After Ryan Gosling’s Mickey Mouse Club Tribute at D23, His Former Castmates Tell the Full Story

Disney found Ryan Gosling at an open call and trained him. His castmates tell the show’s whole story in a new book, and now do the same for young creatives.

ORLANDO, CA, UNITED STATES, August 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — On Friday, August 14, Ryan Gosling walked onto the Disney Entertainment Showcase stage at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event wearing a retro Mickey Mouse Club jacket, in front of 14,000 people, after director Shawn Levy played footage of him as a teenager on the series. “I owe a lot to Disney,” Gosling told the room. “Had they not looked far and wide and come to my hometown, I would not be here today. And now here I am 30 years later, I’m back and it’s changing my life again.”

Between 1989 and 1996, the All-New Mickey Mouse Club scouted kids through open calls across the country, then put them through a rigorous production and training schedule with acting coaches, vocal coaches, and choreographers. The cast included Gosling, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez, Keri Russell, Tony Lucca, Nikki DeLoach, Rhona Bennett (formerly of En Vogue), Jennifer McGill, Lindsey Alley, Close Enemies’ Chasen Hampton, BET’s Raquel Herring, Dale Godboldo (The People v. O.J. Simpson), Deedee Magno Hall (Wicked, Steven Universe), and Ricky Luna, David Kater, Josh Ackerman, and Kevin Osgood, who went on to produce and direct. It also included sixteen other young performers whose experiences inside that building have never been documented.

Many of those castmates have now told their story in the first comprehensive history of the show. Always In The Club: The True Story of the All-New Mickey Mouse Club is built from interviews with more than 60 members of the cast, crew, and former executives, and covers how Disney found them, how the training worked, what the workday actually looked like, what happened after the cameras stopped, and how the show eventually led many of them back to each other with a mission to give back.

Cast members who came up through that system reunited and built Always In The Club Foundation (AITCF) around a straightforward idea: what changed their lives was the commitment the adults made to them. Their training, their education, their discipline, and real attention to who these kids were going to become after the show ended. Inspired by what they were given, AITCF now runs mentorship, coaching, and experiential learning programs pairing young people with working professionals, with attention to mental health alongside craft.

The Foundation’s mentors have worked with more than 3,500 students. Some have gone on to appear in feature films and television, sign with Disney, Capitol Records, and Universal Music Group, and perform on stages from Coachella to Good Morning America.

The Limited Edition books sold out to the Foundation’s community. A waiting list is open for print overstock or a potential second printing, and a Trade Edition for general release is forthcoming. Details at mickeymouseclubreunion.com/the-book.

Digital review copies are available to working media on request.

About Always In The Club Foundation
Always In The Club Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity co-founded by reunited cast members of Disney’s All-New Mickey Mouse Club and a community of more than 10,000 longtime fans. AITCF empowers young people through mentorship, coaching, and experiential learning alongside working professionals, and builds stronger communities through its MMC’89 Social Impact Initiative aligned with the UN Global Goals. Proceeds from the Limited Editions support the Foundation’s programs. The Foundation is governed by a board of artists, educators, and entrepreneurs. Learn more at www.AlwaysInTheClub.org.

Kristen Micqué Foley
KMicqué Communications
+1 614-477-4445
kristen@kmicque.com

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Written By: EIN Presswire