Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman is an American actress and singer. She began her career appearing as a child model and backup dancer, before gaining prominence for her role as Rocky Blue on the Disney Channel sitcom Shake It Up (2010–2013). In 2013, Zendaya was a contestant on the sixteenth season of the competition series Dancing with the Stars. From 2015 to 2018, she produced and starred as K.C. Cooper on the Disney Channel sitcom K.C. Undercover. She made her film breakthrough in 2017, starring as Michelle "MJ" Jones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Spider-Man: Homecoming and as Anne Wheeler in the musical drama film The Greatest Showman.

Zendaya began her career in music by recording songs independently and releasing the singles "Swag It Out" and "Watch Me" in 2011, the latter a collaboration with Bella Thorne. She signed with Hollywood Records in 2012 and later released her debut single, "Replay", which reached number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. Zendaya\'s self-titled debut studio album (2013) debuted at number 51 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Coleman was born on September 1, 1996, in Oakland, California, the only child of Claire Marie (Stoermer) and Kazembe Ajamu (born Samuel David Coleman). She has five older half-siblings on her father\'s side. Her father is African-American, with roots in Arkansas, while her mother has German and Scottish ancestry. Zendaya, whose name derives from an African term meaning "to give thanks," grew as a performer in part at the nearby California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda, California where her mother works as the house manager, in addition to training at the theater\'s student conservatory program. She appeared in numerous stage productions while she was attending Oakland School for the Arts, starring 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 TheaterWorks.

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