Anna Cathcart Takes the Lead

When I connect with Anna Cathcart, she’s deep into a packed press run promoting the third season of XO, Kitty, the beloved spinoff of Netflix’s To All the Boys trilogy. The twenty-two-year-old actor is in Los Angeles for an extended stretch (complete with an Oscars attendance), before heading back home to Vancouver. Nearly a decade after first stepping into Kitty Song-Covey’s shoes, Cathcart has grown up alongside the character she made famous.

Cathcart was just fourteen years old when she was cast as the mischievous yet lovable Kitty Song-Covey in Netflix’s hit film To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, the younger sister of Lara Jean (Lana Condor), whose impulsive decision to mail a stack of secret love letters sets the story in motion. Three films and three seasons of her own spinoff later, Kitty is still matchmaking, but Cathcart says she’s watched both her character and herself evolve. “I think Kitty’s really stepped into herself and given herself the space to explore who she is and give herself grace,” she says. “Sometimes she can be a very messy person and can get herself into a lot of chaos, but that’s kind of part of why we love her. She’s still the same Kitty, but she’s maybe learned to meddle a little bit less and try and stop and pause and think about how something’s going to impact things and talk to her friends and her loved ones when she needs it.”

XO, Kitty has earned a following for its lighthearted, bright, and emotional approach to the trials of high school life at an international school in Korea, a theme that continues in the third season. This season finds Kitty returning to Seoul for her senior year, balancing schoolwork, a romance with frenemy-turned-crush Min Ho, and, for the first time in the series, her sister Lara Jean’s return, which, for Cathcart, was a highlight. “To have that sister dynamic, I think not only is it amazing to see her character, who’s so beloved and who is so iconic now, but also the side that she brings out in Kitty and the sister love,” she says. “The specific dynamic of Lana and me, too, there’s something irreplaceable about that. That was so much fun to live in again.”

Lara Jean shows up just in time to help Kitty navigate her burgeoning feelings for Min Ho, a shift that pushes her to confront her own vulnerability. Still, Kitty remains fiercely loyal to the people around her. “I think Kitty’s very brave, even if sometimes she doesn’t see it like that, because she fights for what she cares about. She often speaks her mind when she doesn’t plan on it. She just has her heart on her sleeve, and it’s there for everyone to see if she likes it or not,” says Cathcart, reflecting on her favorite qualities of Kitty. “I just think she has so much love to give in so many different ways. And yes, she’s a matchmaker, but she also loves her friends and her family, and she gets very excited very easily. It feels like her heart is bursting out of her a lot of the time. Sometimes her actions are out of pocket, and she does things that are crazy sometimes, but her heart is truly always in the right place.”

That emotional openness is something that Cathcart understands well. She began acting at the age of twelve after being inspired by watching her sister audition for commercials. It wasn’t long before she fell in love with the craft. “I was really shy as a kid, like very, very shy, but there was something about making stories and performing in my safe spaces of just my family that I lit up every time. Sarah, my sister, and I used to make fake commercials and make fake music videos and do all that kind of stuff all the time,” she recalls. After signing with an agent, Cathcart booked her first lead role in PBS Kids’s Odd Squad. “It just started this crazy adventure that has never ended, and I hope never does.”

Cathcart is quick to credit her family for the foundation and continued support that have enabled her pursuit of acting. “I’m so, so, so lucky because as a kid, there were a lot of people who are talented or who have the desire to do it, but they don’t have the circumstances and the adult support to be able to do it,” says Cathcart. “I don’t take it for granted how lucky I was that we were in a position for me to be able to do that, and my parents were able to make the adjustments they needed to in their own lives for me to be able to do this. They’ve been so on board and so supportive since day one, and have also always provided that: The day that you want to stop doing this, we stop doing this. But we’re here for you, and we’re going to make it happen if you want it to.”

That foundation was essential to her transition from child star to adult actor, marked by her move from a supporting role in the To All the Boys trilogy to the lead of her own spin-off. “It felt like a lot because it was hand in hand with being a number one now, after being a supporting character,” recalls Cathcart. “I was working a few days a week, not all day, and going to school like a regular high school student at the same time. It felt more like a hobby and a part of my life. I feel like it went from like a B plot to my A plot. I was like, Whoa, this is like a career now. I have very different expectations and pressure, even just personal pressure of like, I’m carrying this, I want it to be great, I want to show up.”

Season one also brought the challenges of filming in Seoul during the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant strict rules and greater isolation than Cathcart was used to. “That added a whole other layer, being far away from home and just a lot of new things to juggle at once,” she says. “It definitely made me prepared, though, for the rest of the years to come up, like, Okay, we handled season one and we went through that craziness at eighteen. I think we’ll be okay in our twenties. Of course, we’re always learning. The next project I do, I’m sure I’ll be thrown into another learning curve, but that’s part of the fun.”

As Cathcart looks to her future, it seems her own creative ambitions are just as expansive and bold as Kitty’s. “I have a very long list of dreams, and there are so many things that I want to do. Right now, I think I’m craving being a character in a more grounded world,” she says. “I’ve never really played in a type of setting where it’s very reflective of our own world. Having that realism in it, I think, can be so fun to play with. It’s a type of acting that intrigues me so much. Then, on the other end, like an action movie or a musical, something that’s huge and grand and requires a lot of pieces, I think is so fun.” She has also started producing: “I just love being part of something from the start. As actors, we’re used to being told, ‘You’re just an actor, you’re here to fulfill someone else’s vision and story.’ That can obviously be frustrating at times. I feel like I have so much or can have so much to share and a lot to bring to the table—nuance and tiny details and how small things can make such a big difference.“

As Cathcart reflects on her time portraying Kitty and what she’s learned, certain parallels are clear. “Kitty’s helped me learn more about myself and given me the space to figure out the mess of growing up, the chaos and complications of becoming a young adult, and going through teenagehood, realizing it’s okay to not have all the answers and to not know exactly who you are. That’s part of the fun, and that’s part of the beauty of growing up, and Kitty’s definitely helped teach me that.”

XO, Kitty is now streaming on Netflix.