Meet the 15-year-old star of ‘Upside-Down Magic’
Siena Agudong’s showbiz résumé reads like someone’s twice her age.
The 15-year-old actress, who hails from Hawaii, already has two series under her belt — Nickelodeon’s “Star Falls” and “No Good Nick,” a two-season Netflix dramedy co-starring Melissa Joan Hart and Sean Astin.
On July 31, she headlines “Upside-Down Magic,” a Disney Channel movie based on the popular fantasy book series about a group of kids with magical powers.
Agudong spoke to The Post and shared some insights into her life and career.
Tell me about “UpsideDown Magic.”
I play Reina Carvajal, who has a flair for the ability to manipulate heat. She and her best friend, Nory [Izabela Rose] attend a school for magical studies. They’re separated into different classes because they have different powers [Nory can transform into different animals] and they find all sorts of challenges and adventures. We shot the movie in Vancouver Island and in the opening scene we’re walking through a forest with a lot of mist and very tall trees. It was absolutely beautiful.
What was it like working with Melissa Joan Hart and Sean Astin?
They’re the sweetest and most genuine people and they took me under their wing like their daughter. They took me and [co-stars] Kalama [Epstein] and Lauren [Lindsey Donzis], who were the other kids in the show [they played Jeremy and Molly Thompson], and we would go on trips we called “Thompson Family Nights.” They would take us to dinner or we would just go and hang out sometimes and they would drive us. It felt like we were a family on and off the screen. We had the best time laughing and getting to know each other for about seven months.
I hear you play the drums. Is that a serious hobby?
It’s not a serious thing because I can’t read sheet music. But . . . my dad and my sister, Sydney [also an actress], are very musical and one of our favorite things growing up was always jamming out — even if I didn’t get the beat. Mostly playing around to my dad’s ‘80s music or random songs that we’d make up. My sister would sing and my dad would play the guitar and I would drum out — it was very loud and sometimes not at the best time of the morning.