He lives with his parents and loves Jesus. Meet Gen Alpha's new heartthrob.

Young girls are pledging their allegiance to Malachi Barton.

I saw it with my own eyes at the Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide tour last summer: tweens and teens yelling "Malachi!" like their lives depended on it while waving pink American flags with his face on them. That was before he even stepped onstage.

"A couple of those, yeah," Barton tells Yahoo in our latest Generation Now interview, laughing when I mention the flags.

"Honestly, I still don't look at myself as that person," he adds.

But he is. At 19, Barton is Disney's latest heartthrob — like the Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron before him — and the company is banking on him. He's starring in a trifecta of key projects: vampire Victor in the Zombies movies and aspiring musician Fletch in the Camp Rock revival film, both on Disney Channel, and now warlock Jake in the Coven Academy series on Freeform. He's also headlining the next leg of the Descendants/Zombies/Camp Rock: Worlds Collide tour , and surprise-released his first single, "Stay for the Credits."

Malachi mania is not merely a Mouse House push. Variety honored him with its Rising Star Award at the 2026 Power of Young Hollywood event in August.

As his star soars, Barton still lives with his parents, Felicia Barton, an American Idol Season 8 alum, and tour manager Loren Barton. He says praying is his "No. 1 outlet," though he's also into surfing, urbexing (aka urban exploration), his car and watches. He surrounds himself with friends who will tell him to "get off [his] high horse."

The bigger his profile gets, the more his personal life has become part of the conversation too. And with Coven Academy premiering Oct. 1 on Freeform (Disney+ and Hulu the next day), Barton is entering yet another big chapter.

Barton seems intent on keeping one foot in normal life even as the other lands on increasingly bigger stages. Here, he talks about navigating both.

I saw full Malachi mania last summer when I took my daughter to the 'Worlds Collide' tour. I've been at this a long time, but I was stunned by the reaction your presence created. What's it like to be that person to people?

It's very weird and very crazy. I will be scrolling on TikTok and a TikTok Live will pop up and this girl will have a cardboard cutout of me behind her. And I'm like, OK, that's not weird at all, but also really cute [ laughs ].

I'm super grateful, that's all I can really say. I'm so grateful to be in a position where I can have a voice to so many young kids and be able to spread kindness and the light of Jesus in all things. Having that platform is super, super rad. I'm so grateful.

You're close with your family, and your faith is obviously important to you. How do those things keep you grounded?

Those are the two things, 100%. I have the best parents ever. Since I was a little, little dude, I've been in baseball and had outlets and other things outside of the business, because this business is crazy. So much fun [too], but it's also wild and up and down. You've got to have your other outlets. My No. 1 outlet is the man upstairs. Those are my grounding factors, for sure.

What's your living situation these days? Do you still live with your parents?

I do — I live with my parents. I love my parents. I love living with them. I bought my first house a little while ago, so that's been really, really wild. I feel like I'm never home anyway. My living situation is literally all over the place. First, we're in Vancouver [shooting Coven Academy ], next we're in New Zealand [for Zombies 5 ]. It's so cool because I get to travel around and see so many different parts of the world. But, yeah, I live with my parents, and we have my two little dogs, Artex and Ranger, and my car.

A BMW M3 . It's outside right now. It's my baby.

You graduated from high school last year. Did you have a traditional-ish school experience? Your graduation looked pretty normal.

I did online [school]. I went to a public elementary school for second and third grade, and then I did online [learning] for literally as long as I can remember. But I feel like I got the high school experience because all of my friends — my tight group of people — aren't in the business, and they were all in high school. So I was doing my school at home, but then I was going to all the football games, the homecomings, the proms, the formals. The teachers knew my name. I was kind of an honorary member of their school.

Honestly, I give a lot of [credit] to my friends because they've grounded me. If I come fresh off a set, they will check me very, very quickly and be like, "Get off your high horse." That's the best thing. So I got a little bit of high school, and my graduation was completely normal.

You experienced the gossip side of fame this summer. How do you deal with that?

I think it's always going to be there. You can't avoid it at all. People will always have an opinion, and that is how this business is. That's what you're signing up for. But the thing I remind myself is that the only opinion that matters is God's. People will continue to speculate and say certain things, and that's OK. They have freedom of speech. They can say whatever they want to. I just do my own thing: stay in my lane, stay at the beach, stay in my car and vibe out.

Your schedule this year is insane: a show, TV movies and a tour. How do you spend a day when you're off the clock?

I literally surf. I'm always in the ocean, and I love [it] so much. The ocean is the most physically and mentally healing place on the planet. That's what I do on my days off. Also, I'm getting into urbexing, which is exploring abandoned places. That's a new thing.

I went to this abandoned golf course in California. It was really cool. I can't expose the location because then it's not going to be abandoned or underground [ laughs ]. You gotta gatekeep.

Are you ever worried someone is going to come chasing after you? I'd be too nervous.

That's what makes it fun, though. The fact that you're not able to do it makes it so much fun.

You're the tween crush now. Who was your celebrity crush when you were younger?

Oh my goodness. … I have been a Jessica Alba guy for a very, very long time. Through and through. Love you, Jessica. I'm trying to think of my tween crush, though — I was always a big Madelyn Cline guy. I loved Outer Banks . And then Florence Pugh — come on, big shout-out. Come on, y'all know ball. Let's go, Florence Pugh, love you. I love all of them.

What's the last thing you binge-watched?

Coven Academy . We got that encrypted link — [the one that's like] Yo, don't send this to anybody. The FBI shows up to your house if you try and screen-record it . I sat down on my couch and binge-watched it in literally the shortest amount of time you can watch it. I just sat there and banged it out.

Is your email address also a giant watermark across the screen while you watch, like it is for me?

Yes, but honestly, the show is so good I just looked past it the whole time [ laughs ].

What is your go-to late-night snack after a night out? Full order.

Taco Bell — 100%. Taco Bell is banger. My order is the chicken Cantina quesadilla, but that's not in season right now. So the chicken Cantina burrito is what is in season at the moment. And then a Mexican pizza. I feel like that's the vibe. Taco Bell all the way — or, if a Chipotle's open, there we go.

How many tattoos do you have, and what do they mean?

I think I have eight or so. This one right here is [based on] Proverbs 27:21 , which says: "The purity of gold and silver is tested by putting it in the fire, and the purity of the human heart is tested by giving it a little fame." That's a scripture that my grandpa texted me a lot. Then I have "family" in Morse code , matching with my parents. I've got Jesus being taken off the cross on my rib, and then I have a sword on my stomach. My first tattoo was three little crosses on my ankle. I have Joshua 1:9 tattooed on my back. I have my parents' names in a cross on my back, and the coordinates to my favorite surf spot, that's matching with my best friend, on my [back].

Now I just need to get a BMW tattoo somewhere. I'll get it on my lower back. It's gonna be lit.

Does this point in your career feel like something you imagined, or has it surpassed what you pictured?

Honestly, I didn't have any expectations going into this. With anything that I do, I just go in like, all right, what happens, happens. You can't control everything. You can't. The world's going to happen how it's going to happen, and you've just got to be hands-off. That's how you live more peacefully, in my opinion.

So I went hands-off, and it blew the expectations that I didn't have out of the water. I never in a million years would have thought — if I were to tell my 8-year-old self, signing his first Disney contract, that this was going to be the case [11, 12 years] later — I never would have believed it. Mind blown.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.