Kirsten Storms

Early life and career

Storms was born in Orlando, Florida. She has a younger sister named Gretchen, a brother named Austin and a stepbrother named Chris. She is the daughter of Karen Storms and CBS affiliate sportscaster Mike Storms. According to Storms, she always knew she wanted to be a soap opera actress. At age five she announced:

After visiting her father at work, Storms convinced her parents to enroll her in acting classes, leading to her discovery by a talent scout at the age of five. The talent scout suggested she be enrolled in an intensive children's acting camp in the Catskills, New York.

Storms' first role was a commercial for Galoob Baby Doll. After appearing in a handful of other commercials, her television career included a recurring role on ABC's Second Noah plus a lead role in Sing Me a Story with Belle. At age twelve, she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California. Soon after that, she landed the recurring role of Laura Cummings on The WB's long-running program 7th Heaven. She appeared in three episodes between 1998 and 2001, in which she played a girlfriend of Simon (played by David Gallagher). She was later chosen to play the title character in 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. She later reprised the role in two more sequels. Storms continued to appear in a string of family shows and television movies, including The Trojan Horse, a Hallmark production. She also took a supporting role in Disney's Johnny Tsunami and voiced Bonnie Rockwaller in the Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible.

Days of our Lives

On August 5, 1999, Storms signed on to play Isabella "Belle" Black on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives. Although she initially faced viewers upset at the sudden SORAS aging her casting brought to the character, Storms soon was popular with the audience. Her five years on the soap opera would feature her in many high-profile storylines, such as the popular relationship with Shawn Brady, played by Jason Cook, as Storms' character was promoted heavily as a major character within the show.

At the end of her five-year contract, Kirsten opted to not renew her contract with the series, one reason being her pilot had been picked up for the primetime show Clubhouse. Her final episode aired on July 15, 2004.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse was a prime-time television series that aired on CBS starting the fall of 2004, created by Daniel Cerone and produced by Aaron Spelling. The series revolved around Pete Young (Jeremy Sumpter) and his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Storms played Pete's sister, Betsy. Unlike the innocent character of Belle that Kirsten had just left, Betsy was a rebellious teenager often finding herself in trouble over such issues as sex, drugs, and alcohol. Storms embraced the new role, stating, "I can relate to a lot of things Betsy does. I've sat and talked with the executive producer about my first tattoo and the first time I ever had a drink of alcohol, things that she's going to be experiencing too." The show ended up being cancelled after 5 episodes. It shot 11 episodes, and can be viewed on "Brilliant, But Cancelled" on cable TV.

General Hospital

Storms returned to familiar territory on May 23, 2005, becoming the third actress to portray Mariah Maximiliana "Maxie" Jones on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. In 2008, Storms was reunited with Jason Cook, who joined the soap as Matt Hunter. She received an Emmy nomination for her role in 2009.

Storms vacated the role in fall 2011 due to medical reasons, later revealed to be endometriosis. She was temporarily replaced with Jen Lilley, and originally scheduled to return to work in February 2012. Her illness prevented her from returning on time, and Lilley was kept on for the foreseeable future. In July 2012, it was announced that Storms would return to the series. On September 5, 2012, Storms reprised the role of Maxie on-screen. Storms took maternity leave on January 2, 2014, and returned on April 8 of the same year. In March 2017 Soap Opera Spy reported that Storms was leaving Port Charles for "personal reasons,". She returned to GH in August 2017.

Other work

In 2015, Storms appeared as Selene Winterthorne in the soap opera web series Winterthorne.

Personal life

On September 7, 2007, Storms was pulled over on a Los Angeles freeway by California Highway Patrol for tossing a lit cigarette out of the window of her Mercedes. After failing sobriety tests, she was arrested for a DUI. Her blood alcohol content was measured at 0.13, above the California legal limit of 0.08. In November 2007, she pleaded no contest to the charges and was ordered to attend twelve Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, complete a 90-day alcohol program, and pay $1,643 in fines. She also had her license suspended for six months and was placed on three years probation.

Storms is close friends with General Hospital co-star Kelly Monaco, which was featured in the short-lived E! Entertainment reality show Dirty Soap, which aired during the fall of 2011.

In early 2013, it was confirmed that Storms was in a relationship with her former General Hospital co-star Brandon Barash. In August 2013, the couple confirmed to People that they had secretly wed in June, and were expecting their first child, a girl, in January 2014. On January 7, 2014, Barash confirmed on his official Twitter account that Storms had given birth to a baby girl, Harper Rose Barash. On April 6, 2016, Soap Opera Digest revealed that Brandon and Kirsten have filed for divorce after more than 2 and half years of marriage citing irreconcilable differences but they will raise their daughter together as they are splitting amicably.