Rachel Zegler facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rachel Zegler
Zegler in 2023
Born	(2001-05-03) May 3, 2001 (age 23) Hackensack, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress singer
Years active	2015–present

Rachel Zegler (/ˈzɛɡlər/; born May 3, 2001) is an American actress and singer. She came to prominence with her film debut playing María in Steven Spielberg's musical adaptation West Side Story (2021), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

In 2023, she played Anthea in Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. She made her Broadway debut playing Juliet in a revival of Romeo + Juliet (2024).

Early life

Rachel Zegler was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on May 3, 2001, to Gina and Craig Zegler. Her paternal grandparents are Chester Joseph Zegler and Maureen Teresa (neé Cahill). She was named after the fictional character Rachel Green from the TV series Friends. She has an older sister named Jacklyn. Her mother is of Colombian descent. Her maternal grandmother immigrated from Barranquilla, Colombia, to the United States in the 1960s. Her father is of Polish descent. Due to her ethnicity, Zegler faced racial discrimination as a child. At the age of four, Zegler saw her first Broadway show, Beauty and the Beast. Since then, she has been a huge fan of the theater.

Zegler's first acting role came when she was 12, when she played Shprintze in a play of Fiddler on the Roof. It was then that she decided she wanted to be an actress, so she started taking voice and acting lessons.

Career

Zegler began her career starring in several musicals while in high school, playing Belle in Beauty and the Beast (2016), Ariel in The Little Mermaid (2017), Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street (2018), and Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical (2019). For all four performances, she received Metro Award nominations in the Actress in a Leading Role category. Her other roles have includes Serena in Legally Blonde, Cosette in Les Misérables, and Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her YouTube channel has been active since July 2015 which garnered media coverage and positive critical reception. As of 2022, her video of herself singing "Shallow", from A Star Is Born, had garnered over 12.2 million views on Twitter.

Zegler in 2019

In January 2018, director Steven Spielberg posted an open casting call via Twitter for a new film adaptation of West Side Story. Zegler, then 16 years old, responded to the casting call tweets with videos of herself singing "Tonight" and "I Feel Pretty"; she had performed the role at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in 2017. She was selected from over 30,000 applicants for the role of Maria, marking her film debut. The film was released in December 2021, and earned acclaim from critics and audiences. For her performance, she received a Critics' Choice Movie Award nomination for Best Young Performer and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, making her the first actress of Colombian descent to win in that category as well as the youngest winner in that category at 20 years old.

She starred as Anthea in the superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023). The film received mixed reviews. She played protagonist Lucy Gray Baird in the 2023 film adaptation of the Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The film received positive reviews. David Ehlrich of IndieWire praised Zegler writing, "[She] is absolutely captivating in a Wild Rose-coded performance that’s equal part Southern pluck and wide-eyed terror...it is a marvel of multiplex acting". Ehlrich also noted the nuances of her performance adding "Zegler knows how to play nuance big enough for the back of the room to read it all over her face". She next appeared in Kyle Mooney's directorial debut film Y2K, produced by A24, which debuted at the South by Southwest Festival in 2024 and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

Zegler made her Broadway debut playing Juliet in a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, directed by Sam Gold with music by Jack Antonoff. Performances are set to run from September 26, 2024 to February 16, 2025. She will voice the lead character in the animated musical film Spellbound, directed by Vicky Jenson, which is scheduled to premiere on Netflix. She will also play the titular character in Snow White, a live-action adaptation the 1937 animated Disney film, scheduled to be released in 2025.

In the media

In 2021, Zegler was listed at number 34 on The Ringer's The Big Picture podcast's list of the top 35 actors under 35. She is included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2022 list. Also in 2021, AP Entertainment named her as one of the Breakthrough Entertainers of 2021. She was part of the in memoriam segment of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in honour of Stephen Sondheim, alongside Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, and Leslie Odom Jr.

She was initially not invited to attend the 94th Academy Awards ceremony of 2022 to support her colleagues involved in West Side Story, which received seven nominations, including Best Picture. After some controversy over the perceived snub in the media, the Academy invited her to be a presenter for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Personal life

In February 2021, Zegler and actor Josh Andrés Rivera confirmed that they were dating. The two had met on the set of West Side Story and later starred in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes together.

Zegler considers Barbra Streisand to be one of her primary influences. In 2021, Streisand sent Zegler a copy of her album Release Me 2, and a copy of a book called Streisand From A to Z, along with a note reading, "For R., from B.," to which Zegler responded, "There's simply no way this is real!" Zegler is also a fan of Taylor Swift.

Political views

Zegler has publicly supported Palestine in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since 2021. In a January 2024 Instagram story, she urged people to pressure government leaders to support a ceasefire in Gaza during the Israel–Hamas war. That August, she tweeted, "and always remember, free palestine".

Filmography

Film

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2021	West Side Story	María
2023	Shazam! Fury of the Gods	Anthea
	The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes	Lucy Gray Baird
2024	Y2K	Laura
	Spellbound	Princess Ellian	Voice role; post-production
2025	Snow White	Snow White	Post-production

Theatre

Podcast

Discography

Soundtracks

Singles

Other charted songs

Other appearances

Accolades

See also

In Spanish: Rachel Zegler para niños