Sam's the star of the show

Feb 18 2008 By Steve Johnson

A TEENAGE stage star from the Midlands is fronting a major new talent contest on the Disney Channel.

Samantha Dorrance, aged 15, from Willenhall, who began dancing lessons when she was two, won last year's High School Musical: You're The Star competition on the channel.

Now Samantha has lined up alongside Disney Channel's Brad Kavanagh, from As The Bell Rings, to present another search for a star contest.

Channel bosses selected the pair to share their different experiences of finding fame to encourage wannabe stars to enter a special weekly show.

The new programme, called My School Musical, sees the Disney Channel scouring the UK for fresh new talent across three categories, singing, dancing and performance.

Budding stars are encouraged to send in short clips of their unique talents to a dedicated site, myschoolmusical.co.uk, where the best will be uploaded ready for Disney Channel users to view and vote.

Samantha, who has performed in many professional and amateur productions, including an appearance at Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre, beat off competition to be crowned the winner of High School Musical: You're the Star last September, when wannabes aged seven to 17 were invited to make their own videos of themselves singing, dancing or even beat boxing to catchy High School Musical songs.

She said: "I can't believe that last year I was entering a Disney Channel talent contest and this year I am presenting one."

Samantha and Brad are presenting a special My School Musical weekly show which is being broadcast on the Disney Channel at 5.55 pm.