Debby Ryan Helped Create 'Jessie' Because She Wasn't Done With Disney Yet

Debby Ryan has revealed just how Jessie came about.

The 25-year-old Insatiable actress made an appearance on Dax Shepard‘s podcast Armchair Expert, and talked about how she helped her former Disney Channel show come to fruition.

“At 18, the show (The Suite Life On Deck) ended suddenly and internationally at that point, I had also launched Disney Channel Free-to-Air and I had done two films for [Disney Channel] and I produced the second one. My last one repeated better than a lot of their original airing of DCOMs and they were like, ‘I don’t know, there’s something here that works,’” she told the host. “And I was kind of the last person as the Hannah Montanas or whatever phased out and those shows ended and people were very much like, ‘I miss the old Disney, I miss classic Disney.’ And I was kind of the last person with a foot in both worlds. And at 18, [I was] too old to be the lead of a Disney show, but prime age to be a relatable, quirky authority figure.”

“So my showrunner from Suite Life and I requested a meeting with the president of Disney Channel, which I guess I didn’t realize you don’t do at 18,” Debby continued. “But I put on a blazer and I was like, ‘Listen, I’m not done with you guys and I don’t think you’re done with me. We’re doing something it works, let’s do this.’ We pitched them Jessie and they loved it and it’s the first show they ever greenlit without a pilot.”

“We would get buzz that it did significantly well, it premiered very well, it stayed really well, the re-runs did well, on Netflix it was the most watched kids’ show even four years after it went away. And so it had a lot of great success,” she added.

Jessie also went on to produce the spin-off Bunk’d, which just got renewed for a fourth season!