LazyTown actress lives a completely different life after stepping away from show business
It seems remarkable that an Icelandic television series could become such a staple for so many children in the UK but LazyTown certainly managed it.
We're all craving a bit of nostalgia these days and coming home from school to watch whatever was on CBBC or CBeebies was a big part of many of our childhoods.
While a lot of shows were cartoons, and we sadly can't consider where the likes of Arthur and Mona the Vampire are now, LazyTown featured a mixture of child and adult actors.
For those of you who didn't get to enjoy the show, which ran for 10 years between 2004 and 2014, it focused on Stephanie, a young girl with pink hair who moved to a new town where people weren't particularly active.
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With the help of Sportacus, who pulled off moves that most of the bros at your local gym could only dream of, she helped to make the town active, while battling against the scheming Robbie Rotten who wanted to keep things lazy in LazyTown.
What you might not know is that Stephanie was actually played by two different actresses, and the first of those is now living a very different life.
Although Julianna Rose Mariello is still inspiring others, it's as an occupational therapist, a role she has been working in for several years after leaving her acting career behind to focus on her studies.
After gaining an impressive degree at an Ivy League university, the 35-year-old now has years of experience working with children in educational settings.
Her LinkedIn profile describes her as a paediatric occupational therapist in a sensory-integration clinic setting, as well as a certified autism specialist.
She played Stephanie in 52 episodes of the regular show but is reported to have stepped away as she grew older, but she was left with the lifelong skill of being able to speak Icelandic after filming the series in Reykjavík.
However, the woman who replaced her, Chloe Lang, is still pursuing acting and has gone on to feature in a number of movies and shows since LazyTown ended back in 2014.
Sadly, we also said goodbye to Icelandic actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson, who was diagnosed with incurable cancer and passed away back in 2018 at the age of just 43.
Julianna isn't the only former famous face to leave the television industry after time working on children's TV, with Michael Underwood, the host of Jungle Run, previously opening up on TikTok about the moment that led him to step away from his career on the screen, and it wasn't because he became trapped in the temple of the Jungle King.
James Moorhouse