Christy Carlson Romano has been up to a lot more than you think since her days on the Disney Channel hit, Even Stevens. After tying the knot with Brendan Rooney, the pair now share two beautiful daughters, Isabella and Sophia. On top of being a mother and wife, she has continued her acting career both on the big screen and via YouTube after starting her own channel three years ago. Following the rising success, she’s now debuting a new show on the Taste of Fox’s YouTube channel and Hulu called Bucket List Bistro.
In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Romano delved into how it got started and the pride she feels about playing roles that have become a positive example for young girls. “My husband came up with it in terms of trying to think of COVID friendly content,” Romano explained in our series, PopCulture @ Home. “I was like, ‘Honey, what do you want to do? Fox is asking us to pitch them something.’ Let’s think of something. Well, we’re all stuck inside and we’re all stuck home, and we all have these wild imaginations about where we would go if we could right now. Where would we go?”
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After teasing how she’s already been in quarantine with being a mom, her ideas of where she would want to travel to are endless at the moment. “This idea for Bucket List Bistro is that you’re getting transported and escaping while watching the show and eating food from the places that might be on your bucket list and again, it’s a simple concept,” she said.
Through her YouTube channel, fans might be seeing a different side of Romano, but she’s still very much a blast from the past for ’90s babies. Typically, when a child actor begins their career and gains stardom from the Disney Channel, it’s hard to break that image. But after the success she gained on the network as Ren Stevens from Even Stevens and voicing the popular animated character Kim Possible, Romano admitted she doesn’t mind being known as the Disney star because she’s proud she played roles that gave young girls someone to look up to.
“When people ask me about my career as a child actor, teen actress, somebody who did obviously some characters that were very strong-minded women and very positive role models for young girls, and they asked me about it. And I always, even back then was very proud of that,” she said, adding how being a mom has also given her more confidence in her choice of roles. “But now more than ever, now that I have two daughters, I’m really proud of the fact that I can look back at those times and that work, and even though I have to lean into it sometimes with my nostalgia brand […] I’ve made peace with the fact that that’s a positive thing, that the world needs more of those images and positivity.”
Bucket List Bistro premieres Thursday on Taste of Fox and Hulu at 4 p.m. CT. For more with Romano, all things Disney and your favorite celebrities, keep it right here at PopCulture.com.
