Zendaya

Early life

Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman was born on September 1, 1996, in Oakland, California and is the only child of Claire Marie (Stoermer) and Kazembe Ajamu (born Samuel David Coleman), but has five older siblings on her father's side. Her father is African-American, with Arkansan roots; her mother is white, with German and Scottish ancestry. Zendaya has stated that her name means "to give thanks" in Shona, a Bantu language native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Zendaya grew as a performer in part at the nearby California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda where her mother works as the house manager in addition to training at the theater's student conservatory program. She appeared in numerous stage productions while she was attending Oakland School for the Arts, starring as Little Ti Moune in Once on This Island at the Berkeley Playhouse and the breakout role of the male character Joe in Caroline, or Change at Palo Alto's TheaterWorks.

Zendaya spent three years of dancing in a dance group called Future Shock Oakland. The group did hip hop and hula dances when she was eight.

She studied at the CalShakes Conservatory Program and at the American Conservatory Theater. Her other stage credits include William Shakespeare's Richard III, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It.

2009–13: Shake It Up and Zendaya

Zendaya began her professional career working as a fashion model for Macy's, Mervyns and Old Navy. She was featured in an iCarly toys ad. She also appeared as a back-up dancer in a Sears commercial, featuring Disney's Actress Selena Gomez. In 2009, she was a featured performer in the Kidz Bop music video for its cover of the song "Hot n Cold", which was released on Kidz Bop 15. She auditioned in November 2009 for the role of CeCe Jones to join the cast of Dance Dance Chicago, later changed to Shake It Up!, but was selected as Rocky Blue instead. For her audition, she performed Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone". Shake It Up premiered on November 7, 2010, and it was watched by 6.2 million viewers, becoming Disney Channel's second highest-rated premiere in Disney Channel’s 27-year history. In 2011 Zendaya released "Swag It Out", a promotional independent single. The song was composed by Bobby Brackins and produced by Glenn A. Foster. She also starred in the book trailer for "From Bad To Cursed" by Katie Alender. In the same year, she released "Watch Me," featuring Bella Thorne, on June 21. The song peaked at 86 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second season of Shake It Up was announced on March 16, 2011, and premiered on September 18, 2011. On June 5, 2011, Shake It Up had a crossover episode with Good Luck Charlie. Zendaya hosted Make Your Mark: Ultimate Dance Off 2011.

Her first movie role was in the 2012 film, Frenemies, a Disney Channel Original Movie. On February 29, 2012, "Something to Dance For" was released as promotional single for Live 2 Dance. For the soundtrack, Zendaya also recorded three other songs: "Made In Japan," "Same Heart", and "Fashion In Krytonite", released as promotional single. On September 2, 2012, she signed to Hollywood Records. In October, Zendaya performed at the Teen Music Festival and at the Operation Smile benefit. In February 2013, Zendaya was announced as one of the celebrities who will compete on season 16 of Dancing with the Stars. At age 16, she was the youngest contestant ever to participate on the show, before Willow Shields succeeded her at age 14 on season 20. She was partnered up with professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. In May, the couple finished as runner-ups behind Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough. Her self-titled debut album was released on September 17, 2013. It was preceded by the hit single "Replay", released on July 16, 2013. The song was written by Tiffany Fred and Paul "Phamous" Shelton. In June 2013, Coleman wrapped up filming for the music video. On July 25, the Disney Channel confirmed that Shake It Up will be canceled after the end of the third season.

In November 2013, Zendaya was picked as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month and was featured on NBC's Today, where she performed live her single "Replay".

2014–present: K.C. Undercover, films, and upcoming second studio album

In 2014, Zendaya was cast as 16-year-old Zoey Stevens, the lead character in the Disney Channel Original Movie Zapped, whose "smart phone begins to somehow control all the boys around her". In late 2013, Zendaya was cast as the lead in a new Disney Channel pilot called Super Awesome Katy. It was ordered to series by Disney Channel in May 2014, with the series now under the title K.C. Undercover, and with Zendaya's character now named K.C. Cooper rather than Katy Cooper. In 2017, Zendaya stated that she had a large influence over the renaming of her character and the retitling of the series, also deciding several key elements of the character's personality. K.C. Undercover premiered on Disney Channel on January 18, 2015, and was renewed for a second season in May 2015.

