Maia Mitchell

Maia Mitchell was born on August 18, 1993, in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. Her father, Alex, worked as a taxi driver, and her mother, Jill, was employed in the education system. Mitchell showed an early interest in the performing arts, learning to play the guitar at a young age and participating in school and local theatre productions. Her acting career began when she was 12 years old, securing the lead role of Brittany Flune in the Australian children’s television series “Mortified.” This series achieved national and international recognition, including an Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Children’s Television Series. Following this success, she was cast as Natasha Hamilton in the Australian television series “Trapped” and later reprised her role in the sequel series “Castaway.”

In her late teens, Mitchell transitioned to American television, relocating to Los Angeles at 18. She gained a recurring role as Shaylee Michaels in the Disney Channel series “Jessie” in 2013. The same year, she landed a lead role as McKenzie “Mack” in the Disney Channel original movie “Teen Beach Movie,” a role she reprised in “Teen Beach 2” in 2015. A significant milestone in her career was her casting as Callie Jacob (later Callie Adams Foster) in the ABC Family (now Freeform) drama series “The Fosters,” which ran from 2013 to 2018. Her performance in this series led to a spin-off, “Good Trouble,” where she continued her role and also served as an executive producer from 2019 to 2024.

Mitchell’s career also includes film roles such as “After the Dark” (2013), “Hot Summer Nights” (2017), “Never Goin’ Back” (2018), “The Last Summer” (2019), and “Sitting in Bars with Cake” (2023). She has also contributed to soundtracks, performing songs for “Teen Beach Movie,” “Teen Beach 2,” “Captain Jake and the Never Land Pirates,” and “The Lion Guard.” In 2022, she took a temporary hiatus from “Good Trouble” to return to Australia during the 2022 Australian flood crisis and for personal reasons, later returning for guest appearances. Most recently, she played Lady Belle Fox in “The Artful Dodger” (2023), a role she is set to reprise in a renewed second series.