Rachel Zegler

Rachel Anne Zegler (/ˈzɛɡlər/ⓘ born May 3, 2001) is an American actress and singer. Zegler gained recognition for her performance as María in Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the musical West Side Story (2021), for which she earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

She has since portrayed Anthea in the superhero action film Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), Lucy Gray Baird in the teen dystopian drama The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), and the titular character in the musical fantasy Snow White (2025).

Zegler made her Broadway debut playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (2024) and her West End debut as the titular character in the musical Evita (2025), for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Early life and education

Rachel Anne Zegler was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on May 3, 2001, to Gina and Craig Zegler. She was named after the fictional character Rachel Green from the TV series Friends. She has an older sister named Jacqueline. Her mother was born in the United States to Colombian immigrants and was raised partly in Barranquilla. Her father is of distant Polish descent.

Zegler grew up in Clifton, New Jersey. She recalls that, as a child, she faced racial discrimination on social media due to her Hispanic heritage, though she also said she experienced privilege as a lighter-skinned person of Latin American descent. Zegler became a fan of the theater after seeing her first Broadway show, Beauty and the Beast, at age four. Her first acting role came when she was 12, when she played Shprintze in a play of Fiddler on the Roof. She then decided she wanted to be an actress and began taking voice and acting lessons.

Zegler attended Immaculate Conception High School, where she starred in several musicals, 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 Metropolitan High School Theater Award nominations for the Actress in a Leading Role category. Her other roles have included Serena in Legally Blonde, Cosette in Les Misérables, Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Robin in Godspell. She graduated on June 2, 2019, as salutatorian. Her YouTube channel was active from July 2015 to August 2023 and garnered media coverage.

Career

2018–2021: West Side Story and breakthrough

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 with videos of herself singing "Tonight" and "I Feel Pretty"; she had performed the role of Maria at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in 2017. She was selected from more than 30,000 applicants for the role, marking her film debut. The film was released in December 2021, and earned acclaim from critics and audiences.

For her performance, Zegler 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, She was the first actress of Colombian descent to win in that category and, at age 20, the youngest.

2022–present: Franchise films; Broadway and West End debuts

Zegler starred as Anthea in the superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023). The film received mixed reviews and was a box-office failure, grossing $134.1 million worldwide against a production budget of $110–125 million. 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 mixed to positive reception. David Ehrlich 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. ... Zegler knows how to play nuance big enough for the back of the room to read it all over her face". The film grossed $349 million worldwide against a production budget of $100 million.

In 2023, Zegler announced her exit from Paddington in Peru, attributing her departure to the SAG strike. She played Laura in the film Y2K, which debuted at the South by Southwest Festival in 2024 and was released on December 6 that year to a mixed reception.

Zegler made her Broadway debut playing Juliet in a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed by Sam Gold with music by Jack Antonoff, from September 26, 2024, to February 16, 2025. She voiced the lead character, Princess Ellian, in the animated musical film Spellbound (2024), which premiered on Netflix. She then played the titular character in Snow White (2025), a live-action adaptation of the 1937 animated Disney film. Prior to its release, the film drew criticism partly over a Latina actress being cast in the role, partly over Zegler's criticism of the original film and partly over co-star Gal Gadot's opposing views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, prompting boycott calls from both political sides. Amid the film's mixed reviews, critics praised Zegler's performance. It grossed approximately $206 million worldwide against its production budget of $240–270 million, making it one of Disney's most expensive films, but it became the most-watched film on Disney+.

Zegler next made her West End debut playing Eva Perón in a revival of Evita, directed by Jamie Lloyd, in the summer of 2025 at the London Palladium.[citation needed] She received positive reviews for her performance and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Zegler headlined two concerts at the London Palladium in October 2025, alongside special guests Ramin Karimloo and Andrew Lloyd Webber, the latter of whom appeared only at the evening performance.[citation needed] She played Cathy Hiatt for a one-week engagement in March 2026 in a concert production of The Last Five Years opposite Ben Platt at the London Palladium to celebrate the musical's 25th anniversary, recording a live album of their performance. Platt and Zegler reprised these roles at the Hollywood Bowl and at Radio City Music Hall in April 2026, where one critic wrote: "Zegler leans into [Cathy's] complexity with focus and control, delivering each moment with precision while allowing the emotional unraveling to reveal itself gradually.

Upcoming projects

Zegler is set to star alongside Marisa Tomei in the comedy drama film She Gets It from Me. Zegler is also set to star as Velma in the Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed movie Octet, based on the musical, as Emma in the film Last Dance, and Dana in the psychological thriller NDA. She is expected to star in Evita upon its transfer to Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre with previews set to begin in February 2027.

Public image

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 one of the performers in the in memoriam segment of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in honor of Stephen Sondheim.

In January 2022, Zegler garnered online backlash for a since-deleted video in which she gave a dramatic reading of Britney Spears's Twitter messages online to her sister, Jamie Lynn Spears. She later stated in an apology on the platform: "While I meant no disrespect whatsoever, I should have thought about how this could be perceived, and I'm so sorry for upsetting or disappointing anyone. This is not a situation to be taken lightly, and we should all be lifting Britney up in this pivotal time."

She was initially not invited to attend the 94th Academy Awards ceremony of 2022 where West Side Story received seven nominations, including Best Picture, but Zegler was not nominated. After media comment over the perceived snub, 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 both appeared in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes together. The relationship ended in 2024. She dated her Evita co-star, Nathan Louis-Fernand, in 2025.

Zegler cites Barbra Streisand as one of her primary influences. In 2021, Streisand sent Zegler a copy of her album Release Me 2 and a copy of the book Streisand From A to Z.

Zegler has stated that she struggles with anxiety and attends psychiatric sessions. She experienced a breast cancer scare as a teenager.

Political views

She has publicly supported Palestine in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since 2021. In October 2023, Zegler joined Artists4Ceasefire and signed a letter urging Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire during the war. In January 2024, she encouraged her followers on Instagram to pressure government leaders for a ceasefire. In August 2024, she tweeted, "and always remember, Free Palestine". Snow White producer Marc Platt voiced concerns about Zegler's Israeli co-star Gal Gadot receiving death threats, which they attributed to Zegler's post. This led Disney to provide additional security for Gadot. After the film's release, Platt's son Jonah confirmed that his father had flown to New York to reprimand Zegler for her remarks.

In November 2024, Zegler criticized Donald Trump and his supporters, claiming there is a "deep, deep sickness" in the United States and accusing Trump of "threaten[ing] our democracy". She also wrote, "May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace." She later apologized for "contribut[ing] to the negative discourse".

Acting credits

Film

Theatre

Podcast

Discography

Singles

Other charted songs

Other appearances

Accolades

External links

• atIMDb
• onInstagram
• onYouTube