Hollywood has officially discovered the beach again, which means only one thing: Baywatch is back again, because in Hollywood, no idea ever truly dies. It just gets a reboot, a sequel, or a slightly shinier version with TikTok stars. Enter Olivia Dunne.
Yes, the former Louisiana State University gymnastics superstar, social media queen, and NIL money magnet is now stepping into acting, and not just any acting role, she’s heading straight to the beach to play Grace, a “highly enthusiastic junior lifeguard.”
On Thursday, March 12, Fox TV and Deadline announced in a joint Instagram post with the Baywatch Instagram page that Dunne is joining the latest reboot of the franchise.
It’s no surprise that the social media influencer will be making her professional acting debut on the show during the 2026-2027 season, as she recently told PEOPLE that she has enjoyed taking acting classes since retiring from gymnastics in April 2025.
“It’s something I’ve been passionate about for quite some time,” she told PEOPLE earlier this month. “I was interested in doing that at LSU, but sports are your top priority when you’re a student-athlete at school; school and sports, but really gymnastics was my main focus.”
“And now that I’m done with school, I have more time to lean into the acting stuff and the creative side of things,” she continued.
The Baywatch reboot will also star Brooks Nader, who will be playing series regular Selene, and Stephen Amell, who will star as Hobie Buchannon.
Now Dunne gets to join the tradition.
Instead of flipping on the balance beam, she’ll be sprinting across beaches and possibly pulling people out of suspiciously calm waves. If she throws in a gymnastics flip while rescuing someone, the show might break the internet.
Either way, this is clearly the start of Dunne’s next chapter. Gymnast, Influencer and now actress.
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