Rachel Anne Zegler (/ˈzɛɡlər/; born May 3, 2001) is an American actress and singer. She made her film debut playing Maria Vasquez in the 2021 musical drama West Side Story, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She was the first actress of Colombian descent to win the award and, at 20 years old, its youngest recipient.
Early life
Zegler's parents are Gina and Craig Zegler. She was named after the fictional character Rachel Green from the TV show Friends. She has an older sister. Her mother is of Colombian descent. Zegler's maternal grandmother immigrated from Colombia to the United States in the 1960s. Her father is of Polish descent.
Zegler was born in Hackensack and raised in Clifton, New Jersey, where she attended St. Philip the Apostle Preparatory School. She then attended the Catholic all-girls college-preparatory Immaculate Conception High School. She graduated from high school on June 2, 2019.
Career
Zegler began her career starring in several musicals while attending the Immaculate Conception High School, including 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 Metro Award nominations in the Actress in a Leading Role category. Her other roles include Serena in Legally Blonde, Cosette in Les Misérables, and Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Zegler's YouTube channel has been active since July 2015 and has received attention. As of 2022, Zegler's video of herself singing "Shallow", from A Star Is Born, has garnered over 12.2 million views on Twitter.
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 to the casting call tweets with videos of herself singing "Tonight" and "I Feel Pretty"; she had performed the role at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in 2017. Zegler was selected from over 30,000 applicants for the role of Maria, marking her film debut. The film was released in December 2021, and earned acclaim from critics and audiences. For her performance, she received a Critics' Choice Movie Award nomination for Best Young Performer and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, making her the first actress of Colombian descent to win in that category as well as the youngest winner in that category at 20 years old.
