Former Child Star Christy Carlson Romano Reveals Why She Left Hollywood

They say Holywood isn’t a place for children. And Even Stevens star Christy Carlson Romano agrees. She recently opened up about relocating her family from California to Austin, Texas, alongside her husband, Brendan Rooney. (The two are the masterminds behind podcast company PodCo.)

“I love that the girls can kind of be out of the Hollywood area,” she told PEOPLE. “I love California, we have our PodCo offices there. And I also truly feel at home in Austin. I have a really strong community of friends there, and I’ve really found a way to set down roots.” The couple are parents to daughters Isabella, 7, and Sofia, 5. They keep them busy with daily activities and their own business endeavors. They officially relocated in 2020.

She gushes that the biggest pro about life in Austin is the “slower pace,” but she says the city “still has all the things that [the girls] could need,” adding, “I’m really happy that we live there.”

She’s not the first to leave Tinseltown in favor of a normal life for their children. Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek did the same. In a 2023 interview with PopCulture.com, he spoke about why he loves living on a ranch in Texas, with his wife and their six young children. 

“I mean, for us, it was space, that was the biggest thing that we wanted,” he said as his motivation for moving. “We wanted space, we wanted a connection to nature and that meant moving outside of Los Angeles. And we just got really lucky, we found a beautiful spot that allows the kids to walk out the door, to play, to adventure, to climb trees, build forts. We have a nature camp where they build fires in the morning.”