Ayesha Curry’s new holiday movie has a lot of people asking why the wife of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is suddenly acting. The short answer: she was an actress before she was a Curry. In 2009, two years before their wedding, she guest-starred on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana.
Second Chance Holiday premiered on The Roku Channel on November 5, 2026, and it is her first leading role in a feature film. She plays Chelsey, a dating expert trying to break a “curse” of getting dumped every holiday season. A clip of her kissing co-star Matthew Daddario spread fast, along with comments about her marriage. Curry answered on X the same day: “It’s not even real.”
A résumé that starts in 2008
Credited as Ayesha Alexander, she had a starring role in 2008 as Keeley Hawkins in Whittaker Bay, a drama that ran for eight episodes. Smaller parts followed.
In 2009 she played Andrea in the Hannah Montana episode “Come Fail Away” and had a part on Gary Unmarried. In 2010 she appeared as “Beautiful Girl” in the Good Luck Charlie episode “Kwikki Chick,” according to IMDb. She was openly proud of the Disney gig, posting a link to “My scene on ‘Hannah Montana’ (So much fun!!!)” in December 2009.
Then she stepped away from acting after 2010. She married Stephen Curry in July 2011, and after their first child was born in 2012, her career turned to food: a blog, a YouTube channel and eventually her own Food Network show, Ayesha’s Homemade.
The slow road back to the screen
The return has been gradual. She played Heather in Netflix’s Irish Wish in 2024, opposite her longtime friend Lindsay Lohan, and Liza in Hulu’s Joy to the World in 2025. Earlier this year she voiced Carol in the animated film GOAT, produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Steph’s company, Unanimous Media.
Second Chance Holiday is the first time she carries a movie. When Roku released the trailer in October, Steph congratulated her as “my leading lady.”
Why the backlash misses the history
As the debate over the kiss grew, former ESPN host Jemele Hill pointed out on X that Curry had been acting before she ever met her husband.
That is the part the viral clip leaves out. At 37, 17 years after her Hannah Montana scene, Ayesha Curry is finally the name at the top of the credits.
Watch her Hannah Montana scene first, then judge her Roku rom-com for yourself.
