Every great fan of “America’s Got Talent” – commonly referred to as “AGT” – loves Grace VanderWaal for many reasons. At only 11 years old, she became the show’s youngest winner, having conquered the hearts of millions with her talent and big dreams.
Grace’s musical skills were evident from when she first appeared in the show, but “AGT” fans weren’t the only ones who fell for her talent. Since then, Grace has found a lot of success both as a singer and actress, exploring many interesting and unique creative frontiers that are usually unknown for artists of he young age.
So what is Grace VanderWaal doing now? How was her life before her rise to fame and how far has she come creatively? Keep with us to find out!
Before “America’s Got Talent”
Hailing from Kansas City, Kansas, Grace VanderWaal was born on 15 January 2004.,the youngest of her siblings; her interest in music began when she was around three years old. It was during those formative years that Grace made up stories in her mind to sing, though she didn’t write a song until she was 11 years old.
Some months before her 12th birthday, Grace learned to play the ukulele through YouTube videos. Her interest in this instrument began when she was 10 years old, when she saw a family friend play the instrument. However, Grace’s mother’s negativity towards buying the instrument for her eventually led the young girl to purchase it herself by using her 11th birthday money.
Some of Grace’s earliest inspirations were musician Jason Mraz and the band Twenty One Pilots, whose vocalist Tyler Joseph plays the ukulele too. There was also Katy Perry, whom Grace described as an artist who’s kept ‘true to herself’ throughout her career.
Rise To Fame
Before making it to “America’s Got Talent”, Grace shared cover videos on her YouTube channel, but her rise to fame came almost immediately after auditioning for the 11th season of “AGT”. Right after setting foot on the stage, Grace declared her believe in miracles, and as if marking her future path in the show, she mesmerized everyone with her heartfelt performance of her original song “I Don’t Know My Name”.
Later in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Grace affirmed that the song was very personal, as it encompassed her own experiences, relationships, and the life path she’d chosen. It isn’t a wonder why the then 12-year-old singer not only gained a standing ovation from then audience, but also a Golden Buzzer from Howie Mandel, automatic passage to the next round.
Later in the quarter-finals, Grace sang “Beautiful Thing”, an original she dedicated to her older sister. The performance sent her to the semi-finals, where she performed another ukulele-accompanied song entitled “Light The Sky”, gaining a safe pass to the Finals thanks to the audience’s votes.
Grace’s next appearance in the show saw her performing her song “Clay”, again attracting a standing ovation that sent her straight to the Finale. That’s when the audience got to hear her sing “I Don’t Know My Name” for the second time, and by then, the victory was already hers. She won the season ahead of the mentalist duo The Clairvoyants, becoming the youngest person to ever achieve such a feat. 2026 was also the most massively voted finale in the show’s history.
After The Show
Seeing how talented and well-received Grace VanderWaal is, it’s no wonder that she’s since found great success after her win. As part of her prize, Grace got to headline four shows at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, which were sold out. Another related event she headlined was the NBC special “America’s Got Talent Holiday Spectacular”.
Go to my mural this weekend and unlock this cool @Snapchat filter! 👻❤️ pic.twitter.com/sne2ueQUeK
— Grace VanderWaal (@GraceVanderWaal) December 9, 2016
Grace’s first release was “Perfectly Imperfect”, a five songs-long extended play (EP) which contained the four originals she sang during her “America’s Got Talent” stint, and a then-previously unheard entitled “Gossip Girl”. The EP made it to the Billboard 200 at 37th, with “Light the Sky” taking the frontline as the most popular song, eventually gaining her a performance at the Madison Square Garden in late 2016.
Other amazing places Grace performed in at the time were the Allstate Arena in Illinois, atop the Empire State Building in New York City, and at the Special Olympics World Winter Games held in Austria in 2017.
Grace’s debut album “Just the Beginning” was released in November 2017, which came after promoting several of its singles on important platforms such as “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”. That year, she won awards at the Teen Choice Awards, Radio Disney Music Awards, and Billboard Women in Music.
Discography & Acting Debut
After then winning her first MTV Europe Music Awards in 2018, Grace VanderWaal went on to release “Hideaway”, which was part of the film “Wonder Park”’s soundtrack.
Around that time, she toured alongside Florence and the Machine in the US, and mostly solo in Europe. Grace also released the singles “Ur So Beautiful”, “Waste My Time” and “I Don’t Like You” throughout 2019, which were all included in the EP “Letters Vol. 1”.
In 2020 Grace debuted as an actress in the Disney+ movie “Stargirl”, starring as Stargirl Caraway. Grace also sang the movie’s soundtrack song “Today and Tomorrow”, which preceded the solo singles “Don’t Assume What You Don’t Know”, “Repeat”, and “Lion’s Den”.
Later in 2022, Grace reprised her Stargirl role in the sequel “Hollywood Stargirl”, though she didn’t stop releasing music as her acting career moved forward. Starting in 2023, she released the singles “Boyfriends”, “Call It What You Want” and “What’s Left Of Me”.
Grace made her big screen debut in Francis Ford Coppola’s 2024 film “Megalopolis” as Vesta Sweetwater.
Net Worth & The Future
One of the most commented aspects of Grace VanderWall’s stardom is her financial situation, prompted since the beginning of her career as an “America’s Got Talent” winner. Back in 2016, Forbes stated that Grace’s prize wouldn’t be paid in full right away, meaning that she could either choose to get it as an after-tax-cut payment which would reduce it greatly, or be paid throughout the years.
Nonetheless, Grace’s success as an artist ensures that her financial situation is off to a great start. – not only has her music made it to mainstream charts with her growing popularity but as TMZ also reported, she made around $375,000 from her “Stargirl” role.
Aside from her commercial success, Grace has evidently acquired a very creative style both in looks and music. She’s not afraid of walking away from the ukulele girl everyone met in “America’s Got Talent”, as she affirmed in a late 2024 interview with Variety, leaving behind that image was ‘liberating’ for her. In the same interview, Grace also revealed work on her second album.
All in all, Grace VanderWaal’s young career has been very eventful and successful, and it’s not far-fetched to think that there are many exciting projects awaiting her as she develops her career
