Actress and musician Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman was born in the United States on September 1, 1996. Known by her stage name Zendaya, she has won several awards, including two Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy. She was listed as one of the top 100 important persons in the world by Time magazine in 2022.
Her first TV appearance was in 2010 on the well-liked tween comedy series Shake It Up, and in 2013 she self-released her debut album of the same name. Zendaya moved from television to cinema in 2017 with Spider-Man: Homecoming and The Greatest Showman, following another Disney series, K.C. Undercover, before shedding her innocent persona with the drama Euphoria.
Quick Facts
- Birth Name: Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman
- Birth Date: September 1, 1996
- Birth Place: California, United States
- Gender: Female
- Career: Actress, Model, Singer
- Most Known For: 2017 saw her make her big screen debut in the superhero movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. She went on to star in the sequels. Her performances in the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), the romance drama Malcolm & Marie (2021), the science fiction epic Dune (2021), and the HBO adolescent drama series Euphoria are also well-known.
Early Life
The instructors Claire Stoermer and Kazembe Ajamu Coleman welcomed Zendaya into the world on September 1, 1996, in Oakland, California. Her mother is of German and Scottish descent, while her father is African-American and descended from Nigeria. Zendaya has five elder siblings.
Her name is derived from the Shona name Tendai, which means “to give thanks”. Her mother taught for twenty years at Fruitvale Elementary School, where she went. She had done a play there for Black History Month when she was six years old, along with two of her school buddies.
Zendaya, an actress and singer, has a history in theatre. She spent a lot of her early years hanging around the California Shakespeare Theatre since her father was a stage manager. She participated in several of its shows and received training in its youth program.
While attending Oakland School for the Arts, Zendaya secured several parts in regional theatre shows. She further refined her skills at the Cal Shakes Conservatory and the American Conservatory Theatre. Zendaya was also interested in dancing. She learned hula dancing at the Academy of Hawaiian Arts and danced for several years with the Future Shock Oakland group.
She performed as Little Ti Moune in Once on This Island at the Berkeley Playhouse and as Joe, a part originally intended to be male, in Caroline, or Change at TheaterWorks in Palo Alto. She has appeared in many plays of William Shakespeare, according to her stage credentials.
She participated in a Twelfth Night performance, played Celia in As You Like It, and portrayed Lady Anne in Richard III. In seventh grade, Zendaya’s family relocated to Los Angeles. While pursuing a career in acting, she graduated from Oak Park High School in 2015.
Early Career With Disney and Musical Career
Zendaya’s career took off in 2010 when Shake It Up debuted on the Disney Channel. In an interview with McClatchy-Tribune Business News, the then-14-year-old performer characterized the program as “a buddy comedy about two best friends who dream of becoming professional dancers and finally get their chance when they get to audition for their favourite show.”
To their youthful fan base, Zendaya and Bella Thorne, her co-star, became become tween idols. Their two identities were so well-known that they even spawned their own fashion line. The songs they played on the show, such as “Something to Dance For,” were successful downloads with their target audience.
Zendaya made her movie debut in the 2012 Disney Channel Original Film Frenemies. “Something to Dance For” was made available as a Live 2 Dance promotional single on February 29, 2012. Three more songs, “Made in Japan,” “Same Heart,” and “Fashion Is My Kryptonite,” which were released as promotional singles, were also recorded by Zendaya for the soundtrack.
Shake It Up received a third and final season renewal in June 2012. She became a signatory to Hollywood Records on September 2, 2012. She had two performances at the Operation Smile fundraiser and the Teen Music Festival in October.
One of the famous people competing in season 16 of Dancing with the Stars was Zendaya. She entered the competition at the youngest age ever, sixteen, and was followed by Willow Shields, who entered at fourteen, in season twenty. Professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy was paired with her. The pair came up second to Derek Hough and Kellie Pickler in the May competition.
‘Zapped,’ ‘K.C. Undercover’ and Project Runway
She was cast as 16-year-old Zoey Stevens, the protagonist of the Disney Channel Original Film Zapped, whose “smart phone begins to somehow control all the boys around her” in August 2013. Zendaya was chosen as Elvis Duran’s Artist of the Month in November 2013 and went on to perform her single “Replay” live on NBC’s Today show.
