - Kylie Cantrall and wanting to be the best big sister in the business

34:00 - OG High School musical lore

36:30 - Overcoming anxiety both in real life and on-screen

39:00 - Dara’s actual mom playing her mom on TV

40:30 - How HSMTMTS evolved over the 4 seasons

43:30 - Working on Descendants: The Rise of Red

45:00 - The infamous Josh Colley fire alarm story

48:30 - Favorite moments from Descendants

52:00 - Dara’s acting process

53:00 - Upcoming Descendants/Zombies tour!

58:00 - Game time: blind ranking disney channel theme songs!

Follow Dara Reneé:

Watch Descendants: The Rise of Red and stream her music everywhere.

Follow @dararenee on social for all the sparkle.

Follow the Hosts:

@AnthonyGargiula

@ JonathanTilkin

@CounterMelodiesPod

Listen and Watch:

https://pods.to/countermelodies

Credits:

Executive Producer / Showrunner / Editor: Louis Gargiula

Consulting Producer: Renée Colvert