China Anne McClain

**China Anne McClain** (born August 25, 1998) is an American actress and singer.

## Early Life

McClain was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia. Her father, Michael McClain, is a music producer. Her mother, Shontell, is a songwriter and former screenwriter. She has two older sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, who are also actresses and singers, and has a little brother, Gabriel.

## Career

### 2005-2011: Daddy's Little Girls and Tyler Perry's House of Payne

McClain was discovered in 2005 by a music executive who heard her sing and encouraged director Rob Hardy to audition her for his 2005 feature film The Gospel. Her role caught the attention of Tyler Perry, who cast her as Jazmine Payne in the television series Tyler Perry's House of Payne. She appeared in the movie Daddy's Little Girls with her sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, who are also actresses and played her older sisters in the film. McClain appeared in various other shows and movies such as Hannah Montana (2009) with future A.N.T. Farm co-star Sierra McCormick, NCIS (2009) and the film Hurricane Season (2009). She also appeared in the movie Grown Ups (2010) as Charlotte McKenzie. Before getting her own Disney Channel show, McClain had recurring roles on Disney Channel shows like Jonas (2010) and then on Wizards of Waverly Place (2011).

### 2011-2014: A.N.T. Farm and Music

In 2011, McClain was cast as the lead role in the Disney Channel series A.N.T. Farm. For the show, McClain recorded a cover of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite". She also sang the series theme song, "Exceptional". McClain's first music video, for "Dynamite", amassed more than 1 million views in under a week after release on YouTube. She appeared in an episode of PrankStars (2011). For the Disney Channel Halloween special in 2011, she performed the song, "Calling All The Monsters". On June 14, 2011, McClain and her sisters, known as the McClain Sisters, signed with Hollywood Records. The A.N.T. Farm soundtrack was released on October 11, 2011, featuring McClain's version of "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz. On September 28, 2011, McClain released "Calling All The Monsters" to iTunes. "Calling All The Monsters" charted at number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. On November 24, 2011, she performed her song "Unstoppable" in the 85th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (2011). McClain sang the theme song for Doc McStuffins (2012) and later guest starred on the show.

She co-starred in the 2013 sequel Grown Ups 2. On December 27, 2013, it was announced on her Twitter page that A.N.T. Farm would be ending after its 3rd season. On the same day, it was revealed that the McClain Sisters had left Hollywood Records. In the March/April 2014 issue of BYOU magazine, McClain said it was "bittersweet" that A.N.T Farm was ending, and announced plans to focus on doing music with her sisters. McClain appeared on ABC's Sing Your Face Off (2014), winning the show's first and only season.

### 2014-Present: Descendants, Black Lightning and Films

McClain starred in How to Build a Better Boy (2014) alongside Kelli Berglund and released the single "Something Real" which was featured in the movie.

In 2015, McClain was featured in the FOX series Bones (2015) in the episode "The Lost in the Found", playing Kathryn Walling. McClain performed "Night is Young," for the Descendants soundtrack. McClain and her song also appeared in Descendants: Wicked World (2015) based on the Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants. She voiced Freddie, the daughter of Dr. Facilier. Her sister, Lauryn McClain, voiced the character for season two. McClain voiced the role of Ghufaira in the 3D computer-animated action-drama film Bilal: A New Breed of Hero (2015) She went on to guest star on The Night Shift and starred in a voice role as Lyra in Sheep and Wolves, both in 2016.

In 2017, she played the villain Uma, the daughter of Ursula, in Descendants 2. She also guest starred as Sheena on K.C. Undercover (2017) and starred as Meg in the Lifetime television film Ten: Murder Island (2017). In January 2018, McClain began playing Jennifer Pierce in Black Lightning on The CW, and reprised her role as Jazmine Payne on The Paynes. Later on that year, she starred in the action thriller film Blood Brother, opposite Trey Songz and Ron Killings. In July 2019 it was announced McClain had joined the cast of Hubie Halloween and in August 2019, McClain reprised her role as Uma in Descendants 3.

## Personal Life

In 2014, Lauryn and China created a YouTube channel. Their sister, Sierra, appeared in several of the channel's videos. Their last Youtube video was posted in April 2018 and the channel has since been inactive. As of 2020, the channel has over 677,000 subscribers and over 27.7 million views.

She currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her family. McClain cites her parents, Michael and Shontell, as her biggest influences McClain has said that she and her family are Christians.

## Discography

See Also: China Anne McClain Discography and McClain Discography

Formats: CD and digital download
Label: Walt Disney Records
 Descendants 2 (Soundtrack) | Released: July 21, 2017
Formats: CD and digital download
Label: Walt Disney Records
 Descendants 3 (Soundtrack) | Released: August 2, 2019
Formats: CD and digital download
Label: Walt Disney Records