Why The Curly Sue Actress Disappeared From Hollywood

During a 2015 interview with Oprah Winfrey for a Where Are They Now? segment, Alisan Porter revealed that she left Hollywood because she wanted to live a normal life.

"It wasn't fun for me anymore," she said. "There was no joy in it for me because I think I just wanted to be doing normal kid things."

Porter went to a normal high school and had a boyfriend who was on the soccer team, she said. 

The year before the Oprah segment, Porter opened up in a blog post about her struggle with addiction, revealing that 2014 marked seven years sober for her. Speaking to Inside Edition, Porter said that she used to do cocaine and marijuana, in addition to drinking heavily and taking pills. She went on to credit her partner and children for inspiring her to maintain her sobriety over the years. And for the Curly Sue actress, her fall from grace led to another big break later on in life.

Porter, who still continued to act in local shows even after leaving Hollywood, stepped back into the spotlight in a big way by competing on The Voice in 2016 during the series' tenth season — and winning the whole shebang. Her most recent album, Pink Cloud, was released in 2019. Billboard described "Wild One," a single from that album, as a "charming" country-pop number, and on YouTube, the video has more than 29,000 views. Fans can check out Porter's most recent release, Lungs, here.