Zac Efron

Zachary David Alexander Efron is an American actor born on October 18, 1987. Raised in Arroyo Grande, California, in a middle-class family, he is the son of David Efron, an electrical engineer, and Starla Baskett, an administrative assistant. He grew up with a younger sister and two younger brothers. Efron performed in local theater productions such as Gypsy and The Music Man, and attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. After graduating from Arroyo Grande High School in 2006, he was accepted to the University of Southern California but did not enroll.

Efron began acting professionally in the early 2000s, making television guest appearances on shows like Firefly, ER, and The Guardian before being cast in the drama series Summerland. In 2004, he earned a Young Artist Award nomination for the television movie Miracle Run. His breakout role came in 2006 when he starred as Troy Bolton in the Disney Channel movie High School Musical, establishing him as a teen idol. He reprised the role in High School Musical 2 (2007) and High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008). During this period, he also starred as Link Larkin in the film adaptation of Hairspray (2007) and in the comedy 17 Again (2009).

Following his success in teen musical films, Efron expanded into dramatic and romantic projects, including Me and Orson Welles (2008), Charlie St. Cloud (2010), The Paperboy (2012), and The Lucky One (2012). He also voiced a lead character in the animated film The Lorax (2012) and executive produced and starred in the romantic comedy That Awkward Moment (2014). He shifted into mainstream comedic roles with major box office successes such as Neighbors (2014), Dirty Grandpa (2016), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016).

In 2017, Efron starred in the action comedy Baywatch and played a supporting role in the musical drama The Greatest Showman. He subsequently took on darker and biographical roles, portraying serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) and wrestler Kevin Von Erich in the biographical drama The Iron Claw (2023). His other projects include the survival thriller Gold (2022), the horror remake Firestarter (2022), the comedy-drama The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022), and the comedies A Family Affair (2024) and Ricky Stanicky (2024).

In addition to acting, Efron established the production company Ninjas Runnin' Wild under Warner Bros. in 2010 and launched a YouTube channel in 2019 featuring fitness and lifestyle series. For hosting the Netflix documentary series Down to Earth with Zac Efron, he won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2021. In 2023, Efron was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.