LIHUE — Like so many young children, Maddie and Savannah Hubbard dreamed of acting on screen. But unlike most other kids, the Lihue twins are seeing those dreams come true today with their debut on the Nickelodeon series, “Nicky, Ricky,
LIHUE — Like so many young children, Maddie and Savannah Hubbard dreamed of acting on screen. But unlike most other kids, the Lihue twins are seeing those dreams come true today with their debut on the Nickelodeon series, “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn.”
With a solid grounding in community and professional theater locally, the 10-year-olds have been honing their skills before live audiences for almost five years.
Their most recent stage outing was as Siamese twins in the Kauai Community College production of the musical, “Carnival.” Now, with their Hollywood career charging full speed ahead, the girls are having the time of their young lives, but show not the slightest sign of letting any of it go to their heads.
“My favorite part is hair and wardrobe,” says Savannah, the elder (by one minute) of the two who plays a character named Jules on the show.
Maddie, who plays the character Emma, likes the pet animals featured on the show.
“And we both love Craft Services,” they say in unison.
Craft Services provide the cornucopia of snacks that are always available on TV and movie sets.
The show revolves around quadruplets whose rivalries sometimes result in squabbles, but who ultimately band together to triumph over the sitcom challenge of the week. In today’s episode, titled “Odd Quad Out,” the siblings have grown jaded with their recurring roles in an ad campaign for a local tire company.
Unmoved by their complaints, the director of the commercials brings in another set of quads, half of them played by the Hubbard twins, who threaten to out-cute NRD&D right out of their lucrative tire gig.
Asked if the kids are regular viewers of the show, their mom Liz gives an ironic smile and says, “Actually, we don’t have cable. We really don’t have time for TV.”
And with a schedule that includes dance, gymnastics, violin, robotics, chorus and drama club, it’s easy to see why.
“We had to binge watch a whole season of NRD&D at a friend’s house before the twins went to their audition, just to find out what the show was all about,” says Liz with a laugh.
In an interesting twist, the twins had their path to Paramount Studios paved by fellow Island School student Siena Agudong who, at 12 years old, is already a veteran of 13 episodes of the show as the character Natlee.
As far as all of the Kauai kids are concerned, if their stint on the show leads to bigger roles, so much the better. For now, though, they’re doing what kids do best: having fun.
