Who Is Mischa Barton Of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season 22?
Mischa Barton is one of the celebrities competing on Season 22 of Dancing With the Stars and viewers are quite interested to see how this plays out this spring. It is said that she will be partnering with pro Artem Chigvintsev and DWTS are buzzing about how this pair will do. What do viewers need to know about Barton?
Entertainment Tonight broke the news that Mischa Barton would be dancing this spring, and many know the 30-year-old actress from her days on The O.C. which aired from 2003 to 2007 and began when she was just 16. Barton played Marissa Cooper, who fell for Ryan Atwood, played by Ben McKenzie. The show also starred Adam Brody, Rachel Bilson, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Tate Donovan and Melinda Clarke and aired on Fox. Barton’s character of Marissa was killed off during the Season 3 finale of the show’s four-season run.
While Mischa is most well-known for her role as Marissa Cooper, she has been in the entertainment industry since she was young. As her IMDb page notes, she voiced a character in a series called KaBlam! in 1996 and 1997, and went on to do a number of appearances in various shows until a role in the show Once and Again, which starred Sela Ward and Billy Campbell, popped up for Mischa. Barton played a character named Katie during the show’s final season.
This new Dancing With the Stars contestant also had roles in films such as The Sixth Sense and Notting Hill, and has done some stage work as well. Though Barton has worked on quite a few projects since leaving The O.C., few have garnered much in the way of attention or recognition here in the United States. Off-screen, Mischa has had her fair share of challenges since wrapping up her role as Marissa Cooper.
Born in England, the Barton family moved to New York when Mischa was quite young, and she attended Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School, notes Ace Showbiz. For a while, Barton dated oil heir Brandon Davis, who is also known for having dated starlets such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Mischa dated Whitestarr vocalist Cisco Adler after her split with Davis, and has had a handful of other relationships since then.
In 2007, People notes that Barton was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Things continued to be rocky for the actress for some time after that, and she ended up spending some time at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in their psychiatric ward after allegedly threatening suicide. Mischa worked hard to straighten things out, but she was then often blasted by tabloids for her weight. More recently, the new Dancing With the Stars contestant has faced challenges with her mother and things headed to court.
As People shared last spring, Mischa’s mom Nuala was also her manager during her early days, and things got intense. The family’s California home went into foreclosure and Barton said that her mother had essentially used her as a cash machine and took millions of dollars from her. Mischa has talked about the intense pressure that she faced during those earlier years, and it clearly took a toll on both her and her family.
Though the actress has been through her fair share of tough times, it seems that things have settled down in recent months, and this Dancing With the Stars gig may be a great way for her to reinvent herself and her image. Barton will be dancing with Artem Chigvintsev, who has partnered with Lea Thompson and Patti LaBelle in previous DWTS seasons. The Russian pro also was on both So You Think You Can Dance and Strictly Come Dancing in past years.
This will be a very competitive season of DWTS with stars such as Ginger Zee, Doug Flutie, Von Miller and Jodie Sweetin in the mix of things. However, viewers will be curious to see just how Mischa Barton and Artem Chigvintsev do when they hit the dance floor on Season 22 of Dancing With the Stars. Which couple are you most excited to see take a spin this spring?
[Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images]
