After Auli‘i Cravalho landed the title role in the 2016 Disney blockbuster “Moana,” the New York Times dubbed her one of “four actresses everyone will be talking about this fall” and extolled her “irrepressible” charm.

“While it is rare for an actress to break through in an animated film, it is also rare for a newcomer to debut in such a global showcase,” the Times said. “It’s rarer still for a newcomer’s own personality to ring through.”

Cravalho, 14 at the time, was such an outsider that just trying to pronounce her name became somewhat of a running gag — the Times ran her explanation of how to say her first name (“Ow, like you stubbed your toe; lee like Bruce Lee, then another e”), while her costar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had to explain on video how to say her last name. She has been letting her vivacious personality shine in nearly all her roles ever since. She finds there’s purpose to it.

“I hope to continue and will continue choosing roles that will allow me to step into a different person’s shoes, because I think it makes me more kind and more considerate when I need to do that,” said Cravalho, now 22 and based in Los Angeles. “I have to figure out ‘OK, I don’t agree with my character’s decision but why would they do that, and how do I find the truth behind that decision?’ But yes, they all want to make the world a better place and they aren’t afraid to speak their mind. Just like me.”

She’s had her turn at live-action acting, appearing in the lead role in a Netflix movie and even on stage recently, but her latest project is “Hailey’s On It,” an animated series on Disney+ and Disney XD that debuted June 8. It’s the story of a cautious teenager, Hailey Banks, who suddenly has the fate of the world thrust upon her. All she has to do to save it is to complete the tasks on her wish list, which comprises things that she has wanted to do but has been too fearful to try.

“(It’s) a whole bucket list of things, like dye her hair bright neon, learn how to play glockenspiel — and kiss her best friend, Scott Denoga (voiced by Manny Jacinto),” Cravalho said. “What I loved about Hailey Banks is that she has so many beautiful interests. Like she loves building birdhouses, and she’s incredibly cerebral, and she enjoys tech, and she’s a young woman in STEM, and she sings. It allowed me, through her, to, like, just geek out about the things that I’m passionate about. … She has so many wants and so many dreams, and I think that’s beautiful to portray.”

Island connection

Given Cravalho’s upbringing in Hawaii, show creators Nick Stanton and Devin Bunje (“Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything,” “Prince of Peoria”) included plenty of references to the islands in the show. It’s set in a beach town, and Hailey’s father, Kai (Cooper Andrews), has roots in Hawaii and speaks pidgin-inflected English. “She would know some Hawaiian and she would definitely know Spam musubi,” she said. “There’s some episodes where her dad makes fried rice.”

Stanton said having Cravalho in the role was a “huge get” and encouraged them to add singing to the show. “She’s got this great voice, and that really wasn’t part of the show to begin with. (But) to have someone with that much talent, we kind of built that into the character,” he said.

“Our only hesitation was — because we knew she did ‘Moana,’ that was not really a comedy — does she have comedy chops?” he said. “Can she hit these hard punchlines. … So we had her in to record an early version of the pilot, and she nailed it. She did all the jokes. She is this character and she has all this range.”

In looking for someone to voice Hailey, Bunje said, they wanted someone who could embody several different qualities with just her voice. “The Hailey character, there’s a real vulnerability, there’s a real relatability, and there’s a real likability. So we were kind of looking for that. Auli‘i, just from the audition, immediately hit those first three points on the head. She’s super likable, she’s got a great voice. She’s a great actress. She brings real heart to everything.”

The creators also praised her work ethic and creativity. Voice-over actors record their parts privately, and Cravalho would submit at least three different options at “different speeds, different intensities, different rhythms,” Stanton said. “Just knowing there’s all these different ways things can play, it gives us this awesome ability to be like ‘Yeah, that third one is what we were thinking,’ or ‘That second one is one we never thought of, but it’s so much better.’”

Comparing her experiences shooting “Moana” and “Hailey,” Cravalho said the main difference is that a series “moves so much quicker. Oftentimes I’m, like, really feeling a heartfelt line, and they were like, ‘That’s beautiful, can you please say it a bit quicker, because we only have 20 minutes to tell this story.’”

Everything was done on Zoom except the final recording session of the season, she said, which turned into a celebration of sorts. “We all exchanged hugs, and it was like, ‘Omigosh, this is so nice.’ We finally reached the new, new normal,” she said. “I got to see them laugh at my takes. That made me feel really good, because usually all I got was silence.”

“Truthfully, voice acting is kind of my first love,” she said. “The fact that that’s the medium I started with first, I also find it easiest. I can just go into a booth. I always take off my shoes. I’m wearing my own comfortable clothes. I don’t have to worry about what I’m doing with my hands or what I’m doing my face. I’m just right here with a mic and I’m just getting into character. … I make goofy faces, I’m jumping up and down to get myself into a higher energy mode. I find it so freeing and so fun just to tell stories like that.”

Stage dreams

With all of her accomplishments on film and voice acting, Cravalho hopes also to add more stage acting to her experience. Earlier this year, she appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version of “Sunset Boulevard” and found her performance lacking.

“Honestly, I was not great,” she said. “And I realized that part of being great is that you have to be embarrassed, and not be great for at least a few times. It’s soul-crushing. I forgot a line on stage, and there was nothing. My head was like a white box — nothing in there! — and I felt like I was going to die. But you don’t. You move on.”

As to the future, some of Cravalho’s goals have endured through the years. While singing in glee club and church in Mililani, she attended Kamehameha Schools and had plans to study environmental sciences in college, getting accepted to Columbia University in New York City. But she’s postponed matriculating so many times that she will have to reapply.

In the meantime, she’s learning the ropes of life in Hollywood, doing whatever it takes to land roles. At this point, that chiefly means working with her representatives to find good roles, going on a lot of auditions and dealing with rejection.

“I’m not at that point in my career yet where I can say, like, OK, I can take this direct offer,” she said. “It’s worth it. I’m trying to enjoy the process of auditioning, and when it works out I put my whole heart in this project.”

In fulfilling the Times’ prophecy, she has landed a string of roles that follow along the lines of female empowerment and being true to oneself. In the Netflix film “All Together Now,” she plays a homeless teen aspiring to get into a college drama program. In Paramount Movies’ upcoming musical “Mean Girls,” she’ll appear as Janis, the caustic Goth who helps the newbie Cady navigate the cool crowd in high school. In “The Power,” now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, she’s one of several young women who acquire the ability to generate and transmit tremendous electrical impulses through their hands.

“I’ve been fortunate to play young women of color who want to change the world around them and aren’t afraid to be that change as well,” she said. “Yes, I give voice and life to them, but they also inspire me in return.”