12-Year-Old Celina Smith Will Lead ‘Annie Live!’

It’s not a hard-knock life, after all.

On Tuesday morning the TODAY Show announced  Celina Smith would play the role of Annie in the upcoming live musical “Annie Live!”

“I am so excited to be here in New York,” Smith said.

Smith, who appears on Nickelodeon show “Young Dylan,” will perform next to Taraji P. Henson (Miss Hannigan), Harry Connick Jr. (Daddy Warbucks), Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger (Grace), and Tituss Burgess (Rooster).

The twelve-year-old actress shared the process of being cast for the role and told TODAY that she screamed for joy when she heard that she got the part.

“Well, first, we sent in a tape,” Smith recalled. “Then, I got a callback. So then we sent in more tapes and more tapes, and then, we got the news that I got the part.”

“We were in my mom’s room, and my team called, and they were like, ‘What are you going to be doing this October?'” the Atlanta native said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ And then they were like, ‘You’re going to be in New York doing ‘Annie Live!’ this October. And I screamed.”

“It’s just so amazing to be able to perform with such an iconic cast, and I’m so excited for this journey to start,” the rising star said.

Smith made her acting debut playing young Nala in the national tour of “The Lion King.”

“Annie Live!” will air on NBC on December 2, 2021, at 8:00 p.m. ET.

After a nationwide casting search, we can exclusively reveal Celina Smith will play the title role in NBC’s upcoming holiday production of “Annie Live!”

Watch #AnnieLive on Thursday, December 2 at 8/7c on @NBC. pic.twitter.com/fN920jtDXf

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 24, 2021