Dove Cameron (born Chloe Celeste Hosterman; January 15, 1996) is an American actress and singer, best known for playing a dual role as both title characters in the Disney Channel teen sitcom Liv and Maddie and starring in Descendants as Mal, daughter of Maleficent. She reprised her role as Mal in Descendants 2, which premiered on July 21, 2017, on Disney Channel.
Cameron was born in Seattle, Washington as Chloe Celeste Hosterman. She is the daughter of Philip Alan Hosterman and Bonnie Wallace, who later got divorced, and has an older sister, Claire Hosterman. She grew up in Bainbridge Island, Washington. When she was a child, she attended Sakai Intermediate School. At the age of 8, she began acting in community theater at Bainbridge Performing Arts. When she was 14, her family moved to Los Angeles, California, where she sang in Burbank High School‘s National Championship Show Choir. Cameron is of Scottish and French descent, and is a fluent speaker of French, having spent many years of her life growing up in France. She has stated she was bullied through her entire school experience, starting in fifth grade, through the end of high school. Regardless of the pressure at school and fitting in, she stayed focused on her dreams of becoming successful in entertainment: “I became very passionate about [becoming an actress and singer]. I fully immersed myself”. Her father died in 2011 when she was 15 years old.
In 2012, Cameron was cast in a new Disney Channel Original Series entitled Bits and Pieces as Alanna. Shortly after filming the pilot, Bits and Pieces was retooled into Liv and Maddie and saw Cameron starring in the dual lead role of Liv and Maddie Rooney. The preview of the series debuted on July 19, 2013, and the show premiered on September 15, 2013. The pilot episode gained 5.8 million viewers, which was the most-watched in total viewers in 2.5 years since the series Shake It Up! Disney Channel renewed Liv and Maddie for a 13-episode second season slated to premiere in Fall 2014, which was later expanded to 24 episodes.
On August 27, 2013, Cameron released a cover of “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons as a promotional single. Her cover peaked on the Billboard Kid Digital Songs chart at seventeen and spent three weeks on the chart. On October 15, 2013, “Better In Stereo” was released as a single under Walt Disney Records. “Better In Stereo” made its debut on the Billboard Kid Digital Songs chart at No. 21 before peaking at No. 1, becoming Cameron’s first No. 1 hit. In February 2014, Cameron confirmed reports that recording had begun for her debut studio album. Her next single, “Count Me In”, was released on June 3, 2014. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Kids Digital Songs chart. Cameron played Liz Larson in her first non-Disney film, Barely Lethal, which was theatrically released by A24 Films in 2015.
Cameron starred in the television film Descendants which premiered on July 31, 2015. The film was viewed by 6.6 million people and spawned Cameron’s two first Billboard Hot 100 songs, “Rotten to the Core” at No. 38 and a solo song, “If Only”, at No. 94. Other songs from the film featuring Cameron such as “Set It Off” and “Evil Like Me” charted at No. 6 and 12 respectively on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. The soundtrack for the movie peaked atop the Billboard 200 chart becoming the first soundtrack from a Disney Channel Original Movie since High School Musical 2 to do so. As part of the Descendants franchise, Cameron released a cover of Christina Aguilera‘s hit song, “Genie in a Bottle“. The music video premiered on Disney Channel on March 18, 2016. The single received 22 million views in less than a month.
In 2015, Cameron and Ryan McCartan formed a band called The Girl and the Dreamcatcher. On October 2, 2015, they released their first single, “Written in the Stars”. The band released their second single, “Glowing in the Dark”, on January 29, 2016.
The Girl and the Dreamcatcher released their third single, “Someone You Like”, on April 8, 2016. They released their fourth single, “Make You Stay”, on June 17, 2016. The video premiered on Disney Channel in July 2016. On July 29, 2016, the band released their first EP, Negatives, featuring their singles “Make You Stay” and “Glowing in the Dark” and four new songs. In October 2016, as a result of Dove and Ryan’s breakup, the musical duo disbanded.
On December 22, 2015, Liv & Maddie was officially renewed for a fourth season, becoming the 9th live-action Disney Channel show in history to achieve this. Cameron began filming the season of Liv and Maddie in early 2016. It was later announced that this would be the final season of the show. The series finale of Liv & Maddie later aired on March 24, 2017.
In August 2016, it was announced that Cameron would be playing the role of Amber Von Tussle in the NBC live television presentation of Hairspray Live!, which aired on December 7, 2016. Reception was generally positive, and Cameron’s performance was praised. E! commented “America, we need to quit sleeping on Dove Cameron—because the Disney star absolutely CRUSHED her live TV musical debut. The Liv and Maddie star played the villainous Amber Von Tussle, a.k.a. Tracy Turnblad’s snobby, racist dance (and romantic) rival, in NBC’s Hairspray Live.
Cameron has expressed her desire to begin releasing music and has confirmed that she has been working on her debut album in 2017.