How Netflix Star Sofia Carson Brings Her Identity to Work

In the 2025 Netflix romance My Oxford Year, Sofia Carson plays Anna De La Vega, an American student studying abroad at one of England’s most prestigious universities who, like Carson herself, is of Latin American descent. Anna’s Colombian, Argentine, and Cuban heritage is woven naturally into her character’s everyday life instead of being treated as a barrier she has to overcome. It’s a distinction that Carson, who has four consecutive global #1 Netflix hits to her name, says is nonnegotiable when it comes to the roles she chooses to take on.“All the Netflix films I have been a part of that have gone on to make streaming history have been led by myself, a Hispanic American actress telling the stories of Latin women,” says Carson, who also starred in the music-heavy romance Purple Hearts (2022), action thriller Carry-On (2024), and romantic drama The Life List (2025). “Within those stories, that heritage isn't a tattooed stereotype, but rather an organic part of existence.”Born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Colombian immigrant parents, Carson, 33, got her big break starring in the massively popular 2015 Disney Channel musical Descendants and its sequels. “I think back to my earliest memories and it wasn’t a choice that I made, it was always who I was,” Carson says of her lifelong Hollywood ambitions. “I remember being a little girl, as young as 3, and music, storytelling, performing, dancing, that was just what I did. It was undeniable.”She has since parlayed that initial success into a diverse, multi-hyphenate career—establishing herself as one of Netflix’s most valuable movie stars, serving as an executive producer on several film projects, and building a recording catalog, including a self-titled album and songs from her films, that has surpassed 4 billion streams worldwide. Beyond her work on screen and in music, Carson is an advocate for young people’s education and empowerment through her roles as a U.S. Ambassador for UNICEF and the first global ambassador for the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation.“I recognized very early on in my career that I had a responsibility to use my voice to stand for goodness and to stand for justice,” she says.Next up, Carson is set to co-star in the Wagner Moura-directed indie dramedy Last Night at the Lobster as part of an ensemble cast featuring award-winning actors like Elisabeth Moss and Brian Tyree Henry. “What’s most important to me is to shift the misunderstanding that to be a Latin woman is to look one way, to be one thing, to be one [type of] woman, body, skin color, accent,” she says. “In reality, we are a kaleidoscope of cultures, of talents, of thoughts, of passions. That has been such an important guiding light in my career.”