At just 24, Zendaya already has a Marvel role, an Emmy and a certified platinum song under her belt
At an age where most people are only just starting to navigate their career paths, 24-year-old American actress and singer Zendaya just took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the smash hit HBO show, Euphoria. She’s the youngest actress in history to win the award, beating out stiff competition from Tinseltown veterans like Laura Linney, Sandra Oh and Jennifer Aniston. She has also been lauded for playing the straight-talking MJ in Marvel’s wildly successful Spider-Man franchise, released two hit albums and recorded a platinum-selling song – Rewrite the Stars, from the soundtrack of the 2017 musical drama The Greatest Showman. The world, it seems, just can’t get enough of Zendaya.
Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman – to give her full name – was born on September 1, 1996, as the only child of teachers Claire Marie Stoermer and Kazembe Ajamu, a.k.a. Samuel David Coleman. Painfully shy from the get-go, she was forced to repeat kindergarten in order to socially acclimatise with her schoolmates. At six, she was introduced to acting when she and two of her friends, the only black children at their private school, convinced the principal to allow them to perform a play for Black History Month. “I was Bessie Coleman,” she remembers, “My friends were Harriet Tubman and Madam C.J. Walker. We just felt we needed to raise awareness about the importance of these women.”
From that day on, Zendaya was smitten. Every summer, she would accompany her mom to her second job at the California Shakespeare Theater, acting in several of their productions. She also signed up for dance lessons and joined a dance troupe for three years. Her first taste of stardom, though, came when she landed one of the lead roles of Disney Channel’s Shake It Up in 2010. By the time she graduated high school, the multi-talented teen had starred in two more Disney TV shows, penned an inspirational book for tweens titled Between U and Me, and released a solo album featuring a song, Replay, that went platinum. She also starred in season 16 of Dancing with the Stars at 16 years old – then the youngest-ever contestant on the show – and wound up finishing strong in second place.
Never one to rest on her laurels, Zendaya also found time in her busy schedule to indulge her love of all things sartorial. In 2016, she found her own clothing line, Daya by Zendaya, and also starred as a guest judge on the 15th season of Project Runway. Two years later, she was signed by fashion label Tommy Hilfiger as its global women’s ambassador and collaboratively released several Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya capsule collections.
The crowning achievement of her young life, though, possibly came earlier this year, when she nabbed the coveted Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her leading role as Rue in the HBO hit series Euphoria. Loosely based on the Israeli TV show of the same name, Euphoria delivers a vibrant, almost brutal depiction of contemporary US high school life, burnished with the very real issues of social media, drugs and more. Zendaya was lauded in all corners for her gritty portrayal of the reckless recovering teen drug addict, with The Guardian calling her performance “mesmerising” and “astonishing”, and The New Yorker even dubbing her “the best part” of the series.
“Although Euphoria was amazing and exciting, it was also extremely stressful. It gave me anxiety every week”
Eager to give back, the actress has found a unique way to raise funds and awareness for different causes – by using her birthday as a means to raise funds for worthy initiatives. When she turned 18, she partnered with Convoy of Hope – a philanthropic relief organization with whom she has been connected since 2012 – to raise money to feed over 100 malnourished children in Haiti, the Philippines, and Tanzania. The following year, following a trip to South Africa with UN AIDS, she hosted another fundraising project, this time to help the country’s AIDS orphans. To celebrate turning 20, Zendaya once again teamed up with Convoy of Hope, this time managing to raise US$50,000 for the organization’s Women’s Empowerment Initiative.
Speaking about her passion for charitable and social endeavors, she says, “I don’t just sing, dance, and act because I love it,” she says. “You have to have a purpose, and mine is to connect with the world, to get across messages that are important. I’d much rather be known for leaving a little stamp of positivity on one person’s life than for the last project that I did.”
“I’d much rather be known for leaving a little stamp of positivity on one person’s life than for the last project that I did”
She still does, however, have multiple projects looming on the horizon, with her next high-profile appearance set to be in the upcoming remake of Frank Herbert’s cult science-fiction novel Dune (2021) alongside co-star Timothée Chalamet. She has also reunited with Euphoria director Sam Levinson in the upcoming drama Malcolm & Marie, a production that was shot in secret during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Perhaps her most anticipated silver screen return, though, is the reprisal of her beloved role as MJ in the as-yet untitled third sequel of the Spider-Man franchise, set for release in 2021. After that, the path seems less clear, though given Zendaya’s smart choices – both onscreen and in the charity sphere – chances are her star can only continue to rise.
Text: Tenzing Thondup
Photos: Dominic Miller, Bulgari