XO, Kitty star Anna Cathcart is balancing acting career and life at UBC

Anna Cathcart’s life is a balancing act.

The 21-year-old star of the TV series XO, Kitty has built a very successful acting career — complete with close to 8.5 million combined Instagram and TikTok followers — while also pursuing an education at the University of B.C.

“I’m very happy to be back in classes. I really missed it when I was working and when I was away,” said Cathcart, who is currently in her third year at UBC, focusing on creative writing and sociology.

When her schedule gets crazy, and she is up to her eyeballs in classes and career, Cathcart says she reminds herself to take a beat and think about what she is doing and why she is doing it.

“It is definitely very challenging at times; I’m not going to lie. There are many moments where it is very hard,” said Cathcart. “I just try and keep the gratitude as present as possible and remind myself why I’m doing this. And why it’s important to me. And how lucky I am to get the chance to do two things that I love.”

Having a packed schedule is nothing new for Cathcart, whose first major job was playing Agent Olympia in the kids’ series Odd Squad, beginning in 2016.

“It’s funny now, doing university at the same time is somehow easier than doing high school at the same time. Because I worked consistently all throughout my high school years and started Odd Squad when I was still in elementary school. So, I kind of got used to this double life and this balance,” said Cathcart. “My friends always joke it’s like Hannah Montana. I have my double life. Especially in high school, it really felt like that because I would come home and rush back to a math test in my public school and then run to L.A. the next day, and it did kind of feel like I had alter egos.”

While good grades and earning a degree are priorities, Cathcart understands the undergraduate years are also about encountering different things and different people.

“I just really wanted to go for the experience. And I’ve already learned so, so much from school about myself and everything. It’s been amazing,” said Cathcart.

After graduating from R.A. McMath Secondary School in Richmond in 2021, she took an educational gap year and went to Korea to star in the first season of XO, Kitty, the spinoff to the three primarily Vancouver shot To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before movies in which she played Kitty Covey. After shooting the series, she entered UBC in fall 2022.

“I have always dreamed of going to UBC since I was little girl. My parents both went there, they met there. My sister went to UBC and loved it,” said Cathcart. “It kind of runs in my family, and I grew up saying one day it’s going to be my turn to have that chapter and be on that campus. I very much had it on my vision board so I think, even though my career was kind of in a momentum, and I still really want to make sure that is still prioritized and I can keep that going, I knew I wanted this to happen. And that it was a dream of mine, as well. So I went for it after Season 1.”

Cathcart’s freshman year at UBC was pretty much like everyone else’s — busy and full of new things. However, the campus experience changed a bit when she returned to classes the following year just as XO, Kitty dropped on Netflix and was an instant hit.

“In high school, everybody knew me already or they just knew me as a classmate. There were only so many kids there. But at a school like UBC, there are like 60,000 people. So I run into someone new every day,” said Cathcart about getting clocked as the girl who plays Kitty.

“There’s a lot of people I don’t know (coming up to me) but, luckily, I found my circle in first year and I have such a safe space and such an amazing community at UBC that I feel very at home. But it definitely can be challenging at times. And I think that second year it really kind of elevated and hit me a little harder when we first got back that September it was a lot of adjusting.”

But, at the end of the day, Cathcart says fans are respectful and understand she is there as a student, just like them.

“The people I do meet who have maybe watched my work, they’re all so lovely and great to talk to. So, honestly, it hasn’t been too crazy, and I feel very lucky,” said Cathcart.

Interest might again rise when Season 2 of XO, Kitty debuts. But, as of the writing of this, Netflix has yet to announce a premiere date.

While Cathcart is nose-deep in books, her fans can check her out as the voice of Violet Wilner in the just-released third season of the Audible series Mistletoe Murders.

Cathcart has been in all three seasons of the cosy mystery show that stars another Vancouverite, Cobie Smulders, as Emily Lane, the narrator of the story who owns a Christmas-themed store in the Christmas-mad town of Fletcher’s Grove. Raymond Ablack voices Det.-Const. Sam Wilner, Violet’s dad, who’s tasked each season with solving murders in the small community.

“Mistletoe Murders combines comedy, love and mystery, which is the perfect recipe for a lighthearted story around the holidays,” said Smulders by email. “The series is truly a cosy mystery mixed with unique twists that has listeners hooked from start to finish. I’m excited for listeners to hear the next chapter in the series.”

That next chapter, Smulders says, will offer fans a deeper look into Emily’s past.

“In the first season, Emily comes to Fletcher’s Grove to escape her past, which makes her a bit guarded. As the seasons unfolds, she forms deeper connections with the townspeople, including her love interest, Sam Wilner, and his daughter, Violet,” said Smulders. “As Emily opens up as the series progresses, her secret past is creeping up behind her.”

For Cathcart’s Violet, things are also opening up on the story front.

“Violet this season kind of gets more into the investigations and a little bit more involved with the mysteries, which is super-fun,” said Cathcart. “She’s also a little bit older, so she’s experiencing new things and going through new chapters of her life because she is graduating high school.”

The idea that such a tiny town can be so fraught with murder isn’t lost on Cathcart.

“My mom and I were reading the script, and we were like, ‘What? This many people in one small town?’ I would move!” said Cathcart, laughing about the fictional bodycount.

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