Monday night was a consecration for Zendaya.
The 26-year-old American won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Rue Bennet, a teenager recovering from drug addiction as she searches for her place in her world on the series. HBO’s Euphoria.
“I just want to say that my greatest wish for Euphoria was that it could help heal people. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has shared their story with me,” Zendaya said in her award speech.
“Anyone who has loved Rue or feels like they are a Rue, I want you to know that I am so grateful for your stories and I carry them with me, and I carry them with me.”
Among several thanks, the actress highlighted the creator, screenwriter and producer of the series, Sam Levinson.
“Thank you Sam for sharing Rue with me. Thank you for believing in me even when she didn’t believe in myself,” she said as she held up the newly obtained statuette.
The fiction, which debuted in 2019, premiered its second season in January of this year. She had 16 nominations for Hollywood’s top awards for the small screen and won six.
A third season of Euphoria has already been confirmed by the US network, although at the moment it is unknown when it will be broadcast.
Fashion icon, singer and with a career on the rise, Zendaya also became known for her performance in three films of the Spider-Man saga: “Homecoming” (Homecoming, 2017), “Far From Home” (Far from Home, 2019) and “Sin camino a casa” (No Way Home, 2021).
Tom Holland and Zendaya, protagonists of three Spider-Man films, are a couple in real life.
Thanks to these films she met British actor Tom Holland, her current partner.
Here are four facts about Zendaya that you may not have known and that we have compiled on BBC Mundo.
1. A Disney star
Zendaya began her career as a child modeling for brands like Macy’s and Old Navy.
After studying acting from a very young age and participating in some plays, at the age of 13 she was selected by Disney to co-star in the series “At all rhythms” (Shake It Up), which reached the main channel of the children’s entertainment conglomerate one more year. afternoon.
Zendaya and Bella Thorne starred in the series Shake It Up, which aired on the Disney Channel between 2010 and 2013.
The series, in which she played Rocky Blue, narrated the adventures of two teenagers who are best friends and seek to fulfill their dream of dancing.
“At full speed” had three seasons. During the course of the series, moreover, Zendaya launched her career as a singer.
2. Milestones in Emmy history
When in 2020 Zendaya won the award for best leading actress in a dramatic series for the first season of Euphoria, she marked a milestone by becoming the youngest woman to achieve that recognition.
Two years later, the artist won that statuette again, making her the youngest to win it twice.
She in turn, she became the first black woman awarded twice in that category.
She also joined the list of actors who have won an Emmy twice or more for the same character.
3. A particular name
Zendaya is not a stage name but her real given name.
Zendaya Coleman is the daughter of Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, a man of African descent, and Claire Stoermer, of German and Scottish descent.
The name is a family invention that comes from the word tendai in Shona, a Bantu language originating in Zimbabwe. Tendai means “to give thanks”.
“It started out as Jendaya or something, and my dad has a thing for z’s and a zen thing, a very nice and easygoing thing, so he helped me call myself Zendaya,” she told Popstar! magazine in 2011.
4. Activist from an early age
The protagonist of Euphoria has been concerned throughout her short life to support some social causes.
Thus, at the age of 16, she was part of a humanitarian aid campaign for the victims of Hurricane Sandy that hit the Caribbean and the US East Coast in 2012.
The following year she published the book Between U and Me: How to Rock Your Tween Years with Style and Confidence.
Zendaya decided to write that book to accompany girls on the path to adolescence.
“Tweenhood can be a lot of fun and exciting, but it can also be a difficult time in a girl’s life,” she said at the time of her.
“You are finding your personal voice and style. There is a lot of drama in relationships with other girls, parents, siblings, teachers, and boys. I hope this book helps girls get through the hardest parts of pre-adolescence and helps them appreciate the parts fun”.
When she turned 18 she celebrated with a food drive for children in Haiti, Tanzania and the Philippines, and by her 20th she decided to raise US$50,000 for female empowerment.
In January 2017 she participated in a march in Washington DC for women’s rights and in June 2020 in a protest march for the murder of George Floyd.
She has supported, in turn, the Black Lives Matter campaign (in Spanish, “black lives matter”).
Concerned about future generations, she collaborated in a campaign so that children and adolescents can study STEM careers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics, for its acronym in English).
She is an activist for real beauty – so much so that she criticized a media outlet when it published a photoshopped photo of her – and she has participated in politics through campaigns to stimulate the vote in the United States.
She was also part of Unicef and Onusida initiatives.