The Stunning Transformation Of Fivel Stewart

The journey of a child star can be a perilous one. It's no secret that becoming famous can undoubtedly mess with anybody's head, but imagine the psychological impact that fame can have on a child — especially when that fame evaporates the moment that adolescence rears its awkward head. While examples abound of young actors who've gone off the rails as adults, there have are also those child stars who ditched Hollywood for surprisingly normal jobs. Meanwhile, there have also been plenty who've managed to successfully navigate the transition from kid to grownup actor while avoiding the familiar pitfalls that have thrown so many off course. 

Take Fivel Stewart, who began acting on camera as a youngster and then added teen pop star to her roster of credits before demonstrating the acting skills that have launched her into a successful Hollywood career. It may seem like her career is just kicking off, but the reality is that she's two decades into it. But how did she get from there to here? It's a fascinating journey, and all will be revealed by reading on to experience the stunning transformation of Fivel Stewart.

The actor who would be known as Fivel Stewart was born in 1996, under a very different name: Trente Heavyn Stewart. The daughter of Hollywood stuntman Nils Allen Stewart and occasional actor Renee Steward, she followed in the footsteps of her older brother, Booboo Stewart, who had also gravitated toward acting. Since his youth, he's become known for his roles in the "X-Men" film franchise and the "Twilight" movies, which boasted a cast that certainly changed a lot over the years.

So how did she come to be known by the nickname Fivel? "When I was younger, my grandma, she had the Fievel mouse doll, and I guess in some way I looked like it," she said in an interview for LATeenFestival, referencing the cartoon mouse protagonist in the movie "An American Tail" and its sequels. "So she started calling me Fivel." Despite her resemblance to Fievel Mousekowitz, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she'd never actually watched "An American Tail." "I go back and forth on whether I should see the film because it's so separate," she said. "But I should see it someday." Despite her father's occupation, she was raised far outside of Tinseltown. "I grew up on a ranch, and I had horses, and I just rode ..." she said in an interview with Fresh Pair of IIs. 

Fivel Stewart was homeschooled on the family ranch and learned a very particular set of skills from her father, Nils Allen Stewart. A stunt performer and coordinator for such films as "Space Cowboys" and "The Scorpion King," he taught his daughter the tricks of the trade at a very young age. "Before I started to really act, my occupation was stunt doubling in stunts for my dad," Stewart told The Hollywood Reporter. "He would stunt coordinate films, so I would just go with him and assist him. I would rig, I would light people on fire and I would do whatever he needed me to do. To this day, that's still one of my favorite things to do."

In fact, one of her earliest screen credits was as a stunt double on "Zoom," a 2006 superhero comedy starring Tim Allen and "Friends" alum Courtney Cox. Speaking with Schön! Magazine, she recalled one scene in another film when she was required to hold her breath while someone thurst her head under water, simulating an attempt to drown the character she was doubling. "I was positive I was going to be fine," she recalled. "The first take comes around, and I really have a panic attack in the middle of the scene. I immediately turned to my dad, cried, and then fell into his arms. I knew he had me. And I knew I'd be safe. The second take came around, and we nailed it."

Fivel Stewart made her screen debut in the 2004 movie "Yard Sale," appearing alongside older brother Booboo Stewart. He'd actually been acting for a few years at that point, and it must have seemed natural for her to follow suit. That same year, the siblings also appeared in "Dante's Cove," the LGBTQ-themed supernatural soap opera. She and her brother portrayed ghostly siblings who had suffered a horrific death decades earlier. That led to a role in "The O.C." In the hit teen drama, Stewart played a young girl, and she also nabbed other TV roles. In 2013, she and Booboo co-starred in their first movie together, "Hansel and Gretel: Warriors in Witchcraft."

Years later, when interviewed for &Asian, she admitted that all of those past jobs served an important purpose that she didn't realize until she'd grown older. "...I feel like a lot of the things that I was doing when I was younger was just like... to try it out, to see if I wanted to do it," she said. "So you know, now those things are out there, and they're a part of me, which is great, because they were just a learning experience."

