Nene Royal, 16, will voice Disney's 16-year-old Billie in Thailand, with 10 brand deals already announced

Nene Royal, the 16-year-old rock singer from Phuket who won America's Got Talent, will be the Thai voice of Billie, the lead character of Disney's animated film Hexed. Thai outlets reported the casting on October 6, 2026. The Thai-language version opens in cinemas on November 26, and Billie is 16 too.

A role that fits her age

Nene, whose full name is Rattikarn Amloy, told TNN that her first voice-acting job in a major Disney animation was a new experience. "I was both pleased and very excited. Hexed is a huge Disney animation and getting to be the Thai voice of Billie, one of the main characters, is a new experience," she said.

She gave a practical reason for the fit. "Because Billie is the same age as me, 16, I feel I can relate to her very well," she said. The part is new for her in another way. "Conveying all of the character’s emotions, thoughts and personality through my own voice is something I have never done before," she told Thai media, according to The Nation.

Hexed comes from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the studio behind Frozen and Zootopia. Billie is a teenager who discovers magical abilities and accidentally unleashes them, which carries her from ordinary suburban life into Hexe, the world of witches. There she teams up with her cautious mother, Alice, and the two uncover a family secret.

In the English-language original, Hailee Steinfeld voices Billie and Rashida Jones voices Alice. The Thai dub will screen alongside the English version, according to The Thaiger.

From a night market in Phuket to a $1 million prize

The casting comes less than two weeks after the win that made her name. According to the Bangkok Post, Nene prevailed over nine other contestants in online fan voting and took the $1 million first prize of America's Got Talent (AGT), the NBC talent show, in its 2026 season. Geno Ploeger came second and the act Hundred Fingers third.

She became the first Thai contestant to win it. The result was announced live on the night of Wednesday, September 23, 2026, US time, minutes before 10am on Thursday in Thailand, after she had performed with the American band Linkin Park.

Before that she was a busker. The Bangkok Post reports that she had played guitar since the age of seven, teaching herself from online videos, and was known in Phuket for playing rock and metal covers at the Naka Weekend Market with her bands Ozone and Miniheart.

For the live shows she wore a Thai-inspired costume that blended Phuket tradition with a rock look. The Bangkok Post read it as a way of carrying Thai identity, craftsmanship and beauty to an international audience.

Her name reached the world through a video posted on the AGT channel on July 8, 2026, of her audition with "Zombie" by The Cranberries. Judge Mel B later gave her a Golden Buzzer for a live performance of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", which sent her straight to the grand final. There, on September 23, she played "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes.

The school and the market back home

While her final performance aired, the watch party at Kajonkiet International School Phuket, where she studies on a music scholarship, filled up. Principal Gareth Eynon told AFP the moment she was crowned was \"electric\". \"Literally everyone from age two to 18 was there cheering her on,\" he said. Eynon described her as \"so talented, yet she’s so humble\", and said she is just as happy helping less experienced student musicians as standing at the front of the stage. He added that he did not know if or when she would be back in school. The Phuket night market where she played hailed the win in a social media post. \"This victory is a beautiful reminder of what can happen when someone truly gives everything to their dream,\" it said.

What Thai audiences were watching

The Bangkok Post published an analysis by Wisesight Thailand, a social-listening firm, that gives the size of the attention. Its Zocial Eye platform recorded 86,084 messages about Nene between July 6 and September 28, 2026, which generated more than 105 million engagements in Thailand.

The curve rose in steps. The "Zombie" audition was the first spark, with 9.4 million engagements. The Bangkok Post notes that the song reached across generations, from older rock fans who knew the original to younger viewers discovering the genre. The audition weeks, July 6 to 19, produced 9,744 messages and 27.2 million engagements. The days after the Golden Buzzer, August 24 to 30, produced 18,295 messages and 21.9 million. Championship week, September 21 to 27, was the peak with 35,963 messages and 31.5 million.

The finding that stands out is about what people shared. According to Wisesight, the biggest driver of engagement was not the championship itself but her personal story. Content about her journey as a Phuket street musician drew 26.2 million engagements from 11,604 messages, the highest of the five themes the firm identified.

Users passed around videos of her busking at the night market and stories about her father, Narong, a woodcarver who had supported her music.

The numbers carry caveats. They are a vendor's own count of reactions to posts, not a count of people, and they cover Thai-language conversation tracked by one platform. Of the 86,084 messages, 42,609, or 49.5%, were classified as positive, and those generated more than 51.2 million engagements.

Support was organised too. Wisesight counted 5,033 messages, with 6.61 million engagements, that urged eligible Thai residents in the United States to vote, because voting was restricted geographically.

What a million dollars is worth

The headline prize is smaller in practice. According to the encyclopedia entry on Nene, which cites press reports, the $1 million is paid as an annuity of $25,000 per year for 40 years, or as a single payment of the annuity's present value, which the entry puts at about $300,000. It says she took the single payment, estimated between $300,000 and $430,000.

That figure comes from a reference page, not from AGT, and the range is an estimate. It still frames the Thai deals that followed: the money that arrives fastest after a talent-show win often comes from advertisers, not from the prize.

Ten brands in ten days

The advertising market moved quickly. The Nation counted at least 10 Thai brands that announced partnerships with Nene within 10 days of her win on September 24, 2026: six in beauty and personal care, four in food and drink.

The beauty names include the cosmetics brand BSC, the skincare and sunscreen brand MizuMi, which called her its first "MizuMi Muse", and the haircare brand Pantene, whose campaign line reads "HAIR SO STRONG, YOU CAN ROCK THE WORLD". The food and drink side includes the seaweed snack Tao Kae Noi, with the slogan "CRISP IT. ROCK IT.", and Dutch Mill's drinking yoghurt line.

The Nation notes that the campaigns lean on her image of confidence, individuality and success on an international stage. These are brand announcements, so they show what advertisers want to buy, not what Nene has agreed to do beyond the campaigns they describe. Details of the bakery brand Farmhouse Royal's collaboration were still to be revealed when The Nation published. The Nation also lists Tao Kae Noi, Voiz and Mistine among the food and cosmetics names, each with its own campaign line.

The Disney role is a different kind of attention. A dub needs a voice, and this one belongs to a singer whom Thai audiences have followed online since the July auditions.

A Thai name behind the film

The Thai thread in Hexed is not limited to the dub. The Thaiger reports that director Fawn Veerasunthorn is Thai and previously worked on Raya and the Last Dragon. She directs with Jason Hand, with Josie Trinidad as co-director and Roy Conli as producer.

Nene's first film role will be a voice with no face attached, for a singer whose audience first met her through a guitar and a stage.

The dated stops are already set. Before the film, the entry on her says she is booked to open for the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold at their October 13, 2026 show in Singapore. Hexed opens in Thai cinemas on November 26, 2026, and that is when Thai viewers can hear whether a voice they know from a night market and a televised final can carry a witch story.