Tam High Soph to Perform in Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC

Emily Anderson has been on stage since she was little, and now she’s set to jump onto one of the biggest stages in the world.

Anderson, a 15-year-old sophomore, has been chosen to perform in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, singing and dancing the parade’s opening number to mark its 85th anniversary.

Anderson was chosen as an alum of Stagedoor Manor, a performance arts training center for youth in upstate New York where she’s spent parts of the past two summers. She was one of 140 Stagedoor performers chosen out of more than 400 applicants to perform in the parade.

“I was not expecting to get in, so when they called, I was so excited,” Anderson said. “I was so happy.”

After the opening, the students will make their way to the top of the parade route and march the entire length of the parade, eventually escorting Santa Claus into Herald Square for the NBC national telecast's finale.

Anderson has been involved in the performing arts since she was very young. She sang started with singing and was in the chorus at . She’s participated in the Tam’s in each of her first two years of school.

Anderson said the experience at Stagedoor has been a huge source of growth for her as a performer, as classes on all aspects of theater are mixed with being cast in a show that is one of more than a dozen plays performed at the end of the three-week camp.

At Stagedoor this past summer, Anderson played the role of Treva in a production of Gulf View Drive.

Stagedoor alums include Natalie Portmand, Zach Braff, Mandy Moore and Robert Downey, Jr.

Anderson, her parents Steve and Nadine and her younger sister head to New York on Sunday, and plan to have Thanksgiving dinner with some family friends in New Jersey.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Anderson said.

The 411: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade airs nationally on NBC from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, Nov. 24.