Samantha Grecchi

Samantha Grecchi was born on August 18, 1994 in Schomberg, Ontario, Canada. She is the eldest of four siblings and has two sisters named Taylor and Hailey, and a younger brother named Nicholas. Her eldest sibling Taylor is almost a decade younger than her. When she was six years old, her mother, needing a break from the "rambunctious" kid on Saturdays, enrolled her into a dance class at the Performing Dance Arts studio in Vaughan, Ontario. She hated it, but her mother told her to finish the year, and by the end of the year, she fell in love with dancing and willingly signed up for another year.

She moved to Art and Soul Dance Company in Kleinburg, Ontario when she was about 10 years old. She is equally fond of Jazz and Acro dance. She had a hard time in elementary school and faced bullying in high school, which is why she looked forward to the dance class and it eventually became her escape route from harsh realities. She would love to learn to speak Italian to be able to communicate better with her grandparents, but cannot speak any other language than English right now. She loves pets and has two dogs: one little Maltese-Pomeranian mix named Ben and another big Rottweiler named Bear. According to her, she has a really bad shopping addiction.

She is in a longtime relationship with a guy named Nick Gray and often posts pictures together on her Instagram. Her boyfriend also has a dog named Kingston.

Starting her dancing career at the age of six, Samantha Grecchi went through extensive training in Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Acro, Hip-Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary and Modern dance under professional choreographers. Determined to make it big in the field, she began participating in several dance competitions across Canada and the US since she was very young. She helped Canada win the Bronze medal in the World Championships of Dance in Germany. She was still in school and was just turning 16 when she auditioned for the role of Stephanie for Family Channel’s upcoming TV show 'The Next Step' after the team came to Art and Soul Dance Company, where she was dancing at the time. She was selected for the pilot episode, but after the series was picked up by the channel, she had to audition all over again for almost about a year before being officially chosen to play Stephanie.

Her competitive dance career had come to an end by the time she was 16, so she tried her luck in acting and became famous for portraying the role after the series went on air in 2013. While shooting for the series, she took a few side jobs, including one at Aldo, a shoe company, and also taught dance at two studios. She later opened her own dance studio, Epic Dance Company, in late 2016.

Samantha Grecchi didn't actually addition for a specific role as the characters were not finalized at the time of the audition. As a result, the character of Stephanie was built around her own character and shares a lot of similarities with her. According to her, apart from their shared love for dancing, both are outspoken, outgoing, and hardworking, and are also loyal friends. However, while Stephanie can be harsh, hurtful – and even mean sometimes – while speaking her mind, she always considers other peoples' feelings before blurting out something. In fact, she sometimes feels so bad being mean to Michelle, another lead character, that she hugs and kisses her as soon as the shoot is over. Interestingly, it was her mother who first gave her the news that she was selected for the role of Stephanie, but she had first asked her how she would feel if she didn't get the role, which made her burst into tears.