Why Elle From The Kissing Booth Looks So Familiar
You've more than likely seen Elle from The Kissing Booth before, as the actress has over 60 television shows and movies to her name. Yes, Joey King has been in her fair share of films — from action adventures to romantic comedies and everything in between. "I want to show people that I can do any kind of role," she explained to Teen Vogue, and she truly has.
King grew up in the spotlight, first appearing in a Life Cereal commercial when she was a kid. She has since appeared in multiple popular shows like Entourage, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and The Flash, and she even had a voice acting gig for The Simpsons. Her starring role in Netflix's The Kissing Booth has quickly helped her become a household name. "I've been in this business for quite a long time, but I've never played a role like Elle before," King admitted to W magazine.
Chances are, this Emmy-nominated actress has definitely been in something you've seen. Here's why Elle from The Kissing Booth looks so familiar.
Before she was Elle from The Kissing Booth, Joey King was in The Suite Life
Disney Channel made up many of our childhoods, but for actress Joey King — who'd go on to be Elle from The Kissing Booth — the network kickstarted her childhood career. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was the first television show she ever worked on. "I was the triplet they always wanted," King joked on Instagram alongside a throwback photo of her on set with Dylan and Cole Sprouse during Season 2 in 2006.
Appearing on the network is any young actor's dream, but this emerging actress was paid to draw on the walls of the hotel and throw around stuffed animals as one of the children Zack and Cody watch at daycare. It's a pretty big deal for any kid to score a role on such a kid-friendly network. King admitted she was even recognized out in public following the episode's airing, and that's when she knew she'd made it big. "I got absolutely mobbed at the bowling alley," she said during one interview.
Though her role as the adorable Emily only lasted for two episodes of the show, it started King off on the track to becoming the queen of our TVs.
The Kissing Booth's Joey King starred alongside Selena Gomez in Ramona and Beezus
Ramona and Beezus is based on a beloved children's book, and Joey King snagged a starring role in the 2010 project. She also happened to be cast alongside superstar Selena Gomez.
As Gomez had already established herself as a child actor, King was learning from the best in the business when she was only entering third grade (via StyleCaster). The two played sisters on screen, and they even brought their connection off screen as well. Gomez went with young King to get her ears pierced, had sleepovers at her house, and even brought their families together for barbecues (via Artisan News Service). "She's a big inspiration to people, whether she realizes it or not," King told Entertainment Tonight.
Growing up on camera is no easy task either. The actress who'd later be known as Elle from The Kissing Booth admitted on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she constantly had to wear fake teeth while filming because she was at an age where she was losing hers. She also had a big problem with her character's pet on set. "I'm actually allergic to cats," she admitted during an interview with Brooke Lusk. "It was hard."
The Kissing Booth star Joey King had a lead role in Taylor Swift's music video for "Mean"
Long before she took on the role of Elle from The Kissing Booth, Joey King's career began to skyrocket after Ramona and Beezus was released, and the following year, she starred alongside another pretty famous name that's near and dear to Selena Gomez — Taylor Swift. In 2011, King played a character in Swift's music video for "Mean," and she portrayed an outcast who isn't included by other girls her age. King's character gets the last laugh at the end of the video, though, when she gets to attend a private Swift concert.
Swift is another older celebrity that King got a lot of wisdom from following the release of the music video. "It's amazing to have female friends like that who are older and who have more experience," King, who hadn't even hit her teenage years when the song was released, told Hello! magazine. "As much as they're great friends inside the business, outside of the business they're great people to turn to." It's no wonder her career has taken off since!
Joey King was Steve Carrell's daughter in Crazy, Stupid, Love way before she was Elle from The Kissing Booth
Joey King wasn't only featured in a Taylor Swift music video in 2011. That same year, she appeared in the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Starring alongside Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling, King seemed to be set for stardom. She played Carrell's young daughter Molly who is left to deal with her parents' divorce. While there are some downers in the movie, the romantic comedy kept the young actress laughing while filming it. "It was such a funny cast that I could not stop laughing when we were doing scenes," she admitted to My Entertainment World. "I couldn't hold it in." It didn't help that comedic genius Carrell ad libbed a lot of his lines.
