Kirsten Storms Was A Disney Star Before Landing Her Role On General Hospital

Kirsten Storms has been winning over fans as Maxie Jones on "General Hospital" since her debut on the soap in 2005. The character rose in popularity when she was paired with Hallmark star Ryan Paevey's character, Nathan West. Along with her long-standing run as Maxie, Storms has also appeared on "Days of Our Lives" as Belle Black prior to her arrival in Port Charles. But her career in entertainment started well before her time on soap operas.

Storms grew up in Florida before being discovered by a talent agent in her home state. She appeared in various ads and commercials before landing a part in the children's television show "Sing Me a Story with Belle" in 1995. The show was aired on Disney Channel, giving Storms her first brush with the brand, and it was that role which would give her a push toward her next big job: playing the leading lady in one of the most popular Disney Channel Original Movies of the 1990s, "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century."

Kirsten Storms moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1996 when she was 12 years old, hoping to find more opportunities out west. Storms booked a few parts, including a role on The WB's television show "7th Heaven." After a few years of auditioning and landing the roles, she tried out for the new Disney Channel Original Movie, "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century." She was eventually cast as the main character, a teenage girl named Zenon who is banished from the space station where her family lives to live with her aunt on Earth, in 1999.

Per Soap Opera Digest, "Zenon" was the highest-rated Disney movie at the time, and its success continued with two subsequent films, "Zenon: the Zequel" and "Zenon: Z3." In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, Storms echoed the success of the films, saying, "To this day, it's still the number one thing that people come up to me for."

The "Zenon" film series was not Storms' only Disney role. In 1999, she appeared in another popular Disney Channel Original Movie, "Johnny Tsunami," playing Johnny's best friend, Emily. Storms also booked her first voice acting gig, Bonnie Rockwaller, in the series "Kim Possible" from 2005-2007, also voicing the same character in two films, "Kim Possible: A Sitch In Time" in 2003 and "Kim Possible: So the Drama" in 2005.

Despite her huge success on Disney Channel, Kirsten Storms knew that she wanted to take her career in a new direction. In fact, ever since she was a child, she knew she wanted to become a soap opera actress. So when Storms made her soap opera debut on "Days of Our Lives" in 1999 as Belle Black, the teenage daughter of power couple John Black (Drake Hogestyn) and Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall), it was a cause for celebration. Storms played Belle for five years, starting her popular relationship with fellow legacy character Shawn Brady (then Jason Cook). She even earned her first Soap Opera Digest award for her stint on the soap in 2001 for Outstanding Child Actor.

In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, 16-year-old Kirsten Storms recounted her life-long dream of acting on soaps. "One of the first agents I got, I told, 'When I grow up, I'm going to be on a soap opera ... You can get me commercials and stuff now, but what I really want to do someday is be on a soap opera,'" she told the outlet. "But I knew, even though I hadn't actually ever watched one, it was something I always wanted to do."