| Zendaya | |
|---|---|
| |
| Celebrity Profile | |
| Birth Date | September 1, 1996 |
| Hometown | Oakland, California |
| Known For | Disney Star |
|
| |
| Partner(s) | Val Chmerkovskiy |
| Placement | 2 |
| Highest Score | 30 (Trio Salsa, Hip-Hop, Samba, Freestyle & Instant Jive) |
| Lowest Score | 22 (Team Paso Doble) |
| Average Score | 27.3 |
Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, known professionally as Zendaya, is a celebrity from season 16 of Dancing with the Stars.
Early life
Zendaya was born on September 1, 1996, in Oakland, California, to father Kazembe and to mother Claire Stoermer. Her father is African-American and her mother is Caucasian. Zendaya grew as a part of the nearby California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda, where her mother works as the house manager, and additionally trained with the theater's student conservatory program. Zendaya has performed in numerous stage productions. Zendaya also helped her mother seat patrons and sell raffle tickets to benefit the theater. While she was attending Oakland School for the Arts she starred 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 TheatreWorks.
She studied her craft at the Cal Shakes Conservatory Program and at the American Conservatory Theater. Her other stage credits include Richard III, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It. Zendaya's official site states that her name derives from the word meaning "to give thanks" in Shona (a Bantu language native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe). She also spent three years dancing with her former dance group called Future Shock Oakland. They danced such dances as Hip Hop and Hula.
Career
2009–14: 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 along with Stefanie Scott. She also appeared as a back-up dancer in a Sears commercial featuring Disney Channel star Selena Gomez. In 2009, she was a featured performer in the Kidz Bop music video "Hot n Cold", cover by Katy Perry, which was released on Kidz Bop 15. She auditioned in November 2009 for the role of Rocky Blue to join the cast of Dance Dance Chicago, later changed to Shake It Up, and performed Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone". In 2011, Zendaya released her debut single "Swag It Out", a independent label song. She also starred in the book trailer for "From Bad To Cursed" by Katie Alender.
On June 21, she released "Watch Me," a duet with Bella Thorne, and peaked at eighty six on the Billboard Hot 100. Her first movie role was in the 2012 film, Frenemies, a Disney Channel Original Movie. On February 29, 2012 was released "Something to Dance For" for Live 2 Dance. In September 2, 2012 she signed to Hollywood Records. In March 2013, Zendaya became a contestant on the sixteenth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Her professional partner was Val Chmerkovskiy. Despite receiving praise from the judges and gaining the highest scores throughout the season, she placed runner-up on the final night.
The lead single "Replay" of her self-titled debut studio album Zendaya was released on July 16, 2013. The song peaked at forty on Billboard Hot 100 and was certified platinum by RIAA. Zendaya's self-titled debut album was released on September 17, 2013 by Hollywood Records and debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 51, selling around 7,458 copies in its first week. In 2014 Zendaya released two promotional videos for the song "My Baby", the album version on January 28, and the remix version, featured TY$, Iamsu! and Bobby Brackins, on February 15. She released the Disney television film Zapped, which garnered 5.67 million viewers, making it the most-watched broadcast on cable that night.
On June 16, 2014, it was announced that Zendaya would portray Aaliyah in a new Lifetime TV biopic film titled Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, the decision to bring on Zendaya to perform as Aaliyah was also met with criticism, as people felt that Zendaya was too light skinned and did not greatly resemble Aaliyah. A few weeks later, it was announced that she dropped out of the movie and the project was put on hold. Zendaya explained her reasons for leaving the production, stating that
"Basically, I just felt that because I love her, and because I respect her so much as an artist, I don’t want to do anything that’s half or anything that’s less for her".
The role was instead given to Alexandra Shipp.
2015–present: K.C. Undercover and second studio album
On January 18, 2015 Zendaya starring as K.C. in the new Disney Channel Original Series K.C. Undercover, her second work in the channel. She also confirmed to Billboard that had signed a joint deal with Republic Records, becoming the first artist to do so. 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.
Other ventures
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 & Britney Spears for a television commercial for Beats by Dr. Dre Color. In August 6, 2013 Zendaya released her debut book, Between U and Me: How to Rock Your Tween Years with Style and Confidence. She told about the book:
"I actually signed this book deal over a year ago…I worked on the book all summer and fall".
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. In April 2015, Zendaya hosted the Radio Disney Music Awards as well as being nominated for the Artist With Best Style, but the award was won by Becky G. Zendaya appeared in Taylor Swift's 2015 music video for '"Bad Blood," portraying an assassin called "Cut throat."
Zendaya's 87th Academy Awards red carpet look, which was the subject of controversy when Giuliana Rancic joked about her faux dread locks on Fashion Police has been immortalized as a Barbie doll.
Personal life
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. As of November 2010, Zendaya lives in Los Angeles with her family and dog, a Giant Schnauzer named Midnight.
Dancing with the Stars 16
Scores
| Week # | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Result | ||
| Inaba | Goodman | Tonioli | |||
| 1 | Contemporary / "Feel Again" | 8 | 8 | 8 | No Elimination |
| 2 | Jive / "This Head I Hold" | 9 | 8 | 9 | Safe |
| 3 | Prom Group Dance / "The Rockafeller Skank" Viennese Waltz / "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" |
Awarded 8 |
2 8 |
Points 8 |
Safe |
| 4 | Samba / "Love On Top" | 9 | 8 | 9 | Safe |
| 5 | Argentine Tango / "Discombobulate" | 10 | 9 | 10 | Safe |
| 6 | Cha-Cha-Cha / "Do I Do" Team Paso Doble / "Higher Ground" |
10 7 |
9 8 |
10 7 |
Safe |
| 7 | Paso Doble / "Buster Voodoo" Jive Dance Off / "Good Golly Miss Molly" |
9 Awarded |
9 3 |
9 Points |
Safe |
| 8 | Foxtrot / "Don't Worry, Be Happy" Salsa (Trio Challenge) / "Dança Molengo" |
9 10 |
10 10 |
9 10 |
Safe |
| 9 Semi-finals |
Quickstep / "Don't Give Up" Hip-hop / "Fine China" |
8 10 |
8 10 |
9 10 |
Last to be called safe |
| 10 Finals |
Samba / "Yerbatero" Cha-Cha-Cha Relay / "Treasure" Freestyle / "Beauty and a Beat" Instant Jive / "Rockin' Robin" |
10 Awarded 10 10 |
10 5 10 10 |
10 Points 10 10 |
Runner-Up |
Trivia
- She was the youngest competitor in Dancing with the Stars history, at the age of 16. This record was later beaten by Willow Shields, who was 14 when she competed.
- Her Shake It Up! co-star Roshon Fegan competed in season 14, finishing in sixth place.
