“Wizards of Waverly Place”’s Jennifer Stone Thanks Fans for Supporting Her Acting Return While Working ER Shifts: ‘Smiling Ear to Ear Between Patients’
“Wizards of Waverly Place”’s Jennifer Stone Thanks Fans for Supporting Her Acting Return While Working ER Shifts: ‘Smiling Ear to Ear Between Patients’
Charna FlamWed, August 12, 2026 at 4:42 AM UTC
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Jennifer Stone and Selena GomezCredit: jennifer stone/instagram; disney wizards series/instagram -
Jennifer Stone reprised her Wizards of Waverly Place role, Harper Finkle, for its revival series, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
Stone, who balances acting with her career as an emergency room nurse, thanked fans for supporting her return to the show
“Y’all have had me smiling ear to ear between patients,” the actress shared in a Tuesday, Aug. 11 Instagram post
Jennifer Stone is thanking the Wizards of Waverly Place audience for their support as she returns to the TV screen.
The actress, 33, recently reprised her role as the Disney Channel favorite, Harper Finkle, in Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, and its third season concluded on Aug. 4. After the series aired, Stone shared that she has received an outpouring of support from fans and read the positive responses while working as an emergency room nurse.
“Thank you, guys for all the incredible love for my girl Harper these last few days,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday, Aug. 11. “I’ve been on shift at the ER all weekend, but y’all have had me smiling ear to ear between patients.”
“After so much time away, I couldn’t be more grateful to step back into acting and be met with such a warm welcome,” she continued. “Your unbelievably kind words and support have meant more to me than I can say. Knowing you missed Miss Finkle as much as I did has made returning to her and to this part of myself feel even more special❤️🍒.”
Jennifer Stone in March 2020Credit: jennifer stone/instagram
In her caption, Stone continued to express gratitude, writing, “There are no words to express how much I appreciate all of your support over the last few days welcoming Harper back to your screens.”
“Love you and thank you. ❤️,” she concluded.
Stone originally played the best friend of Selena Gomez’s Alex Russo for four seasons on Wizards of Waverly Place before returning for the revival. The original series ran from 2007 to 2012.
The emergency room nurse recently clarified that she was always planning to continue acting despite her healthcare career, explaining, “The cosmic comedy of it all is that returning to acting was always the plan,” she told TV Insider.
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“I laugh at the timing of it because I graduated nursing school in December 2019. My first thought was, ‘Okay cool. Now I can get back to acting,’ and then the world fell apart, so the whole business changed,” she said. “That was always the plan. I would go to nursing school and then split my time between nursing and acting.”
Jennifer Stone as Harper Finkle in 2013Credit: Craig Sjodin/Disney Channel via Getty
She acknowledged how things changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading her “to do some work” on herself. “Because that was pretty heavy to go through,” Stone added. “The past couple of years, I finally felt like I am back to myself again, and I actually could get back to what I love, my first passion of acting, 110 percent.”
Stone added that it “always” makes her laugh when people claim she “got a normal job” or “quit acting.”
“I was like, ‘No, no, no. We can be two things. We can be like Harper, where she writes and designs,’ ” she said of her character.
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On set of the revival, Stone told PEOPLE that being recognized by patients happened “more than” she thought it would. “It’s nice because you can give somebody a happy moment on not their best day,” she said. “I see people in the ER, so they’re not always having the best day when they see me.”
“Acting and nursing, they’re both such empathetic fields. With nursing, empathy is imperative, and with acting, empathy is essential because you’re playing people and you have to sort of find the core of any person. And you kind of have to do the same with nursing,” Stone added. “So it’s been a beautiful through-line. Being a nurse and just coming across so many different walks of life has just made me a better actor.”
The Wizards Beyond Waverly Place four-part finale event is now available to stream on Disney+.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
