What Happened to ‘7th Heaven’ Actress Beverley Mitchell?
There was a golden age of teen/young adult soap operas during the ’90s and 2000s, an era that hasn’t really been duplicated. The WB’s 7th Heaven was one of the good examples alongside its contemporaries like Dawson’s Creek and Beverly Hills 90210.
One of the stars of 7th Heaven, Beverley Mitchell, is almost an icon of the time period, even if she’s had to face the usual problems of reinventing her acting persona.
She hasn’t disappeared, though, despite dealing with a personal tragedy she had to endure a year ago. After 11 years of acting on 7th Heaven, it was normal she’d have to endure some stereotyping. Nevertheless, nobody should ever count Mitchell out since she has two projects coming out soon. One of those is a horror thriller with none other than Snoop Dogg.
A temper tantrum in a local mall led her to acting
All those apocryphal showbiz stories of legendary actors and actresses being discovered through unique means aren’t always faux. Sometimes people really are discovered by a talent agent merely by running into them in a mall or store.
Such was the case for Beverley Mitchell who was reportedly scoped out by a talent scout when she had a temper tantrum in a mall. Because Mitchell could apparently emote better than other kids, it led to some TV and modeling jobs within a year’s time.
Most of her earliest roles came in TV movies during the early 1990s. However, she did a guest-star appearance first in a 1990 TV sitcom called Big Brother Jake. From then on through the mid-90s, Mitchell could be seen in everything from the TV miniseries Sinatra to Baywatch.
Eventually, she found herself in theatrical movies, most notably in The Crow: City of Angels. The same year, she landed the part of Lucy Camden on 7th Heaven, a seeming indicator of eventual superstardom.
Was it the best career move to be on the same show for 11 years?
Being on any TV show for 11 years runs the danger of being stereotyped in that role forever once the show ends. For the most part, Mitchell devoted herself to 7th Heaven, something giving her continual fame for over a decade.
Not that she completely shunned making movies, outside of only doing a few (including a couple of TV movies) through her time on the show. 7th Heaven wrapped in 2007. Mitchell was 26 and at a vulnerable age of not knowing where to go after being so closely identified as Lucy.
As one might expect, projects slowed down in the immediate post-series time. Only four obscure movie projects occurred up through 2012 until landing a new series, giving some steady work for a couple of more years.
Anyone who watched The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family back in 2011-2013 will remember Mitchell playing Kaitlin O’Malley for 28 episodes. It more or less reinvented Mitchell into doing more family-oriented projects for a while.
Evolving her acting horizons
In more recent years, Mitchell has been seen on the parody series Hollywood Darlings, starring exaggerated versions of women who starred on popular teen shows. Mitchell was one of them, proving the recent revival of 90210 stole a little from this concept. Airing on the Pop network, it was mostly improvised and not widely loved by everyone.
In the last year, Mitchell made a horror-thriller called Blood Pageant, starring Stephen Baldwin and Snoop Dogg, of all people. It’ll be released in June. Other recent projects include a family-oriented TV movie called Candy Cane Christmas.
Mitchell also made the news last year about having a miscarriage of twins. Her acknowledgment of the experience on her Instagram page was likely therapeutic for her, as she was able to admit she was haunted by what could have been. Fortunately, she has two daughters and an acting career that doesn’t stop thanks to fans of 7th Heaven never forgetting the role Mitchell played in teen pop culture.
