Anneliese van der Pol

Annaliese van der Pol was a Dutch-American actress born on September 23, 1984 in Naaldwijk, the Netherlands. Born to Dutch father Willem van der Pol and American mother Dyan Ross, van der Pol grew up in Bellflower, California and began acting in 1990 in a stage production of "The Sleeping Beauty Ballet." She acted in many youth productions throughout her school career, especially when she attended Orange County High School of the Arts, from which she graduated in 2001. In 1999, van der Pol played the title character in the Buena Park Civic Theatre production of "Evita," making her, at 15, the youngest actor to play the role in a professional production. She made her film debut in "Divorce: The Musical" (2001), and continued to perform on stage throughout her growing film and TV career. Van der Pol was cast as main cast star Chelsea Daniels on "That's So Raven" (Disney Channel, 2003-07), the best friend of the title character. During and following her breakout role on the show, she made numerous appearances on Disney Channel shows, such as a voice appearance on the animated show "Kim Possible" (Disney Channel, 2002-07) in 2006, a show on which she had declined to play the lead character in 2002. Van der Pol voiced Avery in "Bratz: The Movie" (2007), and that same year, made her Broadway debut playing the final Belle of the "Beauty and the Beast" musical run. She starred in the Twilight parody "Vampires Suck" (2010), while frequently appearing on stage, and returned with most of the main cast in the "That's So Raven" spin-off/sequel/reunion series "Raven's Home" (Disney Channel, 2017) as Chelsea Daniels.