Fivel Stewart not only demonstrated a knack for stunts and acting, but it soon became apparent that the young girl also possessed a beautiful singing voice. That was evident when she performed in a singing recital at age nine, belting out Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," and then the Alicia Keys hit "I Ain't Got You."

She took that voice to My Allowance, which grew out of a dance group that her sister, Maegan Stewart, formed, called Our Allowance. In My Allowance, Fivel teamed up with two other young girls to form a pop trio. My Allowance produced a hit single, "Finders Keepers," and the group went on several tours, as the opening act for acts including Demi Lovato, Menudo, and Mitchel Musso, whose life was never the same after Hannah Montana.

That was a heady time for the future film and TV star. "Making a film and performing in front of 10,000 people give you such a different fulfillment," she told The Permanent Rain Press, contrasting her experiences as an actor to those of being a teen pop star. "I think performing on stage is the most exciting thing you could ever do." 

The success that Fivel Stewart experienced with My Allowance was just the warmup act for her next musical venture, the cleverly named band 5-L, which she founded alongside her brother, Booboo Stewart. While promoting the band's 2011 gig in Tempe, Arizona, Fivel explained the division of labor between her and her brother. "He sings and plays guitar ... and I play piano, and I sing," she told the East Valley Tribune. According to Booboo, their shows were intended to provide maximum enjoyment for fans. "They can expect a really fun, exciting show ... and [an] autograph signing afterward — open meet-and-greet," he added. "We'll sign everyone's autograph, which is always a cool thing; we don't like to leave anyone behind."

While both she and her brother have since shifted gears into acting, Fivel has not ruled out someday getting back to making music professionally. "Music falls very close to my heart..." she told Permanent Rain Press. "I mean, never say never, but I don't know if I'll ever become like a singer. I think that is something that I will just hold dear to me, without it being so transparent to the world."

Fivel Stewart's career took a big leap when she was cast in "Atypical," a Netflix dramedy focusing on Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist), an 18-year-old boy on the autism spectrum. Cast as Izzie Taylor, Stewart's character befriends and then falls in love with Sam's sister, Casey (Jack Haven).

The show proved to be a hit with viewers and critics alike, and Stewart's star rose accordingly. Interviewed by So Many Shows, Stewart discussed the response that she'd received from the queer community to her character's journey. "I constantly get Instagram messages about how this storyline has guided people to come out to their families," she said. "It's so important, because a lot of people don't even know how to go about the situation of sitting the parents down and being like, 'This is who I am, accept me or not.'" Her time on "Atypical" proved to be a watershed for Stewart, but the success of that show was just setting the stage for what was to come. For her next big project, she'd be taking on a starring role.

In 2020, during the run of "Atypical," Fivel Stewart was cast in the leading role in "The Never List," a coming-of-age indie film. Stewart starred as Eva Jeffries, a straight-A student who, after the death of her best friend, embarked on a mission to do all the things they vowed to never do in a list they'd created. 

"I think my favorite thing about 'The Never List' is how complex it is," Stewart explained during a TV interview with KTLA. "It's about the stages of grief, and what a young teenager would go through losing their best friend."

Reviews for the film were all over the map, with some praising the film's sensitivity and sweetness. Even those reviews that slammed the film, however, celebrated Stewart's skill as an actor. "While Fivel Stewart is a compelling performer, even she cannot inject sense into the insensible," noted a review from Common Sense Media.

In 2022, Fivel Stewart starred opposite "Grey's Anatomy" alum Sandra Oh in "Umma," a supernatural horror film in which the two portrayed mother and daughter. As Stewart revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the mother-daughter bond that viewers experienced in the movie was an accurate reflection of the actors' off-camera relationship. "I've never felt anything like it before; it was just really powerful," Stewart said. "I felt like we could've just filmed the whole thing right then and there. We were so ready. As soon as Sandra and I read together, it was like, 'Oh, this works. This feels so good.' I haven't really had that connection before with someone who would be playing my mother."

Looking back at her career journey to that point, Stewart recognized "Umma" as being a breakthrough for her, with everything she'd learned in her previous projects preparing her for this role. "But to be really immersed, and to have dialogue and to have a character and to build a relationship ... I would say this is like my first actual 'film'. And, I mean, it feels so good," she told &Asian. "Like, I'm so excited to see it in theaters and to see it with the music and like... yeah, I'm stoked."

