Zac Efron was born “Zachary David Alexander Efron”. He was born on the 18th of October 1987, and he is a professional dancer, singer and actor. He is probably most well known for his part in popular musicals, such as High School Musical or the Broadway production of Hairspray. After he experienced success with High School Musical, Efron has appeared in popular movies like Me and Orson Welles, Charlie St. Cloud or 17 Again, opposite other famous actors.

Zac Efron was born in California, and has lived there throughout his youth. His parents are not from the film or music industry. In fact, his father is an engineer at a local power plant, and his mother is a secretary working at the same plant. Zac is the oldest of two children, and, as he himself describes, has lived a normal childhood in a normal family. He is Jewish, but has never felt very religious. As a fun fact, and closely related to him being Jewish, his family name (“Efron”) is Hebrew for “lark”, a species of birds typically found in Australia. Efron’s early life was dominated by a high degree of determination. As he has stated, he would often “flip out” when, in school, he would get anything less than an “A”. As he would later describe, Efron was made fun of throughout school regarding his height (he is 5’8”), and also for the huge gap in his teeth. Also, in school he is said to have been the class clown. His parents spotted his acting talent ever since he was a young boy, and his father encouraged him to become an actor ever since he was only 11 years old. This is how Zac Efron started acting – he started to appear in plays in his school theater, and also appear in productions of a theater called “The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville”. His first plays were The Music Man, Little Shop of Horrors, Peter Pan; or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, or Gypsy. His drama teacher, Robyn Metchik (whose sons are also in the acting business) recommended Efron to a Los Angeles agent, and this was the bump that the young artist’s career essentially needed, and it was how it al began – the road would eventually take him to the Creative Artists Agency, with which he would sign.

The actor’s career essentially started in 2002, when he started to appear in several small guest roles on shows like The Guardian, ER or Firefly. These roles were small and short, but enough to get him noticed. In the drama “Firefly”, for instance, Efron portrayed the younger version of a leading character and only saw a few minutes of screen time, but it definitely led to further, larger roles. He went on to interpret the role of Cameron Bale in “Summerland”. Initially, Efron was supposed to only be a recurring character; however, his role started to be increased and he went on to become a full cast member in 2004, at the start of the show’s second season. Despite being critically acclaimed, the show was eventually cancelled. After playing a role in Summerland, roles started to be more and more frequent for Efron, and he started to play more guest roles in shows like NCIS, CSI: Miami, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and more. In 2003, Zac played in the TV movie “Miracle Run”. The show was centered around two twins that were autistic, one of which was Efron. His performance in the show was very highly regarded, and he was even nominated for a Young Artist Award. 2005 was an equally successful year, as Efron landed a leading role in a music video by Hope Partlow, as well as a role in The Derby Stallion.

But all of these roles were to be shadowed by Efron’s upcoming success. In 2006 he won a leading role in “High School Musical”, a Disney production that proved to be an outstanding success all over the world. He played one of the most popular students in the high school (as well as the basketball team captain) – Troy Bolton. As Efron himself later confessed, he had extremely low expectations for the movie, and he was surprised to see such a huge success develop around the film. Even though the actor’s singing voice was dubbed throughout the film (which, as a 2007 interview reveals, was because the songs were inappropriate for his baritone voice), he gained immense recognition due to his performance nonetheless. Thanks to the film, he was nominated (and won) several awards and gained incredible exposure following the release of the film. Just after HSM was aired, Zac recorded two songs that hit the Billboard Hot 100 in early 2006, both being songs from the film. This Disney wonder also has another reason to thank his appearance in High School Musical – starting 2005, he and leading actress Vanessa Hudgens are a couple, and they allegedly met on the set. Many have asked celebrity gossip; does zac efron smoke? Zack started smoking when he was 16 but stopped again when he was 19.

2007 was he beginning of a new era in Zac Efron’s career, as it marked his “post – High School Musical” career. In 2007 he appeared in a music video by Vanessa Hudgens, and also appeared in a Punk’d episode. It was a prolific year for the actor, as he appeared in People’s “2007′s Most Beautiful People”, as well as other magazines. That year, he also appeared in a film version for the musical Hairspray, where he had interpreted all of his vocals. The role was particularily demanding, as Efron had to cut his hair and gain about 15 pounds. His performance, and the overall movie was very well received. Since then, he has appeared in two sequels for the Disney movie Highschool Musical, as well as many other films. Me and Orson Wells is one of them, which was very well received. Footloose was supposed to be one of them, but after several months he dropped out of the film.

All in all, Zac Efron is still very much at the beginning of his career, and we should all keep an eye out for him in upcoming productions.