Zendaya: from *The Odyssey* to *Spider-Man*, she’s the star of the summer

Right now, for Italian audiences, Zendaya is the goddess Athena – brooding, disillusioned and embittered by Odysseus and his men – in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. A figure who appears dressed in light colours, her head veiled, gentle yet resolute, pleading for mercy as she blends in with one of the many Trojan women, before she is beheaded. But she is also the dream, the ghost, the Jiminy Cricket of Odysseus (Matt Damon), as he is moved to tears when his protégé meets Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and reveals his failure to her. Meanwhile, she is already in China with her co-star Tom Holland for the promotional tour of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). The film, in Italian cinemas from today, stars Tom Holland in the lead role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, whilst Zendaya plays Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson, Peter’s ex-girlfriend. In this latest instalment of the saga, Peter tries to return to being a ‘normal’ university student, but hidden forces drag him back into the fray and he is forced to rethink what it means to be a hero.

Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, known professionally as Zendaya, was born on 1 September 1996 in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of two teachers and the youngest of six half-siblings, whom her African-American father – of Nigerian descent – had from previous relationships. As a child, she learnt to dance in a hip-hop dance group in Oakland and to act in school productions and local theatre groups. Then, when she was twelve, she moved to Los Angeles, where she made the leap to fame and began building a career based on iron discipline and hard work, which led her to an unshakeable Hollywood career, thanks to her professionalism, commitment and talent. Zendaya began as a model for advertising campaigns; in addition to dancing and acting, she also sings with remarkable talent. She is what one might call a complete artist.

The Disney Channel, with its mix of music, dance and acting, is her realm of child stars. At the age of 13, in 2009, she co-starred alongside Bella Thorne in the Disney Channel sitcom A tutto ritmo – the Italian title for Shake It Up – in which two best friends dream of becoming professional dancers. Between 2015 and 2018, she played a teenage secret agent in the sitcom K.C. Undercover (K.C. Agente Segreto). Then came the films, again for the Disney Channel: Nemici per la pelle (2012) and Zapped – La nuova vita di Zoey (2014).

But it is the world of superheroes that has brought her true fame. Since 2017, she has played the eternal (ex) girlfriend of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, first in Spider-Man: Homecoming, initially in a minor role which Zendaya, through her talent, helped to expand and develop in subsequent scripts, giving her character a distinct, caustic and aloof quality. She then appeared in Spider-Man: Far from Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
She starred alongside teen heartthrob Zac Efron in The Greatest Showman, a 2017 film directed by Michael Gracey and co-starring Hugh Jackman. Her breakthrough, however, came in 2019 in the HBO series Euphoria, created by Sam Levinson, in the role of the seventeen-year-old, drug-addicted protagonist, Rue Bennett, where she revealed the full extent of her dramatic talents in challenging scenes involving drugs, sex and violence. She won two Emmys and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

She goes on to star alongside Sam Levinson in another drama, this time centring on a couple’s story, Malcolm & Marie (2021), and in the same year she played Chani in the film adaptation of the science fiction novel Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve. This marked another significant step forward, as she starred alongside Timothée Chalamet; here too, she moved from a supporting role to become the narrator of *Dune* and a key presence alongside Chalamet. Her inclusion in the sequel, *Dune: Part Two*, was a natural progression.