Hey 90s kids, remember Curly Sue, that John Hughes movie starring Jim Belushi and a fast-talking,
street-hustling girl with a massive set of curls and a heart of gold?
Ever wonder what happened to Alisan Porter, the child actress who played the title character?
Here's the scoop.
From a young age, Porter had a passion for performance and an innate drive to be a star,
so she didn't hesitate to get in front of a camera.
She started appearing in TV commercials by the tender age of 3, which is pretty incredible
considering what most kids are up to at that age!
But that was just the beginning for the young Porter, whose ambitions continued to be realized.
At the age of 5, she became a junior champion on the talent competition show Star Search.
She was the youngest singer ever to appear on the show, which was a pretty big deal at
the time.
If ever there was a foreshadowing of what her future career would be, this was it.
Considering how young Porter was when she started in showbiz, it's no surprise that
she snagged her first leading movie role at the age of 9.
That part was of course 1991's Curly Sue, which rocketed the young actress into mega-stardom.
Beside her work in commercials, she had no acting experience going into it.
As she told The Wrap in 2016,
"I just kind of knew what to do.
I don't know if that's luck or DNA."
Porter totally killed it in the role, which director John Hughes tailored for her after
she was cast.
She revealed to The Wrap that the singing parts for her character were added after she
got the role.
She also noted that Hughes treated her like an adult on set, which helped her flourish.
That's no surprise, as he was famous for that sort of relatability when working with young
actors.
"Put a zock in it, I know what I'm doing."
After Curly Sue, Porter seemed to drop off the radar, but that didn't mean she was unsuccessful
or failing to make it in the film industry.
Instead, she was actually enjoying a shot at a normal life, as she and her family moved
to Connecticut, where she went to middle and high school.
The move proved beneficial for Porter, as she could finally focus on her own personal
development without the stress of a Hollywood life looming over her.
"I was allowed to be a regular thirteen-year-old girl."
But just because Porter left all that glitz and glamour behind, that didn't mean she stopped
acting and singing - far from it, actually.
She performed in a bunch of shows in high school, and she also enrolled in dance classes
during those years, as she had her eyes on a new prize.
Her goal was to make it on Broadway, and she got there after landing a role in Footloose,
but there was still so much more to come.
She later starred as Miriam in a multi-million dollar musical production of The Ten Commandments
in Hollywood alongside Val Kilmer, and then in a revival of A Chorus Line on Broadway.
In 2014, Porter did something extremely brave: she told the world that she was in recovery,
having remained sober since October 28, 2007.
Hitting bottom wasn't as bad for her as it could've been, but she knew when it was time
to make a change.
As she wrote in a blog post,
"I was miserable and overwhelmed with life.
I was heartbroken and realizing that what had always worked for me in the past was NOT
working at all.
Not even a little bit.
I felt trapped, scared, and sad and I was ready to really go for broke or get better."
And in that moment, she decided to turn her life around.
Porter is aware that there are things she will miss out on in life, but none of them
are worth sacrificing her sobriety.
As she sees it,
"Blessings are abundant in this chapter and I'm sitting pretty one day at a time for as
long as possible."
Amen to that!
For a long time Porter was primarily known to the world as an actress.
But at heart, she was deeply passionate about something else.
"I loved acting, but it just isn't in me the way that singing is."
To that end, she formed a band with her friends called The Raz in 2003.
But after about two years, she was ready for a change, one that put her more front and
center.
Thus was birthed The Alisan Porter Project in 2005.
Then in 2009, she released a solo album, and followed that up with a second one in 2014.
But nothing could've truly prepared her for the musical adventure that lay ahead.
It's nearly impossible to think of Porter's blind audition on The Voice and not get chills.
Her rendition of "Blue Bayou" was so on point that all four judges turned around and gave
her a standing ovation.
She wasn't planning on auditioning for the show, as she felt pretty settled in her life
at the time, but when a friend told her they'd slipped her details to a casting director
for the show, she ran with it.
Porter could've picked any of the judges to be her vocal coach.
In the end she went with Christina Aguilera, which turned out to be the right decision,
as she was crowned the winner of The Voice Season 10 - truly a dream come true!
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