The Untold Truth Of Raegan Revord
"Young Sheldon" is one of those rare spinoff shows that truly takes on a life of its own, and Raegan Revord is an equally rare child actor who is blessed with the kind of talent and charisma at a young age that will allow her to continue acting for as long as she wants. "Young Sheldon" follows, naturally, a younger version of Jim Parsons' character from "The Big Bang Theory." Sheldon (Iain Armitage) lives with his parents Mary (Zoe Perry) and George (Lance Barber), along with his twin sister Missy (Revord) and older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) in Medford, Texas. The show follows Sheldon and his family as they all grow up through the early '90s.
Revord has been a part of "Young Sheldon" from the very first season, and year after year she's helped the series tell stories that anyone can relate to. Along the way, Revord has branched out and started exploring other means of expressing herself, but only time will tell how Hollywood will respond to this particular child star. As she continues to grow as a person and artist, Revord is staying open to the wide variety of opportunities that are unfolding around her. Revord's untold truth shows us that with an open mind, anyone can become the person they want to be.
She's been acting her entire life
Raegan Revord is proof that some people were born to be performers. Long before she was a regular on "Young Sheldon," Revord was finding any opportunity possible to entertain people. Revord used to come up with her own concepts for shows at home, which she'd perform for her parents and anyone else who came by. She only got into acting professionally after a family friend saw one of her performances and suggested that Revord's parents find her an agent.
Before that, Revord was already exploring her creativity on multiple fronts. Along with her impromptu concerts, Revord also wrote scripts for her friends to perform, and she acted a bit like a director by assigning roles and making sure their skits were filmed. The skills she was practicing at four and five would end up coming in handy later in her career, but after getting started with commercial work, Revord caught the TV bug. "When I started seeing myself on TV, I asked my parents how to be on TV shows and movies," Revord told SBJCT Journal. Her parents took the request seriously, and that's how she got to where she is today.
Charity work is a priority for her
Child actors are busier than average kids. Sure, they may spend fewer hours in school than most, but what would otherwise be their free time is taken up by long hours spent on set. As a cast member of a big TV series like "Young Sheldon," Reagan Revord spends huge chunks of the year balancing her life between work and school. If that's all she did with her time, no one could blame her, but whenever she can, Revord tries to give back to those in need.
Revord's charity work goes in a number of different directions, but it starts in her home. She's an outspoken advocate for rescue animals, in part because her family has two rescue dogs of their own. Revord's mom encourages her to help others, and as part of that effort, the two of them collect donated supplies from the "Young Sheldon" set and deliver them to local homeless shelters. Revord also tries to help kids her age, and on that front, she's become a junior ambassador for the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles.
Raegan hosts a book club
At this point, you might have the impression that Raegan Revord's life is nothing but work, but that's far from the truth. The young actress keeps herself plenty busy, but she still finds time for her hobbies, and Revord's number one hobby is reading. Revord told The Good Kid Project in 2019, "I'm never reading just one book. I'm literally surrounded by them — our house looks like a library." Reading might be Revord's favorite hobby, but it should come as no surprise that she's also found ways to share it with her fans.
Revord started her own book club to let her fans read her favorite stories alongside her. The club is hosted on Instagram, and Revord picks out the books for it herself. She told Sense of Self Magazine that the club is about much more than just shouting out interesting stories. "Storytelling makes us feel connected and helps us to understand each other. It gives us a chance to leave our bubble and to walk in other people's shoes which can make us more compassionate toward each other."
The club has made Revord think deeply about the books she's reading, and it's also helped her get an inside look at the writing industry. She's even had the chance to do author interviews for her club's Instagram page. All of that has been a huge help for her as she's started exploring her other favorite creative outlet, writing.
Writing is her passion
Raegan Revord may be heading toward a career in writing, and much like her work as an actor, it's something that's seemingly been with Revord all her life. We already know about the scripts that Revord was putting together for her friends when she was a little girl, and it was around that same time that she started writing her own stories, which eventually became a novel.
Like plenty of other authors, Revord's first forays into writing took the form of fan fiction. "I started writing when I was about six years old," she told Unclear Magazine, adding, "I started creating my own American Girl stories!" From there, Revord just kept writing, and she often drew on her dreams for inspiration while using the people in her life as models for her characters. When she was nine years old she started working on the story that developed into her first work-in-progress novel, "My Story as a Gold Nugget." Revord's kept the details of the story quiet, but she has said that it's a fantasy novel because that's her favorite genre.
A car accident caused serious anxiety issues on set
Raegan Revord is thankful for the good things in her life, like TV series friends and book clubs, but she's also open about sharing the real challenges she experiences. In one Season 6 episode of "Young Sheldon," Missy steals her dad's truck and hits the road with her friend Paige (McKenna Grace), and while the episode is as hilarious as any in the show, Revord explained in an Instagram post why it was particularly hard for her to film.
Revord and her mother were driving to the "Young Sheldon" set to film that episode when they were T-boned by a drunk driver. Both of them were thankfully uninjured, but the accident still left a mark. "I had full-blown panic attacks and PTSD for weeks after the accident and the only way I was able to get through it was because of the most loving and supporting cast and crew," Revord wrote in her Instagram post.
Fans were quick to voice their love and support for Revord, but she didn't make the post to get more attention from "Young Sheldon" viewers. Revord told People, "I think there's a lot of kids who are dealing with anxiety issues and I want to use my platform and normalize that as much as possible." By being open about her own struggles, Revord hoped to empower other people her age to do the same.
Her favorite actress is Audrey Hepburn
Every actor needs to find their inspiration somewhere, although Raegan Revord started acting so early in life that she probably didn't have a long list of favorite actors fueling her various performances. But recently she's been making up for lost time by watching classic films, and they've led her to discovering her favorite actress.