King had yet another actress to look up to in the film as well — Emma Stone. "It was really cool working with Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Julianne Moore, all those people, they're so unbelievably nice," King, who's now well known for being Elle from The Kissing Booth, said.
Joey King guest-starred on New Girl before she was known as Elle from The Kissing Booth
If you're a fan of sitcoms, you may have seen the actress behind Elle from The Kissing Booth on your television screen back in 2012, when she guest-starred on the female-led television show New Girl. Joey King played Brianna during an episode of Season 1, where she takes on quite an opposite role of what she's used to, using it as an opportunity to show off her range. Instead of the outcast she starred as in Taylor Swift's music video, King plays the class bully in Zooey Deschanel's show.
Unfortunately for the emerging teen actress, she may have more experience as the victim of bullying rather than the bully. Online bullying is still something she has had to deal with as a celebrity. "I went to my sisters and my mom and cried about it and was like, 'I don't understand how they could be so mean,'" she has explained to StyleCaster. "But then I realized how stupid and childish [the bullying] was." The successful actress has the last laugh now!
The Kissing Booth's Joey King shaved her head for The Dark Knight Rises
In 2012, Joey King's career took a much different direction. "Batman is absolutely my favorite superhero out there," she said in an interview with Paige Smith, so she was stoked to star in the highly anticipated Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.
As a 13-year-old actress then, King had to take on quite a new look to play the young Talia al Ghul, as noted by My Entertainment World. Director Christopher Nolan wanted her to shave her head for the role. While most young girls wouldn't want to lose their hair, King couldn't wait. "It was really freeing," she admitted to Clevver Movies. "I took half the time in the shower."
Shooting the superhero movie was quite an adventure for the young actress. King even had to be held by a harness at extremely high heights to play out her scenes. "I love doing all my own stunts," the then-future Kissing Booth actress told My Entertainment World, "and I love doing all the flying." What kid wouldn't?
The Kissing Booth's Joey King joined Oz The Great and Powerful
If family films are more your taste, then you may have caught a glimpse of Joey King in the 2013 Wizard of Oz prequel Oz The Great and Powerful. Before the movie focuses on the colorful world of Oz, King plays a young girl confined to a wheelchair and later appears as the voice of the china doll who is hoping the wizard will help to mend her broken legs. You may have missed her quick appearance, but even though she spends a majority of the movie simply voicing her CGI character, her face may still seem familiar. She explained to the Associated Press that, in the sound booth, "they had these cameras on our faces, and they attached our facial expressions onto our characters."
King starred alongside some pretty big Hollywood names in the film like James Franco, Mila Kunis, and Zach Braff. "It's so crazy to be a part of something so big," she said. Her career, though, was about to get even bigger, especially when she landed the role of Elle from The Kissing Booth.
Joey King appeared in the scary movie The Conjuring
The same year that Joey King worked on Oz The Great and Powerful, she decided to head over into the horror genre. She starred in The Conjuring, based on a true story about a family who claims to have been haunted by ghosts, and the project was one that truly terrified a young King. The real family who the film is centered around was never far from set, so she had a lot of real experience from which to draw. "This stuff happened to them, and they were telling us stories about how it happened and what they had seen," she explained to Clevver Movies.
Years before she portrayed Elle from The Kissing Booth, King played Christine, one of the young sisters who is depicted in the movie. In fact, one of them even had to leave the set because it brought back such horrible memories from her childhood. "I was freaking out," King said. She added that it was even scarier for her to watch on screen, saying, "We had our jackets up to our eyes."
The Kissing Booth's Joey King played Channing Tatum's daughter in White House Down
Action movie lovers have more than likely seen the girl who plays Elle from The Kissing Booth on the big screen. In 2013, the emerging teen actress appeared as Channing Tatum's daughter Emily in White House Down. Though she again didn't have a leading role, Joey King starred alongside Hollywood icons who many successful actresses never get the chance to work with. The blockbuster cast consisted of big names such as Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal. "I look up to those guys," King told Clevver Movies.
As a common theme with her movies, King's bond with Tatum went far beyond the screen. The two even had a "secret" handshake — appropriately titled the "Chan-shake" — that they had created while playing their father-daughter characters. "There's dance moves, there's belly bumps," she explained. She has every woman in the world jealous!
