Anneliese van der Pol

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Anneliese van der Pol
Anneliese van der Pol at the 2005 BET Comedy Awards
Born	September 23, 1984 Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Notable roles	That's So Raven

Anneliese Louise van der Pol (born September 23, 1984) is an American actress. After an early career in musical theatre, she was cast as Chelsea Daniels in the Disney Channel Original Series That's So Raven, a role that gained her renown among young audiences. Van der Pol also has a career as a singer, and has recorded several songs for Disney.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Van der Pol was born in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands to Wim van der Pol, who is Dutch, and Dyan Ross, an American from Brooklyn, New York. She has two older sisters, Rachel and Sarah, and is of Jewish heritage. Van der Pol's family moved to her mother's native United States when she was three years old, and she retains dual citizenship between The Netherlands and the U.S.

The elementary school that she attended was Washington Elementary, located in Bellflower, California. Van der Pol began acting in the third grade and graduated from the Musical Theater Program of The Orange County High School of the Arts. She played Eva Peron in the Buena Park Civic Theatre production of Evita in 1999, and received positive reviews from the Los Angeles Times. At fifteen, she was also the one of the youngest actresses to play the role in a professional production.

[edit] Career

Van der Pol subsequently starred as Laurey in the Austin Musical Theater production of Oklahoma from 2000 to 2001. Her performance earned her the Austin Critics Table award nominations for "Best Actress in a Musical". Van der Pol was later cast as Chelsea Daniels, the best friend of the title character in the Disney Channel series That's So Raven, a role she played from 2002 to 2006. Van der Pol has also appeared on the Disney Channel Games as a member of the Red Team; her teammates were Zac Efron, Kay Panabaker, Dylan Sprouse, Shin Koyamada, and Moises Arias.

Van der Pol is a soprano and is trained in the belting vocal technique. In 2004, she recorded the song "Over It" for the Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. Her second solo recording, called "A Day in the Sun", appeared on the album That's So Raven Too!. Van der Pol has been associated with several other Disney music projects, including the song "Circle of Life" for The Lion King: Special Edition DVD and "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" for the Cinderella: Special Edition DVD.

[edit] Personal life

Anneliese's bedroom walls are painted green because green is her favorite color. She has also described herself as a "sneaker girl" and noted that her favorite subject in school was English and her favorite food is chocolate.^[1] Van der Pol's favorite actors include Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Auteuil, Daniel Day-Lewis and Kevin Spacey, and her favorite films are Sophie's Choice, What About Bob?, The Shawshank Redemption.

Van der Pol enjoys independent films, tennis and camping. Her favorite animal is the hummingbird.

[edit] Resume

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Anneliese van der Pol at the Internet Movie Database