Lovato was born in Dallas, Texas, to Patrick and Dianna Lovato (née Hart). She has an older sister, Dallas, and a younger half sister, Madison De La Garza. Her mother was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and country recording artist; her father moved to New Mexico after their marriage ended in 1994. Lovato is of Mexican, Italian, and Irish ancestry. Lovato began her acting career at the age of six on the children's television series Barney & Friends as Angela, appearing in seasons seven and eight alongside long time friend Selena Gomez. In 2006 Lovato guest starred on Prison Break as Danielle Curtin in the episode "First Down". She also appeared in the second season of the television sitcom Just Jordan as Nicole, in the episode "Slippery When Wet". In January 2007, she landed the role of Charlotte Adams on the Disney Channel Original Short Series, As the Bell Rings, which premiered on August 26, 2007. A few of her original songs, including "Shadow," were featured on the show. Upon leaving the show, her character was replaced by Lindsey Black. In an MTV interview, Lovato stated that she likes metal music, especially black metal and metalcore. She called symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir "one of her favorite live acts". Lovato is best friends with Selena Gomez, whom she has known since Lovato "asked her to sit on my jacket and draw with crayons with me" at the Barney & Friends auditions. Lovato is also a Christian and prays with her band before they perform. She wrote the song "For the Love of a Daughter" about her estranged father. She briefly dated Metro Station singer Trace Cyrus; the two ended their relationship in July 2009 due to conflicting schedules.Lovato sang a cover of That's How You Know from the film Enchanted that was released on Disneymania 6 on May 20, 2008. In 2008, Lovato starred in the Disney Channel film, Camp Rock. She played Mitchie Torres, a fourteen-year-old girl with hopes of becoming a singer. The movie premiered on June 20 in the USA on Disney Channel with 8.9 million viewers, making Lovato a house-hold name among tweens. She provided vocals on four of the songs featured on the Camp Rock soundtrack, including the hit "This Is Me" featuring Joe Jonas. Lovato released her second studio album, Here We Go Again on July 21, 2009. The album debuted at #1 with 107,000 first-week sales. Regarding the album, The first single off the album, titled the same as the album, was released on June 17, 2009.[18] Here We Go Again became Lovato's highest charting song at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. During the summer of 2009 Lovato along with other Disney Channel stars took part in Disney's Friends for Change, a pro-social "green" initiative. The theme song, titled Send It On, for the project is performed by Lovato along with Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers. In September 2009, filming for Camp Rock 2 began.[21] On November 10, 2009 she released a Live CD+DVD of her Walmart Soundcheck performance.[22] On November 12, she released a music video for Remember December, her third single from Here We Go Again .She also appeared on We The Kings's second studio album Smile Kid as a contributing guest vocals on the album's song "We'll Be a Dream".