Life as a Disney child star: Madison Pettis

Most kids get their first job when they're 13 or 14. Texas native Madison Pettis started work at the age of six on kids favourite Barney & Friends. After landing several commercials, Madison and her parents moved to Los Angeles a few years later to try and crack the Hollywood market. Within a few weeks she landed a role on prime time series Jericho and auditioned for her first feature film The Game Plan. It's a role she won and one that first introduced mainstream audiences to her bubbly talent. She starred alongside Dwayne `The Rock' Johnson as his long-lost daughter, Peyton, and although most kids would find that pretty intimidating, not Madison.
``He was just like a dad to me,'' she says of `The Rock'.
``He was awesome and always checking up on me and asking if I was hungry or tired.”

The Game Plan was a box-office hit, earning $144 million worldwide, and set Madison up for a career as a child star. She became the youngest Disney Channel star, playing the role of Sophie, the President's daughter (below), on Cory in the House and in a crossover episode of Hannah Montana. Since then she's worked with some of the biggest names in the business, including Will Smith on Seven Pounds. But Madison, now 12, says she hasn't let her success go to her head.
``I stay grounded and I go to a normal school which keeps me balanced,'' she says.
``I'm very conscious of being a good role model for girls.
``There's a lot of people I can look up to, like my mum.
``She always tells me to be nice to other people and be kind and be careful of other people's feelings.'' She's a regular face on the Disney channel, having played the younger sister to High School Musical's Corbin Bleu in Free Style and starring in Mostly Ghostly, based on the popular Goosebumps series of books by R.L. Stine. That's not to mention her recurring voiceover work on animated shows such Phineas & Ferb and Special Agent Oso. Set to premiere in early 2011, Madison will also voice the role of Izzy, the only girl pirate on Disney Channel's new series Jake and the Never Land Pirates.

She also voices George Lopez's puppy daughter Lala in the straight-to-DVD film Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2.
``I'd never played a Chihuahua before,'' she says.
``I'd never got to play the voice of the dog and it was fun to see my voice coming out from a little body.
``It's a little difficult because no one can see you acting in the booth, it's just you and your voice.
``But at the same time, I loved it because I could just go into the studio in my PJs and flip flops.''Although Madison (all grown up and above) is considered a star in her own right, she says she's still a fan and gets ``star struck'' just like everyone else.
``I was star struck by Raven Symone, I couldn't even speak,'' she says of her fellow Disney star.
``I loved Cheetah Girls, I grew up watching that and when I was on Corey's In The House, a spin off from Cheetah Girls, she came on set and I went `oh my God, that's Raven Symone'.
``I couldn't say anything, I was so scared.
``But she was so nice and came up to me and said `hi' and got a picture. I don't think I said anything the whole time.''