Kirsten Storms Biography

Kirsten Storms (born on April 8, 1984 in Orlando, Florida) is an American actress best known for her role as Isabella "Belle" Black in the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives from 1999 to 2004. Kirsten currently stars on the ABC soap opera General Hospital as Maxie Jones.

Biography

At the age of five, Kirsten Storms was discovered by a talent scout while performing in a showcase at an acting school for children. The talent scout convinced Kirsten's parents into enrolling their child in an intensive children's program in New York. This proved itself to be a good decision, as Kirsten soon caught the eye of major casting directors.

After appearing in a handful of commercials, Kirsten's first television series job was a recurring role on ABC's Second Noah. After the series ended, Kristen moved to Hollywood with her family. Soon after that, Kirsten landed the role of Laura Cummings on The WB's long-running program 7th Heaven. She appeared in three episodes between 1998-2001 where she played a girlfriend of Simon (played by David Gallagher). She was later chosen to play the title character in the Disney Channel's original movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. The movie had the largest rating for any Disney Channel original movie at the time. Kirsten later reprised the role in two sequels. Kirsten continued to appear in a string of family shows and TV movies, including the Disney syndicated series Sing Me A Story With Belle and The Trojan Horse, a Hallmark production. She also took a supporting role in Disney's Johnny Tsunami and voiced a character in the Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible.

In 1999, Kirsten Storms signed on to play Isabella 'Belle' Black on the NBC daytime drama Days of our Lives. Belle was the precious daughter of John Black and Marlena Evans (Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall). In order to add Kirsten to the cast, the character had been rapidly aged into a teenager. Upon seeing her grown up daughter, Marlena asked, "Is it me, or has she grown?" This was added by the writers as a goof to defuse any negative reaction from the fans.

Kirsten and Jason in an undated publicity photo by Kem MerfeldInitially, Belle was supposed to be a bad-girl. Taking after her sister Sami who had a reputation on the show as a troubled teenager. Writers even toyed with the idea by making her chase after the much older Brandon Walker (Matt Cedeno). The storyline was later dropped, and Belle became more of a typical teenager. She became friends with Mimi Lockhart (played by Farrah Fath) and Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin). The writers also began taking focus on the budding relationship between Belle and Shawn Douglas-Brady (Jason Cook). The two quickly gained supercouple status and they became a fan-favorite.

Kirsten amicably left the soap opera after five years to focus on a prime time career. Her final episode was aired on July 16, 2004. Despite well-wishing on both sides, rumors still persisted that Kirsten left as a result of a falling-out between her and executive producer, Ken Corday. Kirsten has been succeeded briefly by Charity Rahmer, and later by Martha Madison who currently holds the role.

Clubhouse was Kirsten Storms's first acting job as a regular cast member on a prime time television show. The show aired on CBS and was created by Daniel Cerone and was produced by superstar producer Aaron Spelling (the man who helped launch such hits as Dynasty (TV series) and Melrose Place). The series revolved around Pete Young (Jeremy Sumpter) and his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Kirsten played Pete's sister, Betsy. Betsy was a rebellious teenager often finding herself in trouble over such issues as s--, drugs, and alcohol. The role was noted as an obvious departure from her Days character, Belle, who was generally good-natured. Due to dismal ratings and high-production costs, the program was canceled not soon after the first season wrapped.

Kirsten Storms returned to familiar territory on May 23, 2005. She became the third actress to portray Maria Maximilian 'Maxie' Jones on the popular ABC soap opera, General Hospital. Kristen has gained critical-acclaim for her performance as the Port Charles resident. Not everyone was pleased, some long-time fans were put-off by Kirsten, this factor is largely due to the fact that her processor (Robyn Richards) held the role for over ten years. Maxie is currently involved in a storyline with Jesse Beaudry, her love interest.