Local boy becoming Disney star

Sterling Knight, who grew up in Sugar Land and Manvel, stars with Danielle Campbell in StarStruk


Sterling Knight's initial experience with Sonny With a Chance was one of disappointment. The actor filmed the pilot for the hit Disney show and even when the show was picked up, he wasn't. “I wasn't exactly fired, but I wasn't exactly hired either,” he says. The show's creators decided to take Sonny in a different direction and Knight says “my character didn't work. They were real sweet about it, they told me it wasn't anything I did.”

Sonny's writers then set about writing Knight back into the show as a different character, Chad Dylan Cooper. The show's success led to his first starring role in a Disney film, StarStruck, which airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on the Disney Channel.
Knight plays a pop star in the romance/adventure, though because he joined the production so late, he doesn't do his own singing. But he says unlike so many of Disney's other TV stars, he really doesn't have any pop aspirations. Having grown up in Sugar Land and Manvel (where he says his family still lives) Knight, 20, did work with Theatre Under the Stars, Theater Southwest and Fort Bend Theater.

He made appearances on Hannah Montana, The Closer and Grey's Anatomy before landing with Sonny in 2009. The show — which puts him with fellow Texans Demi Lovato and Tiffany Thornton — begins its second season next month. “It really is just a coincidence,” he says, “though I guess we just grow them better in Texas.”
Despite being surrounded these days by Los Angeles' hyped In-N-Out Burger joints, Knight's fast food loyalties remain regional. “In-N-Out is a wonderful substitute, and it keeps the heavy cravings off,” he says. “But nothing beats a Whataburger with bacon, cheese and jalapeños.”