What Happened To General Hospital Alum Kimberly McCullough After She Left The Show?

Kimberly McCullough was a regular presence on the long-running soap opera "General Hospital" for nearly 30 years. She debuted as fan-favorite character Robin Scorpio all the way back in 1985, at just seven years old, with McCullough's first stint on the show lasting until 2000. During that initial tenure on "GH," the up-and-comer was involved in several key storylines, such as Robin's painful love story with Stone Cates in the mid-1990s, which culminated in one of the most memorable (and heartbreaking) moments in "General Hospital" history. Following her departure at the turn of the millennium, McCullough eventually returned to the beloved soap in 2004, this time sticking around until 2018. But, what has she been up to since then?

In addition to leaving the soap world behind, McCullough has largely left acting behind too, in favor of pursuing a career as a television director. Mind you, this career change hardly came out of nowhere. In fact, McCullough started planting the seeds for it in the middle of her second stint on "GH." She made her directorial debut with a short film entitled "Nice Guys Finish Last" in 2011. The former soap star then went slightly more mainstream with her directing, helming the penultimate episode of the Zendaya-starring Disney Channel sitcom "Shake It Up" in 2013.

Shortly thereafter, McCullough joined the ABC Directing Program, which allows new and aspiring directors to shadow more established ones and gain hands-on experience in the field. "It was so fun and Zendaya is doing so great on 'Dancing with the Stars' right now. So I did that and right now I'm an ABC Director Fellow [...] I'm actually going to shadow on 'Homeland' in two weeks which I'm very excited about," McCullough enthused during a 2015 interview with Daytime Confidential.

After cutting her teeth as a director on "Shake It Up" and joining the ABC Directing Program while still being a fixture of one of the Disney-owned network's most popular soap operas, the behind-the-camera job offers just kept coming for Kimberly McCullough. Naturally, much of her early directing work fell under the Disney-ABC umbrella. In addition to "Shake It Up," the soap star helmed episodes of shows like fellow Disney Channel sitcom "K.C. Undercover" and the Freeform (formerly ABC Family) drama "Pretty Little Liars." Over the years, McCullough has remained loyal to the Disney brand, with one of her most prolific directing jobs being an impressive 14-episode run on Disney Plus' "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series," starring Olivia Rodrigo. 

She's also directed episodes of ABC's "The Conners," FXX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," and Hulu's "How I Met Your Father." However, the "General Hospital" alum has branched out a bit as well, helming episodes of Netflix's "Fuller House" and The CW's "Roswell, New Mexico." At the time of writing, McCullough is preparing to make her feature directorial debut with "No Te Olvides," which stars Xochitl Gomez (of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" fame). All that being said, while McCullough has effectively been retired from acting since her second major stint on "General Hospital" ended in 2018, she did return to the show for one last guest appearance as Robin Scorpio in 2021 as part of a special episode paying tribute to "GH" co-star, John Reilly.