Grace Phipps Biography

Grace Victoria Phipps Padilla (born May 4, 1992), also known professionally as Gracie Gillam, is an American actress, singer and dancer.

Grace Phipps is well known for starring in Disney channel movies Teen Beach Movie and Teen Beach 2. In 2011, immediately after graduating from high school, Phipps starred in the prime role as Bee in the 2011 movie remake of the 1985 horror film Fright Night, a DreamWorks movie. That year, she also originated the role of Amy in The Nine Lives of Chloe King, an ABC Family series. She was cast as edgy beauty April Young in The Vampire Diaries in 2012, appearing in ten episodes in season four.

In 2013, she starred as Lela in Teen Beach Movie, the second highest-rated cable movie in television history, and a Disney Channel Original Movie. Her song "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", with Ross Lynch and Jason Evigan, reached # 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year. In 2015, she starred, again as Lela, in teen musical Teen Beach 2, which premiered as the most-watched cable movie of 2015.

Phipps has also appeared in the comedy series Baby Daddy, in the fantasy horror TV series Supernatural, and in teen sitcom Austin & Ally. She has also acted in black comedy horror TV series Scream Queens, in horror comedy Tales of Halloween, in the police procedural drama TV series CSI: Cyber and Hawaii Five-0, and on the cover of the June/July 2015 issue of Girls' Life.

Early life

Phipps was born in Austin, Texas, to Kate and Gil Phipps. She has a younger brother.

She was raised in Boerne, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas, where she graduated from Robert E. Lee High School's North East School of the Arts, where she majored in Musical Theater and graduated summa cum laude. She is currently an undergraduate student at Columbia University.

In 2010, she won the Las Casas Performing Arts Scholarship Competition. A Los Angeles agent signed Phipps after seeing her star as tough girl Rizzo in a theater production of the musical Grease.

Career

Acting

Following her 2010 high school graduation, Phipps moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. After seven days in LA she landed the prime role as spunky Bee in the DreamWorks 2011 major movie remake of the 1985 comedy horror film Fright Night. That year she also originated the regular role of Amy in the ABC Family fantasy drama series The Nine Lives of Chloe King. The series was cancelled after one season.

In 2012 through 2013, Phipps was cast as April Young, a recurring character who plays an edgy natural beauty in The CW's supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries, and appeared in ten episodes of the fourth season.

In 2013, Phipps appeared as cute biker girl Lela, in an Annette Funicello impression, in Teen Beach Movie, a Disney Channel Original Movie, singing and dancing along with Ross Lynch and Maia Mitchell. The movie, with an audience of 13.5 million viewers, was the second-highest-rated cable movie in television history. Phipps had a number of featured solos, including the song "Falling for Ya".

Also in 2013, Phipps appeared in three episodes of the ABC TV comedy series Baby Daddy as Megan (love interest of Ben (Jean-Luc Bilodeau)), in the fantasy horror TV series Supernatural as Hael, and in the short The Signal as Zoe. The following year, Phipps appeared in Disney's teen sitcom Austin & Ally episode "Directors & Divas," as diva movie star Brandy Braxton.

In 2015, Phipps starred and reprised her role as fiercely independent and brassy biker chick Lela in a sequel teen musical, Teen Beach 2, along with Ross Lynch, Maia Mitchell, Garrett Clayton, and John DeLuca. It premiered with 5.8 million viewers, as the most-watched cable movie of 2015.

Also in 2015, Phipps starred in the horror movie Dark Summer, playing the part of Mona Wilson. She also played the lead role of a troubled teen cheerleader named Kaitlin in the emotional horror/slasher film Some Kind of Hate, which was featured in the 2015 Stanley Film Festival.

That year, she also appeared in three episodes of the black comedy horror TV series Scream Queens on Fox as Mandy, and was a beauty gangleader named Alice in Paul Solet's punk rock revenge segment of horror comedy Tales of Halloween. In addition, she appeared in the police procedural drama TV series CSI: Cyber as Vanessa Gillerman, and in the police procedural TV series Hawaii Five-0 as Erica Young. She was also featured on the cover of the June/July 2015 issue of Girls' Life.

Phipps starred with Spencer Breslin and Sierra McCormick in the 2016 horror movie Some Kind of Hate, which played at the Stanley Film Festival, the Fantasia International Film Festival, and FrightFest.

She currently appears in the Syfy TV series Z Nation as Sgt. Lilly.

Music

The Teen Beach Movie soundtrack, which entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 8 in July 2013, was released featuring songs performed by Phipps, including her as a main artist in the song "Falling for Ya," and featured in the songs "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'," "Like Me," "Meant to Be," and "Coolest Cats in Town." "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'" and "Falling for Ya" topped Billboard's Kid Digital charts for weeks, with "Falling for Ya" reaching # 25 on the Heatseekers Songs Chart and # 66 on the Hot Digital Songs Chart. In 2014, Phipps appeared in the Austin & Ally episode "Directors & Divas" and performed "The Pilot and the Mermaid" with Ross Lynch.

In 2015, her song "Gotta Be Me" from Teen Beach 2 was nominated in the Teen Choice Awards as the Choice Song from a Movie or TV Show; she sang the song with Ross Lynch, Maia Mitchell, Garrett Clayton, John Deluca, and Jordan Fisher.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Fright Night	Bee
2013	The Signal	Zoe	Short
2015	Dark Summer	Mona Wilson
2015	Some Kind of Hate	Kaitlin
2015	Tales of Halloween	Alice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	The Nine Lives of Chloe King	Amy Tiffany Martin	Main role
2012-13	The Vampire Diaries	April Young	Recurring role
2013-2015	Baby Daddy	Megan	Recurring role
2013	Teen Beach Movie	Lela	TV film; Disney Channel Original Movie
2013	Supernatural	Hael	Episode: "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here"
2014	Austin & Ally	Brandy Braxton	Episode: "Directors & Divas"
2015	Hawaii Five-0	Erica Young	Episode: "Wawahi moe?uhane (Broken Dreams)"
2015	CSI: Cyber	Vanessa Gillerman	Episode: "Selfie 2.0"
2015	Teen Beach 2	Lela	TV film; Disney Channel Original Movie
2015	Scream Queens	Young Mandy Greenwell	Recurring role
2017	Z Nation	Sgt Lilly	Main role (Season 4)

Discography

Soundtrack albums

List of albums, with selected chart positions

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions
		US	US OST	BEL	CAN	FRA	NL	NZ	SPA	UK
Teen Beach Movie	Released: July 16, 2013 Formats: CD, digital download Label: Walt Disney	3	1	176	14	76	56	30	15	36
Teen Beach 2	Released: June 23, 2015 Formats: CD, digital download Label: Walt Disney	10	1	"?	"?	129	"?	"?	67	"?
""?" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Singles

List of singles, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak chart positions				Album
		US	US Heat.	IRL	UK
"Cruisin' for a Bruisin'" (with Ross Lynch & Jason Evigan)	2013	82	6	90	117	Teen Beach Movie
""?" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Other charted songs

List of singles, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak chart positions				Album
		US	US Heat.	US Holiday	UK
"Like Me" (with Maia Mitchell, Ross Lynch & Spencer Lee)	2013	101	10	"?	177	Teen Beach Movie
""?" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.