Christy Carlson Romano Says She Earned Half Shia LaBeouf's Even Stevens Pay
Christy Carlson Romano says she was paid half of what Shia LaBeouf earned on Even Stevens.
The two worked as co-leads with the same screen time, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Romano has set out the gap in her memoir, Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Fall and Rise of a Child Star.
In cash terms, Romano says she earned $6,000 per episode while LaBeouf earned $12,000 per episode, as reported by Yahoo. Television actors are typically paid per episode, so the rate decides what a full season is worth. Double the rate means double the season pay.
The dispute started early. Romano said her mother wrote to her agent in 2000 to ask for equal pay for her daughter. That was the show's first year on air. The request did not change the gap.
Romano played Ren Stevens, the older sister to LaBeouf's Louis Stevens. Even Stevens aired on Disney Channel, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter, and ran for three seasons from 2000 to 2003. The run centred on the brother and sister at home and at school.
The pay account follows years of public comment about a difficult working relationship. Romano described their off-screen dynamic as "like oil and water" in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. In March 2026 she said LaBeouf did not deserve a place on Disney's Mount Rushmore, as reported by Variety. In October 2026 she told People that the relationship "played out the way it was meant to".
Romano had previously addressed the distance between them. In August 2021, The Hollywood Reporter carried her explanation of why she had not spoken to LaBeouf in years. That history is background to the new pay detail, not part of it.
What makes this stand out is the paper trail. A parent flagged the difference in year one. Romano said she only fully recognised its weight years later, looking back at a childhood contract as an adult.
