Born on December 14, 1988 in Salinas, California, USA, Vanessa Anne Hudgens is a new, young triple threat in Hollywood.  Vanessa regularly received dance, opera singing and piano lessons as a child.  The talented mixed race actress-- she is of Filipino, Irish, Chinese, and American Indian—is an accomplished dancer, actress and singer.  Growing up in California and at one point in Oregon, Vanessa and her sister, Stella, were raised in the arts with Vanessa attending the Orange County High School of the Arts.  To round out her already impressive repertoire, Vanessa has also done modeling in the past, but it was her acting that would get her started on what would prove a wildly successful career.

The first role on stage that Vanessa earned was in The Wizard of Oz shown at a local theater.  She only received fifty dollars for that role, but it led to an extensive list of more theatre appearances in shows like The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The King & I, Evita, Carousel, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, The Music Man, and Damn Yankees.  Vanessa took on some of these roles at the tender age eight and they opened the door to several television roles that would ultimately give her a big break.

From Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh to a role in the movie Thunderbirds on to minor roles on Brothers Garcia, Still Standing, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Quintuplets, Vanessa gained a lot of screen practice.  Fatefully, after garnering a lot of credits to her name, Vanessa auditioned for a Disney T.V. production named High School Musical. She sang a Robbie Williams song titled “Angel” and soon after was given the role of Gabriella Montez in the 2006 production that attained great popularity in a relatively short period of time.  Due to the success of High School Musical, sequels were scheduled to be made.  Furthermore, Vanessa’s talent allowed her to be the cast member to get a solo song in the production as well as be the first to launch a musical career as a result of the film’s popularity.

Because of her standout role in High School Musical, Vanessa was offered a deal from Hollywood Records in 2006.   Vanessa Hudgens then made her first album entitled “V” which she recorded in two months.  The album was released in September 2006 and reached #24 on the US Billboard charts.  Vanessa saw so much success as a solo act that she lent some of her celebrity to fellow High School Musical cast member Corbin Bleu by recording a duet for his album “Another Side”.

Vanessa saw her star continue to rise in 2007 as she became a Neutrogena spokesperson, toured with the another Disney spawn called Cheetah Girls, and named Choice Breakout singer at the Teen Choice Awards, beating out formidable competition Amy Winehouse and Katherine McPhee.  But Vanessa had her first taste of the downside of fame due to her involvement in a nude photo controversy.  In September of 2007, Vanessa suffered the public humiliation of having a picture of her exposed body to be posted on the Internet. 

Luckily, Disney stood by Vanessa throughout the repercussions of the scandal and, more importantly, so did her fans.  Vanessa made a public apology for the release of the photo.  Ultimately, she attained future deals with Disney for more High School Musical-related productions as well as further singing projects.