The Kissing Booth star Joey King joined the drama Wish I Was Here
By 2014, it really seemed as if the actress who plays Elle from The Kissing Booth had done it all. "I love comedy, I love action, I love all these different genres, but my heart really does lie with drama," Joey King told Entertainment Tonight, "and I feel my most confident and comfortable in drama." That year, she decided to tackle a dramatic role in the independent film Wish I Was Here. It was written and directed by fellow actor Zach Braff, who she had already starred alongside in Oz The Great and Powerful. It seemed like the perfect fit.
King played his daughter Grace, who is really just trying to figure out her place in the world. "She kind of does some crazy, rebellious things in this movie that you wouldn't expect to see her do," she admitted to Made in Hollywood. This happened to include a drastic 'do for the actress. At 14 years old, King shaved her head for a second time. However, this time, it was all captured on camera.
The Kissing Booth's Joey King had a recurring role in the Fargo TV series
The film Fargo was released years before actress Joey King was even born, but it still happens to be one of her favorites. "It's an amazing movie," she told Young Hollywood. "It's a classic. I love Fargo." Lucky enough, in 2014, she received a role in the Fargo television series on FX. Over the course of two seasons before she played Elle from The Kissing Booth, King played Colin Hanks' daughter.
Between the accents and the storyline, Fargo fans can see a lot of similarities between the film and television series, but King wants viewers to know that there are still a lot of differences that make the TV version stand on its own from the cult classic. "We're not trying to remake Fargo. A lot of people think that," King explained to PopSugar, adding, "We're trying to add a different element to it." Her role on Fargo further led to Joey King's stunning transformation.
Joey King appeared in a Sabrina Carpenter music video the same year she played Elle from The Kissing Booth
The actress who plays Elle from The Kissing Booth made a music video appearance in 2018. As she is regularly seen on Disney Channel actress Sabrina Carpenter's Instagram, it would only make sense that she would appear in one of her bestie's music videos. "Sue Me" stars Joey King as one of the singer's BFFs — just like in real life. Though King wasn't able to show off her acting chops, as she has no lines in the video, she got the chance to be a part of a few choreographed routines, and there were a lot of laughs shared on set between the two actresses. "I'm totally going to sue her after we're done," King joked in a behind-the-scenes video.
Turns out, we may be seeing the two young superstars together again. Following King's appearance in her music video, Carpenter said she would love to make a movie with her. It just isn't happening soon enough. "Maybe we just have to write it. Maybe we have to do the whole thing," Carpenter told PopBuzz. "It will be fun when it happens."
The Kissing Booth's Joey King was nominated for an Emmy for her work in Hulu's The Act
Joey King gained recognition from a much different audience in 2019, when she starred as Gypsy Rose Blanchard in Hulu's original drama series The Act. "I think my favorite part is seeing The Kissing Booth fans really rally behind me for The Act," she told Refinery29. "I'm really excited for them to see me in a completely different light."
The series depicts the true and shocking story of a mother who convinces doctors to treat her daughter's many medical issues that actually don't exist. The role once again required King to shave her head — for the third time in her film career. "I had a little bit of hesitation, like, I don't know, man, do I really want to do [shave my head] again?" she admitted. "But then I took a second, and I was like, I want this job so badly that I would do anything. And I meant it."
It's a good thing she did. The serious role made critics take her even more seriously, giving King her first-ever Emmy nomination.
Already known as Elle from The Kissing Booth, Joey King guest-starred on her sister's TV show
Even if you haven't seen Joey King on screen before she played Elle from The Kissing Booth, she may seem familiar if you've seen her sister Hunter King. The two sisters look pretty similar. Her big sis stars in the television sitcom Life in Pieces, and in 2019, Hunter brought her younger sister along for a guest role. "It was our dream to be able to do something together," Joey told Entertainment Weekly. It was something they had discussed often.
In Season 4, King came onto the show as a pregnant teen named Morgan who becomes close with a couple wanting to adopt her baby. Though her role only lasted three episodes, she's hoping there's more collaborative content coming in the King sisters' future. "This is a great way to introduce that and just to do a little something together and hopefully it's a little peek into the future and we can work more together," she said. The Kings are quickly becoming on-screen queens.