Wise beyond her years and appreciative of her “really special” young fanbase and Disney’s backing, actress, singer, and dancer Meg Donnelly is already on a path to superstardom at age 21. Even more impressive than the starlet’s already vast credentials is her outlook on life and show business.
This past weekend, Meg starred in Disney+’s highly-anticipated Zombies 3 in which she also served as a producer along with her co-star Milo Manheim. The first Zombies movie premiered back in early 2018 on the Disney channel.
“I mean, working on the three films has definitely changed my whole life,” Donnelly, who plays “Addison” in the trilogy, told me via Zoom on Friday, the day Zombies 3 dropped on Disney+. “I mean, even during the audition process for Zombies, like when me and Milo (“Zed”) were auditioning with each other, we were 15.
“And now, in a couple of days, I'm turning 22. So it's just a lot of time. And those were years where you're really growing and becoming the person that you want to be as well.
“So being around these people, and especially in the Zombies franchise, I mean, even just the fans surrounding it are just so supportive, but also, the cast and crew as well. We're just such a huge family, and truly, these people are my best friends, and I hang out with them all the time.
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“So just to have a support system like that is just unreal. And just to be a part of a franchise where we teach such amazing lessons to young kids about diversity and acceptance and having conversations that create change. But also having fun, like werewolf zombie dance parties. It's wild that I can be a part of a franchise like that.”
According to Meg, Zombies 3 strove to keep the perfect balance of staying true to the first two installments while adding a summer blockbuster feel to it.
“Yeah, I definitely think Disney did such a good job with maturing with the audiences because our audience kind of started younger, and as they've grown with us now, I feel like this movie is kind of— it could be on its own. It's kind of its own— it's almost like a blockbuster type of movie where everything is just bigger and better,” Donnelly, who also stars in Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical - The Series and got her first big break on ABC’s American Housewife, said.
“But at the same time, we still have those themes of acceptance. We still have all of the same amazing characters from before. And Zed and Addison are just the most connected they've ever been, which I think is really important. ... I'm so grateful for it. It was so cool.
“We really wanted to make sure that we carried those themes into the third one as well of kind of being like, okay, we want to kind of wrap this up and bring in elements of 1 and 2 because they are so special to us. So I feel like, in the finale number, we tried to add as much kind of— the zombie light garden from Zombies 1 and ‘BAMM’ references and then ‘Fired Up’. And so we tried to kind of go back and kind of replay all of the movies in the finale.”
As a producer, Donnelly was able to have a hand in incorporating themes like inclusiveness into Zombies 3, as well as love.
“In this movie, they say, ‘I love you,’ to each other. And that wasn't going to be in the script just because it might have been a little bit too mature for younger audiences,” Meg revealed. “But Milo and I really, really wanted to make sure that it's said because they do love each other, and they're about to leave each other for a very long time.
“So I think it was really important that they said, ‘I love you,’ to each other for the first time, which I thought was really, really special, and I'm really glad that Milo and I pushed for that.”
The Zombies films are old and new school Disney at their best and a perfect offering for family movie nights. There’s positive messages, no need to keep a finger on the fast forward button, and incredible dance choreography with uniquely captivating original music.
One such number in Zombies 3, “I’m Finally Me”, shows Meg’s sensational range as not just a singer, but a performer across the board.
Donnelly is fully aware of the icon status several former Disney performers eventually reached, but for now she’s enjoying the moment and focusing on her career one day at time.
“Yeah, I'm definitely a kind of like, ‘We'll see what happens,’ type of person because that's just crazy to fathom,” Meg said. “I still can't even really fathom that I'm a part of the Disney bubble, and with all these Disney people, it's just unreal.
“So I don't really put myself in that category because it's just crazy to do so. So yeah, I just kind of want to see what happens, and hopefully, can do [more] things along the way.”
Meg didn’t wake up a Disney star overnight, despite reaching an insurmountable level and status in entertainment for most in her early 20s, the journey for Donnelly has been well-earned and hard-fought.
“American Housewife is what moved me to LA when I just turned 16. And people are always like, ‘Oh, was American Housewife your first audition?’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ because I started auditioning when I was 9, maybe,” the New York native said. “I had four auditions a week. ... Nothing would really happen. I did stuff here and there, but it was really just a lot of no’s until I had just turned 16.
“That's when I finally kind of booked something that moved me to LA. So it was a lot of years in between. And also kind of giving up social life as well was kind of hard because all of my friends didn't really understand what I was doing. And I didn't really either.
“So it just kind of— trying to balance my social life and going to parties and hang out with friends with auditioning, even though I keep hearing no’s, but still trying to go for it, being motivated, was really hard. And then also, at Annie's Playhouse (renowned performing arts school in New Jersey), I did lessons four times a week as well because it's just something I love to do.
My parents weren't in the business at all, so [they said], ‘As soon as you stop being happy, we'll just take you out of it, and you can become a normal kid.’ But I always wanted to work towards it because I knew that's what I wanted to do. So yeah, it was definitely challenging.”
Next up for Meg is shooting in New Orleans, beginning this week, for the Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters, set to air on The CW, in which she’ll play “Mary Campbell”. Supernatural star Jensen Ackles is the executive producer on The Winchesters. Ackles recently made a big splash on season 3 of the Amazon
“Man, I love The Boys because I feel like it has everything,” Meg said of the series sporting a vastly different tone than the Zombies movies. “It's comedic. It's super dark. They touch on some really important topics, but then there is violence, and then there's action scenes, and it's gory. But then it's also hilarious. Seth Rogen's on it.
“So I swear when people ask me to explain it to them, I genuinely don't know how to describe it. And I also love superheroes too, so it literally has everything. It's great.”
Outside of working with the individuals who make up the well-oiled machine over at Disney+, Meg has learned a lot about the industry elsewhere.
“I feel like I learned a lot from my TV dad, Diedrich Bader, on American Housewife. He just had such amazing advice,” Donnelly recalled. “So much in this business is just out of your control, and you really just have to do what makes you happy and kind of work on yourself and not worry about what other people are doing because it's so hard to do that, especially with kids our age.
“It's so funny. It's like you feel like you're— up, and you don't have enough time left. But we're all so young. It's easy to compare yourself to other people in this business. So just kind of staying on your own track and worrying about what's best for you, I think. That really stuck with me when Diedrich said that.”
Meg will also be returning as Addison for the recently announced Zombies animated series that will stream on Disney+ at a later date.
