Not the same old thing she did last week! Callie Haverda is headed to Point Place to star in the new Netflix spinoff series That ‘90s Show — as Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti’s teenage daughter, Leia.
“HELLO WISCONSIN!” Haverda captioned an Instagram post in February 2022 following news she had been cast in the That ‘70s Show spinoff. “I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am!!!!!”
In October 2021, 15 years after the original FOX sitcom went off the air, Netflix announced that it had a new generation of young Wisconsinites to dwell in Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) and Red Forman’s (Kurtwood Smith) basement.
The comedy, which is set in 1995, follows Haverda as Leia Forman, daughter of Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon) as she visits her grandparents for the summer and bonds with a new generation of Point Place kids. In addition to Grace, Prepon, Rupp and Smith, That ’90s Show will also see the return of the OG gang Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Jackie (Mila Kunis) and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama).
While Haverda didn’t initially know of the original series when she auditioned for the role, her siblings filled her in on its iconic place in TV history and she quickly became a fan.
“I had never seen That ‘70s Show myself, but all of my siblings had seen it and they were pretty big fans of it. So they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re totally like Eric and Donna’s daughter, you’d be perfect for this.’ And then when I read the role myself, I was like, ‘It feels like I’m just reading about myself,’” she told ATX Today in January 2023, adding that she booked the role after watching “a few clips” of the show and sending in a self tape.
The spinoff, which debuted on January 19, 2023, wrapped filming earlier this summer.
“And that’s a wrap on season one of That 90s Show,” Haverda wrote via Instagram alongside a few behind-the-scenes pictures in July 2022. “This show has been my life for the past six? seven? months and the people working on it with me have not only become some of my closest friends but my family.”
She continued, “I am so thankful for this experience and everyone who has been there along the way,” she continued. “I can’t wait for you all to go back to the 90s to meet Leia and the gang.”
Haverda, who grew up in Austin, Texas, may portray a 15-year-old who finds herself at the center of endless hijinks with her friends, but her own high school experience was starkly different from Leia’s.
“I was homeschooled for pretty much all of middle school,” the Lost Husband star told ATX Today. “I went back in eighth grade for public school, but it was all online because of COVID. Freshman year, I went to Westwood High School. I was there for the first semester, and then that’s when I booked ‘90s and moved [to California].”
Now, however, Haverda has seemingly found her tribe through her That ‘90s Show castmates, often taking to social media to share snaps from their various adventures while shooting.
‘When the ’90s kids are on brand. tysm @jamesihaofficial and @netflix we had a smashing time #that90sshow,” Haverda wrote via Instagram in November 2022 after she and costars Max Donovan, Reyn Doi and Sam Morelos attended a Smashing Pumpkins concert together.
While hanging with her costars and attending fancy events may be a job perk, Haverda insists she’s still a normal kid at heart.
“In my free time I enjoy riding horses, painting, learning to play guitar and piano,” she shared with Texas Lifestyle and Travel Magazine in October 2020. “Like most teens, I also enjoy making TikToks. But most of my free time is consumed by writing. I have an old typewriter I acquired a few years ago and am constantly writing poems, and short stories along with a novel I am currently working on.”
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