So exactly who is the unknown teenager who landed the coveted role of Maria back in 2018? Plus, how did she get the part and what will she be doing after West Side Story? Here’s what we know about Rachel Zegler, how she got her big movie break, where else you’ll soon be able to see her and more.
Who is Rachel Zegler in West Side Story?
Zegler stars as the romantic lead, Maria, in the 2021 version of West Side Story. When news of her casting went public in January 2019, Zegler took to Instagram to share how grateful and excited she was. “As a Colombian-American woman growing up in this day and age, strong roles like Maria are so important. To be able to bring that role to life—a role that means so much to the Hispanic community—is so humbling. I hope you’re all as excited as I am.”
Is Rachel Zegler Puerto Rican?
While her West Side Story alter ego is a recent arrival in New York City from Puerto Rico, Zegler was born and raised in New Jersey to a mother of Colombian heritage and a father of Polish heritage. As Zegler told TIME in October 2021, “My parents were born here, but my abuelita was not—she came from Colombia in the ‘60s to have my mom. I think that that’s very well represented in this movie—that there are so many different ways to be Latinx, and so many versions that we don’t talk about in mainstream media.” Zegler also told ABC News about having Latinx actors play West Side Story’s Latinx characters this time around, “It’s so important for people like us to see people like us onscreen, to see people like us singing ‘I Feel Pretty,’ to see people like us falling in love and feeling joy and dancing around in pretty dresses. It’s so important for that next generation to see someone that looks like them.”
What is Rachel Zegler’s age?
Rachel Zegler was born on May 3, 2001, making her 20 years old at the time of West Side Story’s December 2021 premiere. She was just 17 when she auditioned for West Side Story, and at that time was only thinking about her high school’s spring musical and then going to college in the fall. Then Spielberg called and, well, plans changed.
How did Rachel Zegler get cast in West Side Story?
Spielberg announced in 2018 that he was fully committed to casting the four leads in West Side Story—Maria, Tony, Anita and Bernardo—with Latino and Latina actors. His open casting call for Maria specified any Latina actress between the ages of 15 and 25. According to Town and Country, Zegler found out about the casting call from a friend, who passed the info along with a note reading, “Thank me when you’re famous.” She submitted a video of herself singing “Tonight” and “Me Siento Hermosa” (“I Feel Pretty”) from the musical and was ultimately chosen out of over 30,000 other hopefuls. Her video impressed casting director Cindy Tolan, who remarked, “I don’t really think I’d ever heard Sondheim sung like that before.” There were several callbacks over the course of 2018 and Zegler officially landed the role in January 2019, and though she wasn’t allowed to break the news to anyone, she told T&C she just had to share it with the friend who encouraged her to audition.
Has Rachel Zegler been in West Side Story before?
She has! Zegler previously played Maria, in fact, in a Performing Arts School production of West Side Story at the Bergen Performing Arts Centre in New Jersey. That’s just one of her many credits; she has also starred in various school, local and regional shows including Cosette in Les Miserables, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, and Belle in Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for a Metropolitan High School Theater Award.
What else has Rachel Zegler been in?
In addition to the previously mentioned productions, Zegler has starred as Mimi Marquez in RENT, Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical, Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street, and Serena in Legally Blonde. But there have also been auditions she didn’t land. When Zegler was 14, she went to an open call for the stage-musical adaptation of School of Rock and was told her voice sounded too adult for a teenager. As Zegler told Town & Country, “It didn’t feel like a rejection but instead the start of something… This is all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
What is Rachel Zegler doing next?
It was announced in June 2021 that Zegler would star as Snow White in the live-action remake of Disney’s inaugural animated feature, first released in 1938. The movie, which starts production in summer 2022, will feature new songs penned by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the award-winning partners behind The Greatest Showman, LaLa Land, and Dear Evan Hansen. GalGadot will be the Evil Queen. Perhaps Gadot, well known for her turn as Wonder Woman, can provide comic-book movie pointers for Zegler, as it was recently announced that she will also join the cast of D.C. Comic’s Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, scheduled to premiere in 2023. For that, she’ll appear alongside Zachary Levi as Shazam, and Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren as daughters of Atlas. Zegler’s role is reportedly pivotal, but details are being kept mum.
Is Rachel Zegler on Instagram?
Yep, she posts at @rachelzegler and lately she’s been posting all about her whirlwind promotional tour leading up to West SideStory’s Dec. 10 release.
Is Rachel Zegler on YouTube?
Zegler has been active on YouTube since 2015, when she uploaded a video of herself singing “The Wizard and I” from Wicked at a Youth Week Luncheon in Clifton, NJ. Her channel is a mix of vlog entries about daily life, original songs, highlights from past productions and covers of pop songs and show tunes. Her cover of “Shallow,” the Oscar-winning song from Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s A Star is Born, went viral in 2018, netting over three million views.
Does Rachel Zegler have an album?
While Zegler does not have a full-length album—yet!—she released a single in May 2021 titled “Let Me Try.” It’s available on Spotify and Apple Music as well as other music platforms, and the video is available on YouTube. Next, Five Things You Never Knew About Broadway Superstar Chita Rivera
