image     Vanessa Anne Hudgens was born on December 14, 1988 in Salinas, California to multi-racial parents. She has a younger sister named Stella. When she was still young, her family moved to San Diego.

    She began her love of music and theater as a young child so she started doing commercials. Vanessa received her first job when a friend could not go and she took her place. She made her first television appearance in 2002 in an episode of the TV series “Still Standing”. This was followed up by another small TV appearance on an episode of “Robbery Homicide Division” later that year.

    Her first major role came only one year later, when she made her big screen debut in role of Noel in the movie “Thirteen” a drama revolving around the reckless exploits of several teenagers. In 2004, she hit the big screen again as Tin-tin in the mildly successful sci-fi comedy/drama “Thunderbirds”. She continued with her pursuit of an acting career and appeared in an episode of “Quintuplets” in 2005.

Her big break came in January 2006, when she appeared as Gabriella Montez in the Disney made for TV movie “High School Musical” and finally began to receive the recognition she deserved. The movie did very well in the ratings for its demographics, but to everyone’s surprise, the music from the soundtrack has made a big splash on the U.S. charts. In fact, the single “Breaking Free” - a duo she sings with Zac Efron has reached #4 on Billboard and made history when it dropped 82 places from #86 one week earlier - the largest single jump ever! She continues to sing and act and has appeared on an episode of “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”. Her debut album, “V”, was released in September 26, 2006 and had great success. “High School Musical 2” was televised on Disney with even greater success than the first movie in Summer of 2007.