Anneliese van der Pol Recalls Awkward Story Serving Ashley Tisdale 

UPDATE: 1/7/26 at 11:50 a.m. ET — Anneliese van der Pol’s comments about serving as Ashley Tisdale’s waitress have resurfaced online two years later.

While Tisdale never addressed Van der Pol’s remarks, the High School Musical star went viral in January 2026 for detailing her reasons for leaving a “toxic” mom friend group.

“I was starting to feel frozen out of the group, noticing every way that they seemed to exclude me,” Tisdale, who shares two daughters with husband Christopher French, wrote in her article. “I have never considered the moms to be bad people … But I do think our group dynamic stopped being healthy and positive — for me, anyway.”

Original story continues below:

Anneliese van der Pol worked as a waitress after wrapping her initial run as an actress on Disney Channel, leading to one awkward interaction with fellow network alum Ashley Tisdale.

“I want to say she was lovely, but …,” van der Pol, 38, recalled during the Thursday, August 24, episode of her “Big Name Bitches” podcast before trailing off. “She didn’t do anything but she was uncomfortable for me. She was so uncomfortable.”

Van der Pol — who played Chelsea Daniels on That’s So Raven between 2003 and 2007, and later revived her role on Raven’s Home in 2017 — worked at “several restaurants” in New York City, including the popular Tavern on the Green “for about a year.”

“I was really proud of myself. You have to do a lot of multitasking, but the disappointment [and] the look, the drop of faces when [people] recognized me was truly gut-wrenching,” she recalled to cohost Christy Carlson Romano. “It was almost like I had to say, ‘I’m OK. I’m actually really happy that I don’t have to audition and am doing something I know I’m good at.’ I know when I clean a table or bring a meal that I can do that and there won’t be any mistakes. I won’t be judged. Essentially, I kind of was judged.”

During one of her shifts, van der Pol “ran into” Tisdale, now 38, and had to serve her. Romano, 39, was flabbergasted by Van der Pol’s admission and exclaimed that she would have left the “fattest” tip possible.

“Well, you would have been like, ‘Oh, my God! Hi!’ She was so uncomfortable,” van der Pol alleged. “Like, I’m fine, girl.”

Tisdale, who previously starred on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and the High School Musical franchise, has not publicly addressed the alleged encounter. Romano, for her part, said that she “grew up with Ashley” and gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Related: Stars You Never Realized Got Their Start on Disney Channel

Many actors who have found award-winning success were originally connected to a Disney Channel role. Nicholas Braun appeared in the original movie Princess Protection Program in 2009 before snagging a role in HBO’s Succession. Braun revealed that his experience on Disney Channel was hard to handle at the time. “The opportunities to be the lead […]

“I don’t know her anymore [but] I’m sure that was … these younger kids that came after us, God love ‘em, but I think we’re tougher,” Romano, who rose to fame playing Ren Stevens on the network’s Even Stevens, speculated. “I think we’ve been through some s—t!”

Like van der Pol, Romano retreated from Hollywood after her Disney days. The former Kim Possible star went to college at Columbia University before finding success as a YouTuber and podcast host.

Despite leaving acting behind, Romano previously told Us Weekly that she would “totally” be down for an Even Stevens reboot.

“I think it could be super great if we could do it where I come back and then I have two children and maybe it’s like a gender swap where the girl is more like the Shia LaBeouf character and the boy is more of the ‘type-A’ [character],” she told Us in November 2018. “It’s up to Disney, I know there’s a lot of changes happening right now at Disney, so we’ll just have to wait and see, and maybe they’ll realize that it could be a really good idea. And the fans are so great.”