Zendaya

• 1. Introduction

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  At 24, Zendaya became the youngest person ever to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She took the prize at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2020, for her work in the HBO series Euphoria. Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman is an American actress and singer. The films she has led as an actress have grossed more than $3.9 billion worldwide. Her career, though, started with a child model's bookings and a backup dancer's spot in a commercial. How did a reserved girl from Oakland get from there to here? What did Disney Channel teach her, and what did she have to leave behind? And how did a pop singer, a fashion ambassador and a franchise star turn out to be one person?

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• 2. Oakland Roots

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  Zendaya was born on the 1st of September 1996 in Oakland, California. Her first name comes from the Shona name Tendai. Both of her parents were teachers. Her father, Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, is African-American with Nigerian ancestry. Her mother, Claire Stoermer, has German and Scottish ancestry. She has five older half-siblings from her father's earlier relationships.

  Fruitvale Elementary School, where her mother taught, gave her a split personality of sorts. At home she was energetic and outgoing, but at school she was reserved and shy. Her parents had her repeat kindergarten to build her confidence.

  Her father's passion for basketball led to a spot on a local team. Zendaya lost interest, tried soccer and track, and lost interest in those as well. Then, at six, she and two friends performed a play at school for Black History Month. At eight she joined Future Shock Oakland, a hip-hop dance group, and performed with it for three years. She also spent two years dancing hula with the Academy of Hawaiian Arts.

  The California Shakespeare Theater became her classroom one summer, when her mother worked there as a house manager. Zendaya helped patrons find their seats and sold fundraising tickets, but the performances were what held her attention. Her first acting role was a silkworm in her school's production of James and the Giant Peach.

  At eleven she began attending Oakland School for the Arts and won parts in area theaters. At the Berkeley Playhouse she played Little Ti Moune in Once on This Island. In a TheaterWorks production of Caroline, or Change in Palo Alto, she played Joe, a role originally written for a male performer. By sixth grade she had played Lady Anne in Richard III and Celia in As You Like It, and had taken part in Twelfth Night.

  In seventh grade she and her father moved to a small apartment in downtown Los Angeles, while her mother stayed in Oakland. Looking back, she said her father "knew what I wanted more than anything in the world". She also said she "missed a lot of fun things while I was pursuing my dreams and it was difficult not being able to be with my mom and my dog". She graduated from Oak Park High School in 2015, the same year her second Disney Channel series reached the air.

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• 3. The Disney Years

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  Macy's, Mervyns and Old Navy were among the clients of Zendaya's first career, as a fashion model. She also danced backup in a Sears commercial alongside Disney star Selena Gomez. In 2009 she was a featured performer in the Kidz Bop video for a cover of Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold".

  In November 2009, Zendaya was one of 200 girls who auditioned for Shake It Up. The Disney Channel sitcom follows two teenage friends who get their big break on a local dance show. She auditioned for the role of CeCe Jones, which went to Bella Thorne, and was cast as Rocky Blue instead. Disney Channel senior vice president Judy Taylor called Zendaya "completely engaging" with a "great presence".

  The 7th of November 2010 brought the series premiere, which drew 6.2 million viewers. That made it Disney Channel's second highest-rated premiere ever. In 2011, Target stores launched a clothing line inspired by outfits worn by Zendaya and her castmates. In 2012 she made her film debut in Frenemies, a Disney Channel Original Movie in which she played an aspiring magazine editor. The third and final season of Shake It Up premiered in October 2012.

  The 16th season of Dancing with the Stars made Zendaya, at sixteen, the youngest contestant in the show's history at the time. Her partner was professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. They finished as runners-up to Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough.

  In 2014 she starred in the Disney Channel film Zapped, as a high school student whose phone can control the boys around her. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times wrote that she did not "seem to be even a little thrilled". He called the film "hastily written and structured".

  Disney next cast her as the lead in a pilot called Super Awesome Katy. The show was picked up in May 2014 under the new title K.C. Undercover, and her character was renamed from Katy Cooper to K.C. Cooper. Zendaya influenced both changes and decided several elements of the character's personality. The series premiered in January 2015 and ran until 2018.

