If you were coming-of-age in the early 2010s, then you will undoubtedly recognize the name Coco Jones for her varied roles on the Disney Channel. Jones was just 14 when she starred in the Disney Channel musical Let It Shine, which was the highest-rated movie for the network the year it debuted.
Following Let It Shine, Jones booked a starring role on the network’s sitcom, Good Luck Charlie, and buzz soon followed her. There was even talk that she would be the network’s next Raven Simone or Zendaya.
“I thought I was supposed to be the next Raven [Symone]. In my mind, that’s what I was thinking,” Jones said on YouTube. “I can even recall being a room looking around at the heads of all of this. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a wrap.'”
Unfortunately, that never happened. After Good Luck Charlie ended and the planned sequel for Let It Shine was shelved, Disney Channel and Hollywood seemed to turn its back on Jones.
Being forgotten about after so much promise was devastating for the actress. She explained,
But what I think was the most traumatic thing for me is that if I can just let them see my talent, and then they’ll believe in me. But then they would really hear me sing, hear me act, see me dance, and I’m going hard in the paint–I want it–but because somebody else looks a little more marketable, it doesn’t matter baby girl. So that’s traumatizing as a little kid. You don’t know how to cope. You’re looking at yourself like, ‘What did I do?’ I’m asking my mom, ‘What did I do?’ It was just a lot of gassing me. I didn’t know what was true. I didn’t know what was real.
Thankfully, Jones has not let any setback deter her. Now at age 22, she’s showcasing her talent once again.
Recently, she was seen in Netflix’s Vampires vs. the Bronx. She is also slated to star in the upcoming holiday-themed movie, White Elephant.
