Disney puts Zendaya on fast track to fame
It’s an exciting time to be Zendaya.
First of all, the actress/singer/ dancer turned 19 on Tuesday. And also on Tuesday, Zendaya became the face of the Disney Channel as Corus Entertainment launched the specialty service in Canada. Fans can binge on a marathon session of her tween sitcom K.C. Undercover.
Zendaya is on Disney’s fast track to fame, on the same promotional catapult that launched Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato as adult superstars.
In 2009, she landed Disney’s TV series Shake It Up and soon after was recording a solo album for Hollywood Records. In 2013, she went deep on Dancing with the Stars and ended up the runner-up to country-music star Kellie Pickler. Zendaya was just 16 then, the youngest DWTS celebrity contestant at that time.
“I pushed myself to places that I didn’t think I could go,” she says, adding it wasn’t always a lot of fun. “I was stressed out on that job a lot.”
She’s just taped a guest appearance on the second season of the ABC sitcom Black-ish. She’ll also be a celebrity judge on ABC’s 2016 Miss America Competition, which will air live from Atlantic City on Sept. 13. The young Oakland, Calif., native has spent half her life performing. Born Zendaya Coleman, she grew up helping her mom at a Shakespearean theatre company, attended an Oakland school of the arts and went on to act and dance.
“I was always very attracted to the stage and that world,” she says.
On K. C. Undercover, she’s listed as a co-producer.
“When you have an official title,” she says, “not only do you have a voice, but you have a voice that has to be heard.”