Vanessa Hudgens

Vanessa Anne Hudgens (born December 14, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her role as Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical film series. She pursued a solo music career and released her debut album V on September 26, 2006. The album debuted at number twenty four in the U.S. and was later certified Gold. She reprised her role as Gabriella Montez in High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Hudgens released her second album, Identified in July 1, 2008 in the U.S. She will be Sam in the film Bandslam, in theaters July 31, 2009. She has two upcoming films: Beastly in 2010, and Sucker Punch! in 2011.

Early life

Hudgens was born in Salinas, California, the daughter of Gina (née Guangco) and Greg Hudgens.Irish and Native American descent, and her mother is Filipino, who grew up in Manila,of Spanish, and Chinese descent. Hudgens was home-schooled since after her seventh-grade year at the Orange County High School of the Arts. Hudgens's father is an American of

Starting at the age of eight, Hudgens performed in musical theater as a singer, and appeared in local productions of Carousel, The Wizard of Oz, The King and I, The Music Man, and Cinderella, among others. She made her feature film debut in Thirteen as Noel and appeared in the 2004 film Thunderbirds as Tintin, appearing alongside Brady Corbet in both. Her television appearances include guest roles on Quintuplets, Still Standing, The Brothers García, Drake & Josh and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

Career

[edit] Breakthrough

Hudgens's breakout role has been playing Gabriella Montez in the Disney Channel movie series High School Musical. Due to the good reception from the premiere of the TV movie, Hudgens and Efron won the 2006 "Best Chemistry" award at the Teen Choice Awards for their roles. In the movie, she contributed five songs in the soundtrack, which includes her solo, "When There Was Me and You". The soundtrack became the top-selling album of 2006. Hudgens also appeared in the Disney Channel Games 2006. Hudgens launched her solo music career by signing a record deal with Hollywood Records after her cover of "Colors Of The Wind" for Disneymania 5. Citing that Celine Dion and Alicia Keys are her musical influences, were the reason why she pursued a music career. On September 2006, the release of her debut album entitled V,.charted on the Billboard 200 in early October 2006 at number twenty-four on the chart, with 34,000 copies sold that week, with "Come Back to Me" the first single, and the follow-up was "Say OK". V was certified Gold on February 27, 2007. Hudgens was named Female Breakout Singer of the year at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards.

As promotion for the album, she was the opening act for The Cheetah Girls during their The Party's Just Begun Tour. Later on, due to the success of her breakout movie, High School Musical, she participated in the nationwide High School Musical:The Concert tour in fall 2006, performing the songs from the soundtrack album as well as the three singles from her debut album. A performance of the concert was released in 2007 in DVD and album form. She sang the duet "Still There For Me" with Corbin Bleu for his debut album. Hudgens also appeared on the High School Musical 2 soundtrack. In December 2007, she sang to the president, in the White House with Katharine McPhee and Ne-Yo.

Mainstream success

Due to her breakout role in the High School Musical series, she was featured in mainstream magazines and well-known lists. In 2008, she was ranked as FHM's 62nd Sexiest Woman and Maxim' lists. She was included in People's annual "100 Most Beautiful People" 2008 and 2009 lists and has been the cover girl for several mainstream magazines, including CosmoGirl, LuckySelf. and

Her sophomore album, Identified, was released on July 1, 2008, selling more than 22,000 copies during its first week. The first single from this album was "Sneakernight". At the same time, she went on the "Identified Summer Tour," to promote her albums in the U.S. and Mexico.

On January 11, 2008 it was announced that Hudgens would star in the comedy, Bandslam. Hudgens plays 15-year-old Sa5m, the 5 is silent, explained as an awkward outsider; the film will have a mid-summer 2009 release. Hudgens reprised her role as Gabriella in 2008's High School Musical 3: Senior Year and appeared on the movie's soundtrack. She also performed at the 81st Academy Awards in a musical number with other young actors involving the theme of Young Hollywood. Hudgens' upcoming projects include starring roles in Sucker Punch, which will release in 2011, where she plays the role of Blondie, which she explains as the "tough one" and the film adaptation of Beastly, which is scheduled for a 2010 release. Hudgens told Brazilian's Caras Magazine that she is planning to write songs on her new album based on her experiences.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
2003	Thirteen	Noel
2004	Thunderbirds	Tintin
2006	High School Musical	Gabriella Montez	DCOM
2007	High School Musical 2		DCOM
2008	High School Musical 3: Senior Year
2009	Bandslam	Sa5m[32]
2010	Beastly	Linda Owens	pre-production
2011	Sucker Punch!	Blondie	pre-production

TV appearances

Year	Title	Role	Episode
2002	Still Standing	Tiffany	"Still Rocking"
	The Brothers Garcia	Lindsey/Tall Girl	2 episodes
	Robbery Homicide Division	Nicole at 10	"Had"
2005	Drake & Josh	Rebbecca	"Little Sibling"
	Quintuplets	Carmen	"Coconut Kapow"
2006	The Suite Life of Zack & Cody	Corrie	4 episodes