Auliʻi Cravalho

Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho (/aʊˈliːʔikrəˈvɑːljoʊ/; born November 22, 2000) is an American actress. She made her acting debut as the voice of the titular character in the Disney animated musical film Moana (2016) and reprised her role in the 2024 sequel.

Cravalho has had leading roles in the drama series Rise (2018), the drama film All Together Now (2020), the supernatural comedy Darby and the Dead (2022), the sci-fi series The Power (2023), and the 2024 film adaptation of Mean Girls: The Musical. She has also acted in several theatrical productions, including Evita (2023) in London and Cabaret (2024) on Broadway.

Early life and education

Cravalho was born in Kohala, Hawaii, and is of Chinese, Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, and Irish descent. Her parents Dwayne and Puanani "ran a construction company and divorced when she was young". At the time she made her breakthrough, she was living in Mililani, Hawaii, with her mother and was in her first year of high school, singing soprano in the glee club at Kamehameha Schools' Kapālama campus. She grew up with her mother in a one-bedroom apartment, and they had to rely on the federal food stamps program for support. Following the success of Moana, she bought a house for her mother.

In June 2021, Cravalho announced that she had been accepted into Columbia University and subsequently revealed that she planned to major in environmental science. However, she repeatedly deferred her entrance to Columbia in order to focus on acting to the point where she would have to reapply for admission to study there.

Career

As a 14-year-old high school freshman, Cravalho was cast as the title character in the 2016 animated movie Moana. She has stated that she was initially not going to audition for the role because "there were already so many great submissions that [she] didn't think [she] needed to try out". However, a talent agent in Oahu discovered her through a charity video contest and brought her to Los Angeles to audition for the role. Casting director Rachel Sutton has stated that Cravalho was the last person to audition out of hundreds of actresses.

In February 2017, it was announced that she had been cast in the pilot for the NBC drama Rise, which was ordered to series on May 4, 2017. The series premiered on March 13, 2018, but NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2018, due to low ratings. In May 2017, she sang the national anthem at the National Memorial Day Concert.[citation needed] In November 2017, Cravalho announced she was going to reprise her role as Moana in the first Hawaiian language–dubbed Disney film. The dubbed Moana premiered on June 10, 2018.

On November 5, 2019, Cravalho portrayed Ariel in ABC's The Little Mermaid Live!, a live-action concert rendition of The Little Mermaid. In 2020, she starred in All Together Now, directed by Brett Haley for Netflix. Cravalho has twice performed as guest narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional at Walt Disney World, in 2018 and 2021.

In 2020, Cravalho participated in Acting for a Cause, a live classic play and screenplay reading series created, directed and produced by Brando Crawford. Cravalho played Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest, Laertes in Hamlet, Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice, and Jeannie Bueller in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The reading raised funds for non-profit charities including Mount Sinai Medical Center.

On November 18, 2021, it was announced that Cravalho would voice the title character, Hailey, in the animated comedy-adventure series Hailey's On It!, which premiered on June 8, 2023, on Disney Channel. She also has a role in the sci-fi drama series The Power, where she plays Jos Cleary-Lopez, a teenager who develops electric powers, and as Janis 'Imi'ike in Mean Girls, a 2024 film adaptation of the stage musical Mean Girls.[citation needed]

In 2023, it was announced that Cravalho would be an executive producer on the upcoming live-action adaptation of Moana but would not reprise the titular role. She stated in 2024 that "it feels really important to me to pass the baton to the next young woman of Pacific Island descent".

In July 2024, it was announced that Cravalho will take over the role of Sally Bowles in the Broadway production of Cabaret beginning September 16. She had a brief voice role as a talking anti-venom pen in the 2025 film Zootopia 2.

In April 2026, it was announced that Cravalho would guest-star in Sofia The First: Royal Magic, a sequel to Sofia the First, as Moana, reprising her voice role. It will be the first time Moana and Sofia have interacted in a Disney series, with Moana providing "wisdom and guidance" to Sofia.

Personal life

In April 2020, Cravalho came out as bisexual. In January 2024, she revealed that she has Ehlers–Danlos syndrome.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Web

Stage

Music videos

Awards and nominations

External links

• at IMDb