Zendaya Coleman Biography

Zendaya is a singer and actress from California who broke out in 2010 as Rocky Blue in the Disney Channel series Shake It Up. Raised around the theater — her mom worked for the California Shakespeare Theater in Oakland — Zendaya was beginning a modeling career when she was cast with Bella Thorne to co-star as high school friends trying to become professional dancers. The show lasted three seasons, during which Zendaya launched her career as a singer.  By the end of the show, she’d released her first album and had a hit single with “Replay.” She also appeared in the 16th season of Dancing With the Stars (2013), the youngest contestant in the show’s history; she finished second.