On February 2015, a joke made by Giuliana Rancic concerning Zendaya, in reference to her hair smelling of "patchouli oil" and "weed" at the 87th Academy Awards. Zendaya promptly took to Instagram to address the racist reference of the remark and point out that many successful people have “locs,” a hairstyle that has nothing to do with drugs. Due to her wise words Mattel honored Zendaya with her own Barbie, replicating her Oscars look.

In late 2014, Zendaya finalized a joint venture between Hollywood and Republic Records. On March 6, 2015 Timbaland confirmed that he is working with Zendaya on her second album. Speaking on the album Zendaya told MTV News that the music, is a "new wave of R&B. It’s where I think it should be going, or it should be headed; it’s very old-school vibe, but it’s a new age version.” In July 2015, Zendaya posted a snippet of a song produced by Timaland on Instagram, following this she appeared on a radio station in Duabi and premiered a longer snippet of the song entitled "Close Up". On November 8, she posted another video of her lip-syncing to an R&B song which would be included on her upcoming album. A promotional music video for the song was released by Hunger TV on November 12, 2015. "Something New", featuring Chris Brown was released on February 5 via Hollywood Records and Republic Records. The song also marks it as her first official release since signing to Republic Records. As of 2017, the album has not been released.

In 2016, Zendaya landed her first Feature film role Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was released in July 2017. She plays a high school student named Michelle in the film. It grossed US$117 million in its first weekend, ranking number one at the box office.

Zendaya will co-star in the musical The Greatest Showman, slated for release in December 2017, alongside Hugh Jackman, and Zac Efron.

Endorsement

In September 2012, Zendaya was featured along with rapper Lil Wayne and NBA player LeBron James in a performance of "Scream and Shout" by Will.I.Am and Britney Spears for a television commercial for Beats by Dr. Dre Color. Zendaya is the face of "X-Out", Madonna's clothing line "Material Girl" , CoverGirl , and Chi Hair Care. She is also a spokesperson for X-Out, CoverGirl, and Chi Hair Care

Zendaya is an Ambassador for Convoy of Hope. Zendaya recorded John Legend's All of Me with a portion of the proceeds going to Convoy of Hope. She also celebrated her 18th Birthday with a campaign to help feed at least 150 hungry children in Haiti, Tanzania and the Philippines through feedONE. Zendaya celebrated her 20th birthday with a campaign to raise $50,000 to support Convoy’s Women’s Empowerment Initiative.

Book

In August 6, 2013, Zendaya released her debut book, Between U and Me: How to Rock Your Tween Years with Style and Confidence.

Fashion

In 2013 Zendaya started work on a clothing line, inspired on her clothes on Shake It Up, the Shake It Up Dance Clothing Line by Zendaya. The collection features fun clothes for active girls, legwarmers, shorts, jackets, headbands and athletic apparel and accessories. Summer 2015 with Carmex, Zendaya announced that she would be launching her own clothing line called Daya by Zendaya.. Her Shoe Collection "Sole of Daya" soon followed

In 2014, Zendaya was a guest judge on an episode of Project Runway: Under the Gunn. In this episode, the designers (contestants) were given the challenge of creating an outfit for Zendaya to wear in an upcoming concert performance. In 2016, she was a guest judge on the season finale of Project Runway season 15.

Personal life

Her interests include singing, dancing, and designing clothes.Zendaya's childhood pet, was a dog name Midnight. Midnight passed in late 2015. Later that year Zendaya got a new dog named Moonlight as a gifted from her Ex-boyfriend. She is also a Vegetarian. Zendaya currently lives in Los Angeles, California and owns a house there that is worth $1.4 million

Discography

Concert tours