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• 4. Pop Records and Duets

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  Swag It Out, a promotional independent single, appeared in 2011. The same year came Watch Me, a duet with Bella Thorne that peaked at number 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In February 2012, a promotional single called Something to Dance For was released for the soundtrack of Shake It Up's second season.

  She signed with Hollywood Records in 2012. Her self-titled debut album, Zendaya, followed on the 17th of September 2013. A pop and R&B record about heartbreak and love, it peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, Replay, climbed to number 40 on the Hot 100.

  In March 2015, the producer Timbaland confirmed that he was working with Zendaya on her second album. By then she had moved from Disney's label to Republic Records. In February 2016 she released Something New, featuring Chris Brown. It was her first official release since signing with Republic.

  Rewrite the Stars, her duet with Zac Efron, came from the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman in 2017. The song reached number 70 on the Hot 100 and went multi-platinum in various countries. She sang on two other tracks from the film, including The Greatest Show, which reached number 88.

  Labrinth is the collaborator who shaped her later musical work. They first worked together on All for Us, in the first season of Euphoria. In 2022, Zendaya co-wrote two songs for the second season, I'm Tired and Elliot's Song, and sang on the first of them. She also appears on The Feels, the opening track of Labrinth's third studio album, Ends & Begins, released in 2023.

  During the second weekend of Coachella 2023, she joined Labrinth for a surprise performance of All for Us and I'm Tired. It was her first live performance in eight years.

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• 5. Michelle and the Spider-Man Films

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  Zendaya wore no makeup to her screen test for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the choice carried through into production. She added her own touches to the character of Michelle, known as MJ, including a mug of strange herbal tea. She described Michelle as "very dry, awkward, intellectual". She found it "refreshing" to play someone "weird" and "different".

  Homecoming, released in 2017, was her feature film debut. The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian called her a "scene stealer". Stephanie Zacharek of Time praised her "delightfully sullen insouciance". The film grossed over $880 million worldwide, the sixth-highest total of 2017.

  The Greatest Showman, also from 2017, cast her as a trapeze artist who falls in love with Zac Efron's character. The story is set at a time when interracial relationships were socially taboo. Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised her on-screen chemistry with Efron. The Hollywood Reporter said she registered "strongest, bringing touching sensitivity to her handful of scenes".

  In September 2018, she voiced the yeti Meechee in Smallfoot, an animated Warner Bros. film. Reviews were generally positive, and critics singled out its musical numbers.

  Spider-Man: Far From Home brought Michelle back in 2019. Critic Christy Lemire called the performance "darkly alluring" and praised her "humorous, deadpan charm". Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter found her "appealing as well as funny". The film grossed over $1.1 billion, the fourth-highest total of 2019.

  No Way Home in 2021 gave Zendaya her third turn as Michelle. Brian Tallerico, writing for Roger Ebert's website, praised her chemistry with Tom Holland and her handling of the character's "emotional final beats". A fourth film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is set for 2026.

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• 6. Rue and Euphoria

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  The 16th of June 2019 was the premiere date of Euphoria, an HBO adaptation of an Israeli show of the same name. Zendaya played Rue Bennett, a 17-year-old drug addict who also narrates the series. Reception was generally favorable.

  Critics were struck by how far the role sat from her past. The Guardian wrote that she was "reinvented as the self-destructive, self-loathing Rue", in "a truly astonishing, mesmerising performance". Doreen St. Félix of The New Yorker wrote that it becomes "difficult, and then absolutely silly, to recall the pink outlines of her early career on the Disney Channel".

  Season 2 earned Zendaya four nominations at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2022. She became the youngest two-time nominee in Emmy history for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Her nomination as an executive producer for Outstanding Drama Series made her the youngest woman ever recognized in that category. Winning the lead actress award again made her the youngest two-time acting winner.

  At the 80th Golden Globe Awards in 2023, she won Best Actress , Television Series Drama. She also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the role. Her credits on the show include executive producer, for the specials and for season 2.

  In 2026, she reprised her role as Rue in the third season.

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• 7. Dune, Tennis, and Beyond

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  Malcolm & Marie was filmed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, under strict safety protocols and with a minimal crew. Zendaya starred in and produced the 2021 film, which was directed by Sam Levinson. Reviews were mixed. Richard Brody called her "the movie's only redeeming quality".

