Date of Birth

1 December 1996, Oakland, California, USA

Birth Name

Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman

Nickname

Daya
Z

Height

5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Mini Biography

Zendaya (which means "to give thanks" in the language of Shona) is an American actress and singer born in Oakland, California. She began her career appearing as a child model working for Macy's, Mervyns and Old Navy. She was a backup dancer before gaining prominence for her role as Rocky Blue on the Disney Channel sitcom Shake It Up (2010) which also includes Bella Thorne, Kenton Duty and Roshon Fegan. Zendaya was a contestant on the sixteenth season of the competition series Dancing with the Stars. She went on to produce and star as K.C. Cooper in the Disney Channel sitcom K.C. Undercover (2015) She made her film breakthrough in 2017, starring as Michelle "MJ" Jones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and as Anne Wheeler in the musical drama film The Greatest Showman (2017) alongside actors such as Tom Holland, Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. Besides acting, singing and dancing she is an ambassador for Convoy of Hope. She has written a book, launched her own clothing line (Daya by Zendaya) and proved herself to be a great role model for young girls all around the world.

Trivia

• Attended Oakland School for the Arts and had to leave, to move to LA when she got the role of "Rocky Blue" on Shake It Up (2010).
• Is one of the back-up dancers in the Sears Arrive music video, featuring Selena Gomez.
• Has been seen in the Kidz Bop music video "Hot N Cold".
• She had a Giant Schnauzer named Midnight, who passed away in October 2015. She now has a Miniature Schnauzer named Noon.
• She danced with Future Shock Oakland for three years.
• Her father is African-American. His family is from Arkansas. Her mother, who is white, has German, Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry.
• Favorite TV Show: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
• Favorite singer is Michael Jackson.
• If she didn't become an actress she would've been a teacher like her parents or a basketball player.
• Famously wore faux dreads with her Vivienne Westwood gown to the Oscars.
• A Barbie doll was made of the look she wore to the Oscars, but it was not made for public sale as it was originally reported to be.
• Kind of, sort of was not told what film she was auditioning for when she tested for a role in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" until after she got accepted, so during the audition she presumed it was just some random high school comedy thing.She wasn't supposed to know that the script pages that they were reading were for Spider-Man, but did find out that it was because she has good agents. Though she didn't know what role she was auditioning for; She just thought it was "Girl in Spider-Man movie." She didn't really know what character or what kind of character they would be. Right before the screen test, they were kind of saying, "Okay, these are the characters that we're reading for" ... MJ being one of them. And Zendaya was like, "Oh, that would be so cool.".
• Passed on the role of Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), feeling the role wasn't a big enough. The role then went to other contender Alexandra Shipp, who also replaced Zendaya as the role of Aaliyah in Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B (2014).
• Originally attached to star as Aaliyah in the Lifetime TV movie Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B (2014) but ended up dropping out of the project, according to her, due to the lack of production value, complications with the music rights, and it not being handled delicately considering the situation (Aaliyah's family disapproval of the making of the film). Negatively received, she also faced massive backlash from the fans on social media to her casting.
• Screen-tested for the role of Alita in Alita: Battle Angel (2019).
• Gets her height from her parents. Her father is 6'2 and her mother is even taller at 6'4.
• Her name means "giving thanks" in the language of the African Shona tribe.
• Best friends with Hunter Schafer.
• As of 2020, she is the youngest winner of an Emmy in the category Best Actress in a Drama Series. Just the previous year Jodie Comer had broken Lindsay Wagner's record from 1977.

Trademarks:

• Athletic build
  

Quotes

• If I could have a Dancing with the Stars (2005) partner, it would be Michael Jackson, but since I can't any more - sadly - it would be Roshon Fegan.
• This is so beautiful... doing and making positive programming for young people is so important to me, and I will keep doing it. To all the parents out there, thank you for allowing me to be a role model for your children. I really, really do not take that for granted.