West Side Story and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes breakout star Rachel Zegler already seems like acting royalty, but she actually has a very modest background, fit for the Hollywood dream.
Original fans know the 22-year-old from her YouTube account, on which she’s been uploading covers and original songs since back in 2015. She has 238 thousand subscribers and her cover of “Shallow” from A Star is Born has 3 million views. Even though she is the latest up-and-coming Hollywood starlet she has continued to post vlogs and song covers as recently as three months ago.
What is Rachel Zegler’s hometown?
Zegler participated in high school theater in her hometown of Clifton, New Jersey. According to NorthJersey.com, she was nominated for several local theater awards even just as a freshman in high school. Though she went to school in Clifton, she told NorthJersey.com that she was born in Hackensack, New Jersey in May of 2001.
In an interview with Time and Ariana DeBose, she discussed her Latina and Columbian background, saying that her grandmother immigrated from Colombia in the 1960s to have her mom in the United States. ClassisFM reports that Zegler’s father is of Polish descent.
She had the opportunity to connect with her Latin American roots when she was cast as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Zegler responded to an open casting call in Orlando and New York with videos of her singing songs from the musical and reportedly beat out 30,000 applicants at the age of 16. After winning a Golden Globe for the role and getting out of New Jersey and into Hollywood, she went on to play Anthea in Shazam! Fury of the Gods (because she needed a job).
Rachel was also cast as Snow White in Disney’s live-action remake, which had received it’s fair share of controversy. Fans of the original are disappointed with the way that Zegler has handled discussions about how the character will be updated and modernized. Others have criticized casting a Latina in the role.
Her high school acting chops seem to continuously pay off, seeing as she was cast in The Hunger Games prequel as Lucy Gray Baird alongside Hunter Schafer and Tom Blyth. The film about District President Snow will be out on November 17.
The New Jersey native has a lot going for her. Performing in her high school plays and musicals and recording song cover after song cover on YouTube turned out to be the perfect recipe for Rachel Zegler to go from New Jersey nobody to Hollywood star.
Published: Nov 6, 2023 01:45 pm