Kirsten Storms is well known for her role as the futuristic tween on Disney Channel but she had also become a General Hospital feisty fan favorite and a household name in soap.
She always wanted to act since she was a little girl and convinced her parents to enroll her in classes. She was then discovered by a talent scout where she had roles in commercials and TV shows such as ABC’s Second Noah and Sing Me a Story with Belle.
She moved to Los Angeles with her family at age 12. After moving, she had a recurring role of Laura Cummings on The WB’s 7th Heaven. Her breakout role came shortly after when she played the titular character of Zenon in the Disney Channel’s original movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.
She went on to reprise her role in the next two sequels. During her time with Disney, she voiced in the Bonnie Rockwaller in the animated series Kim Possible and had a supporting role as Emily Pritchard in Johnny Tsunami.
Then Kirsten went on to the soap world which is something she told one of her first agents was a goal of hers.
“One of the first agents I got, I told, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to be on a soap opera. You can get me commercials and stuff now, but what I really want to do someday is be on a soap opera.’ […] No one took me seriously. But I knew, even though I hadn’t actually watched one, it was something I always wanted to do.”
She did just that when she went on to play Isabella “Belle” Black on NBC’s Days of Our Lives from 1999- 2004. She had signed a five-years contract but didn’t renew it. She went on to do a primetime sport drama that aired on CBS in the fall of 2004, called Clubhouse. The show was canceled after only five episodes aired.
The Florida native returned back to daytime drama on May 23, 2005, when she became the third actress to play Mariah Maximiliana “Maxie” Jones on General Hospital. She has played the character on and off again since then. Kirsten’s role as Maxie earned her an Emmy nomination in 2009.
She then had to leave the show in Fall 2011 due to medical reasons. It was later disclosed to be endometriosis. According to the World Health Organization, endometriosis is a painful condition where the tissue akin to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus.
The former Disney star had taken numerous more breaks from the show for various reasons. One time in January 2014, she took maternity leave.
She had her first child, Harper Rose Barash, with ex-husband and former costar Brandon Barash. Brandon portrayed Johnny Zacchara on General Hospital from September 18, 2007 until May 3, 2013.
The two found love on set, dated in 2013 and married in a Vegas ceremony that June. They divorced in 2016, citing “irreconcilable differences” but said they were “splitting amicably.”
She left again in 2021, but this time, it was due to removing “a very large cyst” from her brain as she underwent surgery. In an Instagram post, she had said post surgery, there was a “noticeable difference” where she no longer suffered from “constant pressure and headache.” During that time Maxie was not recast and they explained her absence saying she left Port Charles with her baby to move to Texas, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The 40-year-old was also candid in 2022 about her mental health struggles. In a April 3rd episode of fellow cast member Maurice Benard’s podcast State of Mind, she disclosed she had bipolar disorder.
Maurice plays Sonny Corinthos on GH and also has bipolar. According to Mayo Clinic, bipolar disorder “is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).”
“I experience anxiety frequently. I have bipolar 1. I easily get frantic about things. I felt flustered, fear, and stressed. I am obsessed with being on time. I don’t know if you noticed, but I was exactly on time when I entered the building,” she explained.
“I obsessively worry about that kind of stuff. I have had panic attacks about that kind of stuff. My psychiatrist tried to change one of my medications at one point, and I had an adverse reaction to it,” she continued.
She added how she also “days of clarity” with the illness and how at first she was misdiagnosed with serve depression.
