Zendaya’s rise has been nothing short of remarkable. In just over a decade, the actor has gone from dancing in ball gowns on the Disney Channel to becoming the youngest person to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her elemental performance in Euphoria. This year, her career has reached new heights once again with a quartet of barnstorming turns, from her return to Sam Levinson’s aforementioned addiction saga and the Spider-Man franchise to memorable parts in The Drama and The Odyssey – and Dune: Part Three is still to come.
As she celebrates her 30th birthday, we revisit her best films and TV shows to date.
Shake It Up (2010 to 2013)
At the tender age of 14, the actor came to prominence opposite a fresh-faced Bella Thorne in Chris Thompson’s buoyant Disney sitcom about two best friends who earn spots as background dancers on a local show. She nails every routine and every cutting one-liner.
KC Undercover (2015 to 2018)
When a teenager discovers that her parents are spies, she, too, begins moonlighting as a secret agent in Corinne Marshall’s zippy comedy. Zendaya is delightfully zany in the lead role as she dons disguises, chases down criminals and effortlessly beats them to a pulp.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
In Jon Watts’s thrilling reboot and its subsequent sequels (2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2021’s No Way Home and 2026’s Brand New Day) the actor soars as snarky loner MJ, a foil to Tom Holland’s earnest Peter Parker. Their romance is as awkward as it is adorable.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
With candy floss-pink hair and jewel-toned leotards, Zendaya transforms into a trapeze artist working for PT Barnum (Hugh Jackman) who enchants a playwright (Zac Efron) in Michael Gracey’s crowd pleasing musical. It’s an ideal showcase for her voice and athleticism.
Euphoria (2019 to 2026)
Rue, the endearing but erratic recovering addict at the centre of Sam Levinson’s sensational (and, in its final season, uneven) high-school saga, remains the actor’s most complex creation. You laugh with her, cry with her and hope against hope that she survives.
Malcolm & Marie (2021)
Shot in lockdown and brimming with suppressed resentment, Sam Levinson’s portrait of a relationship in turmoil follows a former actor (Zendaya) and a high-flying filmmaker (John David Washington). From their screaming matches to tense silences, she’s extraordinary.
Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024)
Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi franchise casts Timothée Chalamet as a fighter who travels to an inhospitable desert planet and Zendaya as one of its inhabitants, hellbent on protecting it. Captivating though she is in the first instalment, it’s in the second that she fully comes into her own, becoming the heart of the film as our other heroes are slowly corrupted. The third instalment can’t come soon enough.
Challengers (2024)
The bob, the shirt dresses, the Loewe bags, the hard-as-nails competitiveness – Tashi Duncan is the unstoppable force around which everything else revolves in Luca Guadagnino’s wild tennis romp. Whether she’s dominating the court or running rings around Mike Faist’s Art and Josh O’Connor’s Patrick, you’d be a fool to underestimate her.
The Drama (2026)
It’s difficult to see Kristoffer Borgli’s bonkers cringe comedy working without both Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. The pair play a couple whose relationship implodes in the run-up to their wedding day following the surfacing of a horrifying secret, providing as many big laughs as it does unbearable, watch-it-through-your-fingers set pieces. A big, divisive swing which shows the actor’s total fearlessness.
The Odyssey
A bevy of A-listers – Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron – jostle for position in Christopher Nolan’s ambitious take on Homer’s epic, but, even with her limited screen time, Zendaya is a standout as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, who guides our hero on his decades-long journey. With her regal bearing and elegant robes, she’s the picture of stoic contemplation.