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Credit: Anna Fox, FlickrYou’ve probably seen the videos without realizing they featured the same person.
For eight years, Sabrina Von B. portrayed Snow White’s Evil Queen at Disneyland, creating interactions so entertaining they regularly went viral across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Her witty comebacks, comedic timing, and unique interpretation of the classic Disney villain transformed a character that wasn’t particularly popular into one of the most beloved meet-and-greet experiences at the park.
Guests would arrive at Disneyland with phones already recording, hoping to capture their own moment with the Evil Queen who told them her beauty was “all natural” or corrected someone who called her “La Bruja” by responding “La Reina.”
Now, at 27, Von B. has moved on from Disney and is speaking publicly about her time as the character, the physical and mental demands of the role, and how viral fame complicated her efforts to maintain Disney magic.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Von B. reflected on what it meant to bring such a distinctive interpretation to a Disney villain. The Evil Queen wasn’t a character that generated significant buzz before her videos started circulating online.
Unlike Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, or even more popular villains like Maleficent, the Evil Queen from Snow White occupied a relatively quiet corner of Disneyland’s character lineup. Von B.’s portrayal changed that entirely, creating a character experience that guests specifically sought out and that generated millions of views across social media platforms.
Her ability to balance villainy with humor, delivering cutting remarks while still creating joy for guests, represented something unique in the Disney character ecosystem.
@sabrinavonb no makeup, all natural, holyyy airballll 🤭 #holyairball #lareina #itwasme
The journey from anonymous character performer to internet sensation created challenges Von B. never anticipated when she started the role at age 18. Disney’s commitment to maintaining character magic meant she couldn’t publicly acknowledge her identity while working at the parks, even as videos of her performances accumulated millions of views and comments flooded in trying to figure out who she was.
The tension between viral fame and Disney’s preference for keeping performers anonymous created a delicate balance that Von B. maintained until her departure from the company. Only after leaving Disneyland did she finally confirm her identity in a TikTok video that quickly accumulated over 6.5 million views, validating what many fans had suspected but couldn’t confirm while she was still employed.
Creating the Character
Von B. brought more than just costume and makeup to her Evil Queen performances. The role required substantial physical and mental preparation that most guests never considered as they interacted with her. “You have to wear a costume, and a lot of the time in California, it gets really hot,” she explained to PEOPLE.
“Preparing mentally, hydrating for the job, making sure your skin is up to par, making sure you sleep, eating enough the night before to have energy to do such a demanding role. Flipping that cape day in and day out was not easy.”
Her transformation process involved specific rituals that helped her embody the character. “Lift the eyebrows, cackle, put on the makeup, do some exercises to get the body and face ready, and then put on the costume. That’s when the real transformation starts,” she shared.
“I would walk up to the set, take a few seconds behind the door, let my face drop into the Evil Queen and just open the door and not look back. The character takes over.”
This commitment to fully inhabiting the role showed in her performances. Von B. developed an arsenal of witty comebacks and responses that she would test on guests, refining what worked and what didn’t.
“Sometimes I would surprise myself with witty comebacks that I would come up with, and then I would try it on guests,” she told PEOPLE. “I would be like, ‘Oh, I can keep that in my arsenal.’ I really open that door on stage, and I don’t look back, and the Queen takes over.”
During her eight years, Von B. also portrayed Maleficent, Agatha Harkness, and Lady Tremaine, but the Evil Queen remained her most frequent role and the character that generated the most viral content. Each performance required the same level of preparation and commitment, but the Evil Queen’s particular blend of vanity and humor created the most opportunities for memorable guest interactions.
The Viral Journey
Von B.’s internet fame came in waves rather than as a single explosive moment. The first significant surge occurred in 2019 when a YouTuber visited Disneyland, interacted with her, and uploaded the footage.
The video circulated widely, introducing her Evil Queen interpretation to audiences far beyond those who had encountered her in person at the parks. In 2021, renewed interest in her performances caused earlier videos to resurface, creating another peak in her online visibility.
“It was a dream getting to do my own spin on a character that really wasn’t popular or viral or well-known before videos of me really started going around,” she told PEOPLE. “I read a lot of comments about people saying they would’ve never loved this character, but now it is their favorite character. That really was an honor to be able to bring a Disney villain to life, and also not be evil, but put a more comical spin on it and create joy for people and make people smile, all while being a villain, was very rewarding.”
However, this virality created complications. Disney’s emphasis on protecting character magic meant Von B. needed to maintain separation between her personal identity and her role as the Evil Queen. “With Disney, it is a bit scary because they want to protect the magic, and in the comments, people were trying to get my identity,” she shared. “It is scary because Disney wants to protect the magic, and I’ll say that I protected the magic all the way until the end, and I never came out publicly and said like, ‘This is me,’ or anything until they ultimately let me go. That’s when I spoke out publicly on it.”
Lasting Impact
Von B.’s portrayal created lasting memories for countless Disney guests. She recalls a woman who saved money to travel from Japan to Disney World specifically to meet her. Another story she treasures involves a mother and daughter who visited annually. “The next year they came back, and the baby was walking, and it’s always crazy to look up and see a guest and remember them, and look at their child and see how much they’ve grown,” she shared. “Over the span of my eight years, I got to see this mother and daughter almost every year. I got to watch the little girl grow from literally a baby in her mom’s arms to an 8-year-old little girl in a little Evil Queen dress.”
“I don’t take it lightly that these experiences that I created for people are stories and things that they will take with them, for years to come, and hopefully make them like villains more and get on the side of villains and not just be scared of them,” she told PEOPLE.
The role also impacted Von B. personally. “Being so viral has helped me as a person just to be confident. As a person, I am not really like the Queen at all. I am definitely not half as confident as her,” she admitted. “I’m more on the shy end, surprisingly, but getting to just create that character who is so confident, and all the characters I got to play are very confident…it’s so lovely to be such a confident character for little girls and little boys to look up to. It also helps and helps me as a person really grow, and that spark that the Queen has in her, it lives in me.”
Now Von B. is focusing on “bigger and better things,” with projects coming out over the next few months and aspirations to reach Broadway or join a national tour. “Now I’m learning how to live outside of the mouse, and I am super excited for what is next in my career, and I’m so happy that people wanna see not just the Queen, but they want to see from me as well, which I’m very lucky to have that platform now from those videos,” she added. “I’m very fortunate and grateful to have that.”
Have you ever encountered Sabrina Von B.’s Evil Queen at Disneyland, or did you discover her through viral videos online? Drop a comment and share your favorite Evil Queen moment, whether you experienced it in person or watched it on TikTok. And if you’re a Disney character performer with your own stories about creating magic while maintaining anonymity, we’d love to hear about your experiences too!