  Ryan Coogler approached her to voice Lola Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy, also in 2021. She accepted because of her admiration for him and her fondness for the original 1996 film. She grew up with the first Space Jam, and drew on her family's love of basketball for the performance.

  Denis Villeneuve's Dune, the first part of a two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel, cast her as Chani. Critic Glenn Kenny called her performance "better than apt". Brian Lowry of CNN wrote that her screen time was largely limited to "gauzy images" in the protagonist's visions.

  Tennis was how she got in shape for two 2024 films, Dune: Part Two and Challengers. During Dune: Part Two, she suffered heatstroke after not drinking enough water, citing a "fear of peeing myself". Vulture praised her "fierce, open-hearted performance". Polygon lauded her "economical" acting and called it a career best.

  Luca Guadagnino directed Challengers, with Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist alongside Zendaya, who also produced. She saw the role as a chance to abandon her earlier image and play a character closer to her own age. Her character is a former tennis prodigy who suffers a career-ending injury and becomes a coach. A critic for the New Statesman called the film "a brilliant showcase for Zendaya, whose on-screen magnetism has rarely been channelled so effectively". At the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in 2025, she was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture , Musical or Comedy.

  The Drama, a romantic drama with Robert Pattinson, is one of her 2026 releases. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three are also due that year. In March 2025, she was confirmed to star as Ronnie Spector, frontwoman of the Ronettes, in Be My Baby. The biopic is based on Spector's memoir, and Zendaya will produce. Before her death, Spector personally chose her for the role.

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• 8. Style, Causes, and Home

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  In August 2013, Zendaya published Between U and Me: How to Rock Your Tween Years with Style and Confidence. She wrote it to "help girls through the tougher parts of the tween years". Two years later she launched her first shoe collection, Daya, named after her childhood nickname. In November 2016 came the clothing line Daya by Zendaya, whose second collection was gender-fluid and offered a full range of sizes.

  Her brand partnerships have been wide. She has been the face of Beats Electronics, Material Girl, CoverGirl and Chi Hair Care, and has modeled for Michael Kors and Dolce & Gabbana. In October 2018 she became an ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger and co-designed the Tommy x Zendaya capsule collections, inspired by the 1970s. Her Paris and New York Fashion Week shows featured women of color, plus-size models and models up to seventy years old. Lancôme came in 2019, followed by Bulgari and Valentino in 2020, Louis Vuitton in 2023 and Rolex in October 2025.

  Fashion has brought its own honors. Net-a-Porter ranked her one of the best-dressed women of 2018. In November 2021 she became the youngest person ever to win the CFDA Fashion Icon award. In 2022, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Denis Villeneuve wrote of her in that issue: "Zendaya is the future. And there is nothing more comforting to me."

  In 2012 she became an ambassador for Convoy of Hope and encouraged fans to support Hurricane Sandy relief. In 2016 she celebrated her 20th birthday with a campaign to raise $50,000 for the group's Women's Empowerment Initiative. In July 2015 she visited South Africa with UNAIDS and held a fundraiser for the Ikageng charity in Soweto. When Malcolm & Marie was sold in September 2020, a portion of the proceeds went to Feeding America.

  In June 2020, she took part in the George Floyd protests. She temporarily lent her Instagram account to Patrisse Cullors to share anti-racism resources. In September 2020, she joined Michelle Obama's nonpartisan "When We All Vote" organization to urge fans to check their voter registration. In 2018 she teamed up with Google.org to fund a computer science curriculum at a community school in Oakland.

  She owns a house in Los Angeles and a condominium in Brooklyn. She is a vegetarian and once said, "My main reason for being a vegetarian is that I'm an animal lover". Zendaya acknowledged her relationship with her Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland publicly in November 2021. She later called the media attention "quite strange and weird and confusing and invasive". The couple moved into a £3m home in Holland's native London in 2023 and became engaged in December 2024.

  During the 32nd Actor Awards in March 2026, her longtime stylist Law Roach said the couple were secretly married. Fabricated images of a wedding ceremony then spread across social media. Zendaya had begun wearing a gold wedding band beneath her engagement ring before Roach's announcement.

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