She was chosen to play the main role in Super Awesome Katy, a Disney Channel pilot, that same month. Disney Channel gave it a series order in May 2014; Zendaya’s character was renamed K.C. Cooper from Katy Cooper, and the show was given the new title K.C. Undercover.
In addition to deciding on a number of crucial aspects of the character’s characteristics, Zendaya had a say in the retitling of the series and the renaming of her role. On January 18, 2015, K.C. Undercover made its Disney Channel debut. In May of the same year, the show was given a second season renewal.
Zendaya served as a guest judge on a Project Runway: Under the Gunn episode in 2014. The task of designing an ensemble for Zendaya to wear at a forthcoming concert was presented to the competing designers in this episode.
Following Giuliana Rancic’s February 2015 remark about Zendaya’s hair smelling like “patchouli oil” and “weed” during the 87th Academy Awards, and Zendaya’s swift response, Mattel honoured Zendaya with a Barbie that mimicked her Oscars appearance. Zendaya made an appearance as a guest judge on the 15th season of Project Runway’s season finale in December of 2016.
Transition to Adult Roles and Subsequent Breakthrough
In July 2017, she made her big screen debut as Michelle in the blockbuster movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. The role was characterized as “very dry, awkward, intellectual” by Zendaya. Michelle’s eccentricity and uniqueness, she continued, were “refreshing” since many young people, especially young women, could identify with it. With a first-week total of $117 million, the movie topped the box office.
Zendaya costarred in the original musical The Greatest Showman in December 2017. When interracial relationships were considered socially unacceptable, she played a trapeze performer who develops feelings for Zac Efron’s character.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman lauded her and Efron’s connection. Zendaya provided the voice of the yeti Meechee in the Warner Bros. animated picture Smallfoot, which was released in September 2018. She contributed two more vocals to the soundtrack. Reviews of the movie were favourable.
Zendaya debuted as Rue, the series’ 17-year-old drug addict and narrator, in the HBO drama series Euphoria, which was adapted from the Israeli series of the same name. Her performance won praise, and the show debuted on June 16, 2019, to a favourable review.
Zendaya became the youngest recipient of the Primetime Emmy Award when she took home the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series trophy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards. She played MJ once more in Spider-Man: Far from Home in 2019. The movie was a financial hit, finishing as the year’s fourth-highest earning picture. Zendaya featured in Malcolm & Marie in 2021; the movie was shot in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic’s initial stages.
Her next role was as Lola Bunny’s voice actor in Space Jam: A New Legacy. As a fan of the first movie and because she was eager to work with Coogler, Zendaya accepted Coogler’s offer to feature in it. Zendaya, who played a youngster in her debut movie, found inspiration for the part from her family’s passion for basketball.
Then, in the first of two parts of Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction picture Dune, which was adapted on the 1965 novel of the same name, Zendaya portrayed Chani.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Zendaya played the character of Michael Jackson once more. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com appreciated Zendaya’s performance of Michael Jackson’s “emotional final beats” and the relationship between her and Tom Holland.
She continued to get praise for her portrayal of Rue, and the second season of Euphoria led to four nominations for the Emmy Awards.
Her nomination as an executive producer for Outstanding Drama Series made her the youngest woman ever nominated for producing, and her nomination for Lead Actress in a Drama made her the youngest two-time nominee in Emmy history. Her literary contributions to the show’s soundtrack also earned her two nominations for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
At the 80th Golden Globe Awards in 2023, Zendaya took up the Best Actress – Television Series Drama trophy and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in Euphoria.
Personal Life
Zendaya has a condo in Brooklyn and a house in Los Angeles. “My main reason for being a vegetarian is that I’m an animal lover—definitely not because I love vegetables,” the vegetarian stated. As of November 2021, Zendaya and Tom Holland, her co-star in Spider-Man, became a couple. Zendaya published her first book, Between U and Me, in 2013 and offered guidance to her younger admirers.
