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Born in Dallas, TX, in 1992, vocalist and actress Demi Lovato launched her career well before the age of ten, as a participant in various beauty pageants and at assorted casting calls -- guided by her mother, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. She landed her first major on-camera assignment as one of the participants on the famous children's series Barney & Friends, then moved to the hallowed halls of preteen stardom -- The Disney Channel -- as a participant in the "micro-series" sitcom As the Bell Rings, designed to run in between longer programs. Lovato then jump-started her music career as a teen pop vocalist, with extensive cross-country tours and record deals (her first album, Don't Forget, was released in fall 2008), but achieved broadest stardom for her lead role opposite the Jonas Brothers in the Disney Channel telemovie Camp Rock (2008); she played a young aspiring musician who attends a rock & roll-themed summer camp, then gets into hot water for telling a lie about her mother in a misguided attempt to gain popularity. She showed up in the Jonas Brothers 3D concert movie in 2009 and was the star of her own series, Sonny With a Chance, until that show's abrupt cancellation due allegedly in part to her own erratic behavior. In 2010 she returned to the Disney channel for the sequel to Camp Rock. Following that, she focused more on her music, rather than her acting, career.