Zora From Sonny With A Chance Is Unrecognizable Now
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A whole category of Disney Channel stars didn't make it as big as the likes of Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and Miley Cyrus. These lesser-known stars may have been multi-talented, like their more famous peers, but since they played supporting characters, they ended up being mostly forgotten. One of these was Allisyn Ashley Arm, also known today by her married name, Allisyn Snyder.
You might remember her from Lovato's television series on the basic cable channel, "Sonny with a Chance," and the revamped spin-off sketch comedy series that took its place when Lovato decided not to continue the show for mental health reasons (via Billboard), called "So Random." She played the youngest member of the comedy troupe that made up the show-within-a-show, a supporting character that provided plenty of comic relief.
Today, 25-year-old Arm describes herself on social media as "the weird chick with the pigtails from both those shows." As she was 12 years old when "Sonny with a Chance" started, it's only natural that Arm is unrecognizable compared to what she looked like back then. But she remains a force in the entertainment industry, both as an actor and a producer.
Many people know Allisyn Ashley Arm from Sonny with a Chance and So Random
Zora was, indeed, a bit of an odd duck. In a Disney Channel promo for the series, the network said Zora was tiny, different, and quirky, calling her the prankster of the crew. In "Sonny wIth a Chance," the first encounter viewers had with her was as Lovato's character opened up an Egyptian mummy case replica that she was resting in, and both scream in surprise, with Zora saying, "Don't you knock?"
She's shown, from early on, to be not just a lover of confined spaces, but also a great eavesdropper, crawling through pipes and vents to make sure she has a good view of the dramatic, funny happenings on set — such as the conflict between Sonny and Tawny (Tiffany Thornton). She's also considered the most intelligent of the lot, often using her smarts to manipulate the others. In one episode, "Sonny with a 100 Percent Chance of Meddling," she even had a love interest. "Zora and I are both extremely outgoing and not afraid to speak our minds. I think our biggest similarity is that we are unapologetically ourselves. We may be a little odd, but we embrace it," actress Arm told Zycie Muzyka Pasje in an interview from 2019.
Following the end of "Sonny with a Chance," the Disney Channel decided to continue with the same cast (sans Lovato), but a new show format: it turned the show-within-a-show "So Random" into an actual sketch comedy series (via Billboard). Unfortunately, the family-friendly "Saturday Night Live" style show didn't catch on with viewers, and it was not renewed after the first season (via Clevver TV).
Allisyn Ashley Arm's career was strong before and after Disney Channel
Prior to being cast on "Sonny with a Chance," Arm was already an experienced actress, with guest credits on shows like "Friends" (she played Phoebe's niece Leslie in season 10, whom Phoebe carried to term as her brother's surrogate), "Judging Amy," and "Still Standing." She continued to act afterwards, landing roles on "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Body of Proof" immediately after her regular Disney Channel stint. She didn't quite leave the Disney fold, though — like many of its stars, she went on to voice a character on one of the company's animated series, playing recurring character Stormy on "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" between 2012 and 2013.
Arm said she definitely enjoyed that project. "Voiceover work is the best! Recording sessions are so quick, easy, and fun! Plus, you can even show up to work in pajamas if you want," she told interviewer Zycie Muzyka Pasje. She was still a teenager when she was working on those projects.
Allisyn Ashley Arm is currently starring in the new season of A.P. Bio
These days, Arm appears on the Peacock-exclusive TV series "A.P. Bio" as recurring character Heather WIltmore. Yep, although she's no longer a teenager, she plays one on TV. Over the course of the show's three seasons (the fourth started on Sept. 2 with her character prominently featured in promotional materials), nerdy-looking Heather has had quite the run. She's described by the show's YouTube site as "Toledo's finest pig carver, a catfish legend, and Jack Griffin's (Glenn Howerton) favorite."
For Arm, going back to high school while in her twenties is an interesting experience, especially since she never actually attended it the first time. "When I got my series regular role on a Disney channel show when I was 12, I had to start homeschooling and so this is ... my high school experience," she told Oh So Gray about "A.P. Bio" in 2018. "This is what I'm going to look back on in years and be like, 'Oh, yes, I remember from high school.' Because, I mean, even prop department gave us our own lockers on set and like we all pass notes in the classroom, goof around ... our behind-the-scenes antics feel like being in high school."
Her website bio says that Arm graduated high school at age 15, after which she started studying cinematography at Glendale Community College.
Allisyn Ashley Arm's alter ego, Astrid Clover, has a big YouTube presence
In 2014, Arm started a web-based TV show called "Astrid Clover," which now features more than 350 episodes. The series is described by its Facebook page as being "so underground, you'll need a shovel" and features clueless millennial vloggers giving advice, getting into silly life situations (like when they take advantage of a house-sitting gig) and creating humorous content.
"The series pokes fun at the millennial generation that thinks believing in yourself is the same as working hard," Arm told Starrymag about the web show. "I star as Astrid Clover, an aspiring vlogger/journalist that has no job and no college experience. It gives viewers a gritty and comedic look into what it's like trying to 'make it' in Los Angeles, a world where keeping the lights on and picking a caption for your selfie are of equal importance."
Astrid Clover's YouTube page has 11.1K subscribers, with hundreds of people watching her more recent "life hack" videos. That's down from a few years back, when most of the short pieces (usually under five minutes) were attracting thousands of viewers each. Arm still posts several episodes a month.
Allisyn Ashley Arm's production company has produced some well-regarded thriller shorts
Arm has had other ambitions besides acting, which she's proved by the way she's branched out since her Disney years. In 2015, she and her now-husband Dylan Snyder, along with producer Bob Morrison, created Watch the Footage (WTF) Productions. Some of the shorts WTF has created are available on Amazon Prime Video as part of the Fun Size Horror Shocktale Party series. One short she wrote and directed is called "It's Just a Story" from 2017, featuring a plot in which six girls set out to scare another with a new ghost story. In 2019, she and WTF released "Nasty Habits," a creepy short about a lonely man who picks up a young female musician who's hitchhiking to Los Angeles. She wrote and directed that one as well, and it received some success at festivals such as the Olympus Film Festival and the Central States Indie FanFilmFest.
"I still work as an actor, but I am definitely devoting more of my attention to pursuing a career behind the camera. I like seeing a project from start to finish, and having a creative say every step along the way," Arm told Mabig Movies. "As an actor, there is a lot of waiting around. You wait for a job to come your way, you wait for hours on set while the crew is bustling, then once you've filmed your scenes, you wait months, sometimes years, to see the finished product. I am a fast-paced person that loves having a job to do, and the waiting around while everyone on crew is so active always bothered me."
Her company's latest project, "Room 566," will be shown at the Shriekfest Film Festival in late September, according to WTF's Instagram page.
Allisyn Ashley Arm got married in 2019 and has a full personal life
Arm's website bio says that her "other talents and hobbies include trapeze, aerial silks, scuba, and roller derby. She is also a prolific artist, with her first gallery showing occurring when she was only 15 years old." In fact, you can purchase her original works at her Etsy shop. So she's plenty busy, even outside her career.
She and her longtime partner, fellow Disney Star Dylan Riley Snyder (he played Milton on Disney XD's "Kickin' It"), got married on September 18, 2019 in a private ceremony. "Everything was perfect," she wrote about the wedding in a note posted to Twitter. "Keeping that moment private was the 2nd best decision I've ever made. The 1st was marrying Dylan."
She told PETA Kids in 2014 that she was vegan, and told PopCandies TV in 2015 (via a Dailymotion video) that she has several pets at home, although she was clearly living with her parents and siblings at the time. Presumably, she and her husband have a different home now.