Revord and her mother spent some of their time during the COVID-19 quarantines catching up on the long history of cinema, and Revord walked away from the experience with a deep appreciation for Audrey Hepburn. Revord has said she particularly enjoyed the movies "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Charade." She's fallen in love with Hepburn's performances, but Revord has stayed away from changing her acting style to be more like Hepburn's. That's probably for the better, and ironically Revord has a head start on her acting hero: Hepburn didn't land her first acting job until she was in her early 20s.
She still has to go to school
Like plenty of other child actors, Raegan Revord's schedule is quite a bit different compared to other kids her age, and it's not the same as the other adult actors on "Young Sheldon." Revord spends a sizable portion of the year filming the next season of the show or working on other acting jobs, but her day-to-day life has more of a balance between work and school than you might expect.
Since she's still a minor, Revord is only allowed to work nine and a half hours each day on the "Young Sheldon" set. Her full workday also includes her school day, which takes up three hours in total. For Revord, that's a big scheduling win. Most kids spend seven hours or more in school every day, so her education barely takes up any extra time. The big concern is whether or not acting is making Revord lose out on a more normal childhood, but she isn't that worried about it. "I don't feel like I'm missing out at all," Revord told SBJCT Journal. She said that she's still learning what she needs in school, and her mom makes sure to prioritize giving her as much time as any other kid her age to do things that aren't related to her job.
How did she learn her TV accent?
"Young Sheldon" has had to be a bit loose with its characters' accents. The show is set in Texas, and most of the adults speak with Southern accents. Sheldon (Iain Armitage) and Missy are constantly surrounded by people who sound like they've always been in the South, but neither of the kids has much of an accent at all. It's a tiny detail that doesn't matter, but it's something that's made fans scratch their heads from time to time.
The show did a bit of lampshading for Sheldon's accent in the very first episode by having his narration lay out his embarrassment of sounding like a Texan. Fans of "The Big Bang Theory" know that as an adult, Sheldon's Texan roots barely come out in his voice. Missy spoke with a Texas accent at the very beginning of the show, and Raegan Revord learned how to manage the accent by watching Laurie Metcalf in "The Big Bang Theory." Still, Revord was only nine years old at the time, and accents can be a real challenge even for adult actors with decades of experience. Eventually, the show decided to let her prioritize her performance over nailing the details of the accent.
No one is safe from a prank
It'd be almost impossible to make a comedy like "Young Sheldon" without the show's set being filled with jokes of its own. Raegan Revord and her co-stars spend plenty of their time on set laboring away to get full seasons of the show made, but they also find opportunities to unwind and make each other laugh along the way. According to Revord, pranking is a regular activity amongst the stars of "Young Sheldon," and one of their go-to pranks has its roots in the very first season of the show.
"In season 1, Iain [Armitage] and I found this creepy 3-foot-tall doll that we named DD (demon doll) in this hidden closet on our stage," Revord explained in an interview. Most kids would be scared of a doll like that, but Revord saw an opportunity. The purple, glowing, motion-activated doll started showing up all over the set, from random closets to the backseat of cars. Revord and Armitage were delighted by scaring their coworkers, and now spooking people with DD is a "Young Sheldon" cast tradition.
She's pitched her own storylines
Someday you might see Raegan Revord's name in multiple places in the "Young Sheldon" credits. She's been with the show's cast since the very first season, but behind the scenes, she's also made some attempts to join the show's writing team. Revord started working on her first novel right around the time that she joined the cast of "Young Sheldon," so it shouldn't be a surprise that she's been pitching her own story ideas since the show began.
Revord's episode didn't get made that first season, but that didn't deter her in the slightest. She's been pitching episodes ever since. Revord tends to focus on coming up with storylines for her character. One of her episodes would have followed Missy joining and participating in a beauty pageant behind her parents' backs.
So far Revord hasn't gotten a pitch picked up by the show, but clearly, she's determined to keep trying. She's got no shortage of ideas, and chances are good that Missy will be around until "Young Sheldon" ends after its seventh season in 2024. One of these days, Revord will be able to add "TV writer" to her resume.
Vegetarianism is a way of life for Raegan
Raegan Revord is far from the first TV actress to start being a vegetarian, but she might be the youngest. Revord committed to being a vegetarian when she was just 4 years old, which will probably take some people by surprise, but considering that her family has been supporting rescue animals all her life, it makes sense. Revord has even gotten some recognition from PETA for being such an ardent supporter of animals. In fact, aside from occasionally indulging in cheese, Revord's been eating a vegan diet for most of her life.
As anyone who's tried being a vegetarian can tell you, the social aspect of eating can make it a real struggle. Revord eats plenty of her meals on set with her coworkers, and not everyone working on "Young Sheldon" shares her diet. Luckily, Revord has plenty of friends who support her choices, and she's celebrated the fact that some of her closest friends on set will sit with her while she eats her vegan hotdogs — even when they think it's a bit odd.
She's hoping for an MCU role
It seems like every actor in Hollywood has joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point, and if they aren't already in the MCU, they're hoping to be soon. Raegan Revord was born the year that "Iron Man" really kicked off the MCU era, so she's grown up alongside cinema's superhero craze. It should be no surprise, then, that Revord is hoping to one day get her own MCU debut.
"A dream role for me would to be a character in the MCU," Revord told Glitter Magazine. There's a ton of draws to the MCU for an actor, but for Revord, there's one part of the job that excites her the most. "Being a superhero so that I can have stunts would be so cool!" It would be a big change of pace from the kind of work that she's doing on "Young Sheldon." Revord has said that her favorite superhero is Black Widow, and even though Scarlett Johansson's character finished her storyline years ago, there's still room in the MCU for a member of the younger generation of Widows to step forward into the spotlight.