After her Disney Channel show Hannah Montana ended, Miley Cyrus stayed very much in the limelight and moved on to a career as a popular singer. But sticking around in the entertainment industry wasn't in the cards for one of her co-stars. In a recent TikTok video, Hannah Montana actor Morgan York explained why she quit acting after a successful career as a child star. Read on to see what York, now 28, had to say and to learn more about her very different life now.
York starred in several films before joining Hannah Montana.
Tinseltown / Shutterstock.comAs she explains in her TikTok video, York began acting when she was nine years old. She appeared in her first feature film, Cheaper by the Dozen, in 2003. York played Kim Baker in the movie and in its 2005 sequel. She was also in the movie The Pacifier, which starred Vin Diesel, and appeared on the TV series The Practice, Life With Bonnie, The Suite Life on Deck, and, of course, Hannah Montana. York played Sarah on 11 episodes of the series throughout its run from 2006 to 2010.
But she never saw herself as an adult actor.
Disney-ABC Domestic TelevisionHannah Montana was York's final project, and when she finished filming she was 17 years old. In her TikTok video, York answered a question sent in by a follower: "Do you miss acting?" After offering a simple "no," York said, "I am going to go into this a little bit more because the question I am asked the most is: 'Why did you quit acting?'"
It turns out, York just never saw acting as her lifelong career, even when she was a kid. "I started acting when I was nine, and from the beginning, my mom told me, 'The second this becomes not fun or you want to stop, you can stop,'" York explained. "I never expected it to be a lifetime thing. I even remember as a kid trying to imagine myself as an adult actor and just not seeing it. I saw myself stopping acting at the very least when I started college and then just never going back."
She was passionate about something else.
© Morgan York / TikTokYork decided to follow her mom's advice in her late teens. "It wasn’t fun anymore," she said in the video. "My passion for acting did not outweigh all the costs, like all the time you have to spend away from loved ones on sets and the constant scrutiny from people watching you."
On top of that, York was more passionate about another career. These days, she works in publishing and writes fiction with a focus on young adult fantasy novels, according to her website. "My passion for writing fiction, which existed as long as my passion for acting, was just much stronger, and it was something I preferred," she said on TikTok.
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And she isn't in touch with her Hannah Montana co-stars.
© Morgan York / TikTokIn another TikTok video, York was asked whether she talks to anyone from the Hannah Montana cast. She explained that she doesn't, solely because they lead very different lives.
"A lot of people think of me as famous because I have worked a little bit in movies and TV," she said. "And I see how it looks like that from your perspective. But from my perspective, I have never thought of myself as famous. I wasn’t in that much relatively speaking. I can go about my life. Most people don’t know my name."
York pointed out that Cyrus, on the other hand, is immediately recognizable. Some of York's other Hannah Montana co-stars who have stayed in the spotlight are Emily Osment, Cyrus' father Billy Ray Cyrus, and Moises Arias.
"The only way I could have really interacted with any of my Hannah Montana co-stars at this point is on social media," she continued. "I follow all of them, and I don’t think any of them follow me, which, that's fine. They are famous." York said that "it's not personal," and they might not even realize she follows them. "So, I haven’t spoken to any of the Hannah Montana cast since 2010."
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