Zendaya, the 22 year-old star of HBO’s Euphoriaand the newest set of Spider-Man movies, has been on the path toward stardom since she was 13. That was 2010, and young Zendaya Coleman was starring next to fellow future star Bella Thorne in the Disney Channel’s Shake It Up!
Whether you’re a day-one fan or a recent convert thanks to her recent work, here are some things you may not know about Zendaya
Before landing roles in Disney original movies, 12-year-old Zendaya appeared in a Sears commercial with Selena Gomez and a few other kids who would also go on to become Disney stars.
In 2019, when asked to define what “self-care” means to her, Zendaya told InStyle that she finds it hard to sit and meditate, so instead she rewatches the “Harry Potter” films.
Zendaya’s bubbly personality shines through in her social-media posts, interviews, and in her non-“Euphoria” performances, but the former Disney star was apparently not always so great at engaging with others.
What got people excited about Zendaya during the Oscars controversy was how careful and measured her response was: She explained exactly what made Rancic’s remark so offensive and how fraught the history of talking about black women’s hair is, and then ended on a note of uplift.
She often talks about how she feels she has a responsibility to help represent the black community onscreen. So when Disney offered Zendaya the starring role in a new show when she was 16, she says, she insisted that her character have a black family.
Zendaya officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2017 as Michelle Jones in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” but even before that, she had a history with the friendly neighborhood spider. In a 2017 interview with “Good Morning America,” she revealed that her very first date was to see the hero on the big screen.