Disney Channel star Raven Symone grew up on TV, first co-starring in The Cosby Show at age 4, and is now producing and starring in Raven's House and a new holiday special. 

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

  1. Raven Symone, 35, was ranked at No. 9 on their "100 Greatest Kid Stars of All Time" list in 2012 by VH1. As a child actress, she began her career, appearing as Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show from 1989 to 1992, then played Nicole Lee on Hangin' with Mr. Cooper between 1993 to 1997. As a teenager, she starred as Raven Baxter on the Disney Channel television series "That's So Raven" and reprised her role in 2017 in "Raven's Home." Raven said that "with this show, we like to touch on topics that impact children and impact families and this is a situation that is happening around the entire world and not touching on it, not lending some kind of comedy, not lending our voice and our opinion on the matter, is a disservice to the platform we work on. I feel like we are doing it in such a way that we are leading the pack with safety behind doors, as well as on camera."
  2. Raven's Home one-hour holiday episode "Mad About Yuletide" takes place on Christmas Eve, and the Baxter/Grayson family is trying to make the best of the holiday when a storm hits and disrupts their plans to celebrate together. 
  3. Her film credits include Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Dolittle 2, College Road Trip, and a few successful television films, including Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, The Cheetah Girls, its sequel The Cheetah Girls 2, For One Night, and Revenge of the Bridesmaids. Raven said she feels very lucky because "every project I do and everything I'm apart of, I look to the future and say, "Am I going to want this in my biography?' Every choice I make, I go, 'Is this going to be a bad chapter? Let me try to turn this chapter around.' And that really prevents me from going off the edge cause this industry is a hot mess."
  4. In music, Raven released her debut studio album at the age of 7, "Here's to New Dreams," her subsequent studio albums, "Undeniable," "This Is My Time," and "Raven-Symoné" saw some commercial success on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. She also contributed vocals to several soundtracks from her Disney projects, including "The Cheetah Girls," "That's So Raven," "That's So Raven Too!," and "The Cheetah Girls 2."
  5. She's been producing for a while. She says, "I think it's the obligation of people on television, in my opinion, to reflect society in a way or in some version of whatever perspective you want to. I'm very lucky to have been in the industry as long as I have. I'm going on 33 years this year, and it feels good that I'm able to grow up and continue to morph in this industry, and the industry has allowed it."