Over the years, the untold truth about Nicole Kidman has expanded to include her becoming one of many female actors to take the reins of her career by branching out as a producer, spearheading her own projects. Such was the case with "Roar," a female-led anthology series that debuted on Apple TV+ in 2022, telling diverse stories with a common theme of what it means to be a woman. One of those episodes featured Fivel Stewart, appearing in a story set in the Old West and titled "The Girl Who Loved Horses."

As Stewart told Grazia, it wasn't exactly typical that a young Asian-American woman would be cast in a story within that genre. "My episode specifically is a period piece, it's a western — which is awesome, you don't usually see people like me leading a western, you usually see more masculine, American-dominated [actors] — and I think the purpose behind my episode is redefining what revenge is to you," she said. 

Interviewed by Screen Rant, Stewart admitted that what really drew her to the role was the unpredictability of the script, figuring she had it all sussed out when she began reading it, only to see the story take an unexpected turn. "You don't expect the things to unravel, that unraveled," she said.

The same year that Fivel Stewart appeared in "Roar," Deadline reported that she'd signed on to star in "Wake," an upcoming horror movie. She played an actress desperate to land the lead in a Hollywood remake, seeking out the reclusive star of the original film only to fall into a hellish nightmare. The film also represented the beginning of a new chapter in her career in that she was also an executive producer on the project. 

'Wake" was released in 2024, and was not the only horror movie in which Stewart appeared in that year. She was also part of the cast of "The Windigo," about an ancient demonic spirit that's resurrected, embarking on a gruesome killing spree. Following on the footsteps of "Umma," those back-to-back horror flicks reflected her love of the genre. "I'm a big horror buff," Stewart proclaimed during an interview with NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday."

In 2022, Fivel Stewart also made her debut in "The Recruit," a Netflix spy drama in which she co-starred with "For All the Boys" heartthrob Noah Centineo. With Centineo as Owen, a newbie lawyer with the CIA who finds himself unexpectedly thrust into a dangerous espionage mission, Stewart was cast as Hannah, Owen's roommate and one-time love interest. 

Despite her own background as a stunt performer, Stewart actually hadn't envisioned herself in such a action-heavy thriller. "I don't want this to sound negative, but it was probably one of the last genres I would look to being involved in," she admitted in an interview with W Magazine. "But now that I see 'The Recruit' onscreen, I do sense an eagerness I never thought I would feel about doing something action-packed."

According to Stewart, it was the opportunity to work with Centineo that really sealed the deal, even though she hadn't wanted to attach herself to another television series so soon after "Atypical" ended its run. "I was a little skeptical about doing another show 'cause I've been trying to change direction," she told Metacritic. "But I saw Noah's name, and I was like, 'Oh, how fun. I haven't seen him in such a long time.' Our paths keep kind of intertwining throughout the years, and I just thought that this would be a really fun experience." The show proved to be a hit, and returned with a second season in 2024. 

Fivel Stewart truly had a busy year in 2022. In addition to multiple other projects, Deadline reported that Fivel Stewart had signed on to play a recurring role in "Alert: Missing Persons Unit." The series premiered in 2023 on the Fox network, with Stewart appearing in 10 episodes as Sydney Grant, the teenage daughter of series protagonist Jason Grant (played by "Hawaii Five-O" alum Scott Caan), who heads up the Philadelphia PD's missing-persons unit. "She's an edgy high schooler who is very confident in who she is," Stewart told Metacritic of her role. "You see her go through a really tough time," she added. "My storyline is a lot different than what the show is actually about. And that's what I really love about the show — that you wouldn't expect it."

Appearing in a TV police procedural marked yet another first for an actor and singer who's taken great pains throughout her career to avoid being pigeonholed and typecast. "Maybe I want to do every genre," she mused when interviewed for W Magazine. "I've never really looked at [my career] like that. 'Alert' is more of a procedural, which I never imagined myself doing. 'Atypical' was more heartfelt. 'Umma' was a horror. 'Roar' was adventure. And 'The Recruit' is spy."