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Back before filming the first To All the Boys film, she was asked to dye her naturally auburn hair black, to match Lana Condor's. But in perfect Kitty fashion, she thought that was a dealbreaker for her and decided against it.
Let's be real, Anna Cathcart was always one of the best parts of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before movies — literally no one could top her hilarious one liners.
Netflix
So, it's no surprise that her character, Kitty Song Covey, is the one to finally get a well-deserved spinoff series, XO, Kitty.
Netflix
To celebrate her already-iconic performance, here are 15 facts you probably never knew about her:
1. First, she was born on June 16, 2003 and is a Gemini.
Steve Granitz / FilmMagic
2. She grew up in Vancouver and currently attends college at University of British Columbia where she's double majoring in sociology and creative writing.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
"I was very lucky that I always felt very loved and accepted in Vancouver,” she said. “I know that isn’t the experience that a lot of biracial people get, and I do not take that lightly. Especially where I lived, there’s a really large Asian community. … It was never something that stood out in a bad way.”
3. Before working on the To All the Boys movies, she was a regular on the PBS series Odd Squad. She played Agent Olympia.
PBS
Odd Squad was also the first TV show she'd ever auditioned for.
4. On her first day of shooting XO, Kitty, she filmed the scene in Korea where Kitty struggles to get her suitcase up the stairs. Funnily enough, a bystander saw her having trouble with her bag, bypassed security, and came over to help her because he didn't know she was acting for a TV series.
Netflix
"He literally picked up my suitcase and brought it to the front of the stairs," she told BuzzFeed. "I was like, 'What is happening?!' I didn't know to tell him [this was a TV set], but I felt bad because I didn't say thank you because I was so stunned. Then, he kept walking off the set, and everyone was dying of laughter."
5. Anna is "half Chinese and half Irish," so her hair is naturally auburn, and when she was first cast in To All the Boys, production asked her if she'd be willing to dye her hair black to match Lana Condor's hair. Together, she and her mom thought it was a dealbreaker and decided against it, which she later felt was a very Kitty thing to do.
Unique Nicole / Getty Images
She explained that her mom was worried that if she dyed her hair, it wouldn't grow back the same way. "We decided to stand our ground and say, 'We really don't want to change that part of Anna,'" she told Bustle.
6. She's still very close with her To All the Boys costars and even reached out to Lana Condor and Janel Parrish, who play her onscreen sisters, for advice on leading a series. She said, "I gained two big sisters, and I’m literally so grateful for that."
@annacathcart / instagram.com
“Something that both Lana and Janel value a lot and taught me more of is that it can be very hard to have what you need and what is good for your health and mental health [while acting],” she added. “It's so easy to get into that [mindset of] working super hard and doing what you need to do. There's truth to that, too, but [they gave me a lot of advice on] boundaries and learning how to stand up for myself. I definitely take it to heart and try to implement it, for sure. I think there are many moments where I will try and speak up.”
She shared that Noah Centineo, who played Peter Kavinsky, also reached out to tell her he was "always there" for her. He even surprised her at the XO, Kitty premiere.
7. Her very first audition was when she was 6 years old, and it was for a commercial advertising a Little Mermaid Barbie doll.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
She also added, “It was never a thing of my mom pressing me to [be an actor]. It was my decision. We would stop doing it if I wanted to. I’m so lucky.”
8. Back when she was 10 years old, she starred in a Crayola chalk commercial and remembers it as the "greatest day of [her] life." She said that was the pivotal moment where she realized she wanted to pursue acting as a career.
Park Young-Sol/Netflix
9. Back when Netflix announced she'd be getting her own series XO, Kitty, one of the first celebs to reach out and congratulate her was Simu Liu.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
They'd previously met after starring on an episode of Sesame Street together.
10. While filming the series, Anna had to move to Seoul on her own for four months, after only ever living with her parents, and she said this whole experience made her feel more like her onscreen counterpart than ever before.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
She told Teen Vogue, “I’m kind of doing the same thing in my own life. I’m going far away from home, meeting brand-new people, and doing something that’s intimidating that I haven’t done in this way before. I’m also in this stage of growing up and [gaining] independence.”
11. She and her XO, Kitty castmates bonded a ton — hanging out after filming, singing karaoke, and eating fried chicken became a ritual for them.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
“We would go to someone’s hotel room and just eat buckets of fried chicken and hang out and relax. Those are little things that are not so little. Those are the big things. It makes such a big difference in how you trust each other. It's so important to have other people to lean on when you’re going through experiences, and we definitely had that," she said.
12. Her first celeb crush was Shawn Mendes.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
"I really liked Shawn Mendes when I was, like, 11," she said.
13. And her first fictional movie crush was Lucas Till's character Travis from Hannah Montana: The Movie.
Netflix
"He's, like, everything you could ever want. He's the cowboy, and he's the cutest, and he's just — love him!" she added.
14. She loves writing comedy, as well as stories for kids and young adults, which stems from her love for Disney Channel shows.
@annacathcart / instagram.com
“I love it because it has performance aspects to it, with timing and things like that,” she said.
15. And finally, Anna wants to change the stereotype about characters who are "nerdy" because they wear glasses. She wants young viewers to see her onscreen and realize that "pretty" girls wear glasses, too.
“I’ve never seen a leading girl of my age wearing glasses,” she said. “Maybe they exist somewhere, but I’ve never seen one. It’s a form of representation that I want to help be a part of. When someone in a community is portrayed in a negative way, it really affects the way people see them and how they see themselves. And glasses were that for me. I grew up thinking, No one's gonna think I'm pretty because pretty girls don't wear glasses."
And if you can't get enough of Anna, be sure to catch her in XO, Kitty which is currently streaming on Netflix.
Check out more API-centered content by exploring how BuzzFeed is celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Of course, the content doesn't end after May. Follow BuzzFeed’s A*Pop on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to keep up with our latest API content year-round.
BuzzFeed / Kathy Hoang, Brooke Greeneberg
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