From Disney To ‘Dune’: A Look At Zendaya’s Career Over The Years

Topline

Zendaya is seemingly everywhere these days, starring in films like “Dune 2” and “Challengers,” and the actress tried her hand at both music and television shows for years before becoming the sensation she now is—but the 27-year-old told Vogue in a recent interview she was “thrust into a very adult position” and feels being a breadwinner for family so young has made her “tense.”

Zendaya arrives at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards, Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo … [+] by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

2024 Invision

Key Facts

Zendaya made her acting debut on Disney Channel, playing Rocky Blue in “Shake it Up,” a show co-starring Bella Thorne that ran from 2010 to 2013 and followed the pair of teenagers as they work as backup dancers on a local television show in Chicago while dreaming of being professionals.

The star started working in music, as well, during her time on Disney—she released her debut single “Swag It Out” in 2011, signed with Disney’s record label Hollywood Records in 2012 and released her debut album “Zendaya” in 2013, which included her single “Replay.”

Before leaving the network, Zendaya starred in a second Disney Channel show, “K.C. Undercover,” in which she played an undercover spy in Washington, D.C., from 2015 to 2018.

Zendaya’s first feature film—“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which also starred her now-boyfriend Tom Holland—was released in July 2017, and she and Zac Efron co-starred in “The Greatest Showman,” a musical film which was released in December 2017 and allowed the actress a brief return to singing.

Zendaya continued to take on more mature roles, eventually starring as Rue—the series narrator and a teenager navigating life with a drug addiction—in HBO and Sam Levinson’s teen drama “Euphoria.”

Zendaya became the youngest winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series when she won for her role in “Euphoria” in 2020 at age 24—an award she won again for playing Rue at the 2022 Emmys.

Zendaya appeared and starred in a number of other films, including reprising her role as MJ in “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” voicing “Lola Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy,” and playing Chani in “Dune” and “Dune 2,” which was released last month and has already grossed more than $665 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Big Number

40. That’s the highest on the Billboard charts Zendaya has hit, though she has had six charting songs. “Replay,” her 2013 single, spent 21 weeks on the charts and peaked at 40. Her next highest charting song was “I’m Tired” with Labrinth, a 2022 song that spent four weeks on the charts and peaked at 53. Zendaya made a surprise appearance at Coachella in 2023 to perform the song with Labrinth, marking her first time publicly performing in years, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

News Peg

Zendaya was on the cover of Vogue for its May issue, promoting her next film “Challengers,” which will be in theaters on April 26. The film follows Zendaya as a tennis player who got injured and is now coaching her husband, trying to make him a grand-slam champion, according to the plot synopsis. Despite her lengthy resume, the film will be Zendaya’s “first full-fledged, top-of-the-call-sheet, leading-lady turn in a movie,” Vogue reported—and one of her first times actually playing an adult. Zendaya spoke about her long career to Vogue, saying she sometimes wishes she hadn’t had to be an adult so young and that the experience has made her “very tense. “I think that I carry that from being a kid and never really having an opportunity to just try shit. And I wish I went to school,” she said.

Surprising Fact

For “Challengers,” Zendaya and her co-stars trained with Brad Gilbert, who is now tennis sensation Coco Gauff’s coach, according to Vogue. Zendaya told the magazine she struggled to learn the sport at first, but said she succeeded after she began “treating it more like dance” and mimicking the moves of her co-stars and coaches.