Production Starts on “Sonny With A Chance”

-Production has started on Disney’s latest original series, “Sonny With A Chance” (formerly Welcome to Mollywood) starring Demi Lovato. Below is the official press release and don’t forget that Demi will be on Ellen tomorrow! Be sure to check your local listings.

Production has begun in Burbank on Disney Channel’s “Sonny with a Chance,” an original comedy series for kids and families about a talented Midwestern girl who gets the chance she’s been dreaming of when she’s cast in the most popular sketch comedy series for kids and tweens, “So Random.” The series will depict the goings on with Sonny, her family and new friends in Los Angeles and at the studio, behind the scenes of “So Random.” It will feature a show-within-a-show, with fully produced comedy sketches.

It is scheduled to premiere in early 2009 on Disney Channel in the U.S. and thereafter on the 27 Disney Channels around the world.

“Sonny with a Chance” stars 16-year-old actress and Hollywood Records recording artist Demi Lovato (Disney Channel’s “Camp Rock” and “As the Bell Rings”) as Sonny Munroe. She leads a talented ensemble cast including Tiffany Thornton (Disney Channel’s upcoming movie “Hatching Pete”); Sterling Knight (“17 Again”); Brandon Smith (Disney Channel’s “Phil of the Future”); Doug Brochu (“iCarly”); and Allisyn Arm (“Dive Olly Dive!”). Nancy McKeon (“Facts of Life,” “The Division”) will recur as Sonny’s mother, Connie Munroe.

After a television producer discovers her homemade videos posted on her website, talented Allison “Sonny” Munroe (Demi Lovato) makes the leap from the Midwest to Los Angeles to join the cast of “So Random,” the most popular sketch comedy TV show for kids and tweens. Her fellow players are snobby Tawni Hart (Tiffany Thornton), super-suave Nico Harris (Brandon Smith), gregarious funnyman Grady Mitchell (Doug Brochu), quirky Zora Lancaster (Allisyn Arm) and, from the rival series “MacKenzie Falls,” heartthrob Chad Dylan Cooper (Sterling Knight).