Former Disney child star Ryan McCartan gives rare insight into pay from residuals

New York Post

28-05-2025

A former child star has shared the jaw-dropping amount he makes in residuals from a popular Disney Channel show.
Ryan McCartan, 31, starred in 'Liv and Maddie,' a successful tween show that ran from 2013 to 2017.
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Usually, famous people shy away from discussing money, but he took to Instagram to reveal how much he still makes from the hit show.
4 Ryan McCartan starred in 'Liv and Maddie,' a successful tween show that ran from 2013 to 2017.
Disney Channel via Getty Images
Residuals are an extra payment made to actors when reruns are aired.
It is separate from the salary they're paid initially.
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The star really aimed for transparency when he took to Instagram and shared his recent residual cheque of 41 cents.
'When they ask me if Disney Channel paid me well,' he joked.
4 McCartan took to Instagram to reveal how much he still makes from the hit show.
Disney Channel via Getty Images
Thankfully, McCartan isn't relying on his measly residual paychecks to get by. Instead, the actor is currently starring in the musical version of 'The Great Gatsby 'on Broadway.
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The 31-year-old also has a million followers on Instagram and describes himself as a 'role model to tens of theater kids' but he perhaps still most famous for his past relationship.
He previously engaged to fellow former Disney star Dove Cameron.
The pair met on the Liv and Maddie show and got engaged in 2016 after two years of dating, but they called off their engagement in the same year.
4 Ryan McCartan and Sarah Hyland at 'The Great Gatsby' Centennial Celebration Gala at The New York Public Library's Astor Hall on Jan. 16, 2025 in New York, New York.
Variety via Getty Images
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McCartan announced their break-up on X and said, 'Dove has decided this relationship isn't what she wants' and added that the pair still loved each other and asked fans to be sensitive because it was a 'painful' time.
Cameron also tweeted about their break-up, saying it was an 'intense' time and adding that there was still lots of love between the pair.
Later, in an interview with Seventeen magazine, she admitted it was her first ever real relationship.
4 The 31-year-old (R) also has a million followers on Instagram and describes himself as a 'role model to tens of theatre kids,' but he is perhaps still most famous for his past relationship.
Disney Channel via Getty Images
'It was on-screen and off-screen. A lot of what I went through in that first relationship, the very low-lows, I did not make public.'
'I was under the impression that I had to make everything look perfect all the time and my partner definitely put that in my ear,' she said.
Cameron also said that while fans thought they were sharing 'loads' of their relationship online, she felt like she'd hardly shared anything.
Meanwhile, McCartan went on the podcast, allegedly, and said the break-up was 'really hard' and 'plain out sucks,' but he understood that time would heal everything.