Zendaya
Teen Starlet “Shakes It
Up”!
By Rych McCain, International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
 |
| Zendaya (Photo by Keith Munyan) |
She is a bundle of positive energy that comes
packaged in a winning personality with multiple talents, adorable cutie-pie
looks and a name that means “To give thanks” in the language of the South
African Shona people. We’re talking about sixteen year old
actress/dancer/singer Zendaya Coleman, professionally known as Zendaya. She is
a cast regular playing the role of Raquel “Rocky” Blue on the #1 rated Disney
Channel Show “Shake It Up” which is
now in its second season. Zendaya has been in showbiz most of her life starting
off at age six training with the California Shakespeare Theatre’s student
conservatory program. Her mom was the Theatre’s house manager. This was
followed with further training as a student at the Oakland School For The Arts
and even more follow-up training at the CalShakes Conservatory Program and the
American Conservatory Theatre. Between all of these schools Zendaya had lead
roles in many stage plays.
Zendaya’s professional career began as a
child model for Macy’s, Mervyns, Old Navy and others. From there she
transitioned into dancing where she became a member of the Oakland dance troop
“Future Shock” as well as hula dancing for AHA (Academy of Hawaiian Arts). She
did an iCarly Toys ad and was a back up dancer to fellow Disney star Selena
Gomez for a Sears commercial. Then came her big break i.e., the role of Raquel
“Rocky” Blue on “Shake It Up.” Zendaya’s
name and physical bi-racial looks (Black dad & Dutch Mom) is something she
has had to deal with all of her life but she is positively upbeat about it
saying, “Most definitely, I have gotten that since I was very little. I have a
racially ambiguous look and on top of that my name is really interesting.
Nobody’s has ever heard it before. They don’t know how to say it or they ask me
where it comes from. I mean its cool finding that people are interested in who
I am.”
How does Zendaya relate to her on-camera character “Rocky”? She smiles and quips, “She’s
the shy quite one who’s always trying to look out for her friends. She’ll
always be there for them no matter what because she’s the sharp one. Yeah,
she’s just a great person and I’m a lot like her in real life and I love
playing her character.” Since this is a dance orientated show and she is a
principal dancer is her role very physically demanding? Zendaya comes back, “You
know what, being on the show period is physically demanding just because it’s a
dance show. And so we’re always dancing and always moving around having fun so
you know of course, naturally I’m just going to get sore from that. Also there
is a lot of physical comedy involved in our show because it is a comedy. So we
have so many physical comedy bits in our show and its fun. I like it. I don’t
really mind the soreness out there.”
A television sitcom usually takes one week
per episode with each day doing something different until it is taped. What is
Zendaya’s favorite part of the entire production process? She lights up, “My
favorite part of the process is definitely “2-a-days” which is our live taping
days because we get to meet our fans. We get to have a live audience and that
kind of brings me back to the stage which is where I started in theatre. It’s a
nice home ground to be able to feed off the audience’s energy.” How does
Zendaya stay grounded in such a crazy business with the negative peer pressure
and all that comes with it? She humbly says, “I surround myself with positive
people that really know who I am and has always been around me, no matter what
and has been with me forever. So I surround myself with people I know love me
and care for me weather I have the show or not. Those are the people that are
always going to be there.”
Rych McCain Media/Syndication tm
(You DID Hear It From Me!)
E-Mail: feedbackrych@sbcglobal.net
