We stan Zendaya‘s ascension into superstardom. One minute she was the Disney kid with the right moves on the sitcom Shake It Up, now she’s an Emmy-winning A-lister who is part of one of the biggest box-office smashes in history (Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the highest grossing films of all time) and generating Oscar buzz (most recently, for Challengers). The girl is on fire.
She wouldn’t be the megastar she is though without the love and support of her parents, Claire Stoermer and Kazembe Coleman. The duo, who divorced in 2016, are “homies” according to the star, and they taught her the principles that have helped her succeed in the biz and in life. They brought her up in Oakland, where they were teachers, and kept her busy with dance troupes and more.
“I gotta give it up to my parents,” she said in 2016. “I’m really lucky to have the parents that I have. They just have always instilled in me those core values that I think I have to carry with me through everything. I give it up to them, I give it up to my family.”
She has said that her parents and large family (she has older siblings from her father) have shaped who she is most.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized my true models are my parents. My mom is like a sheroe. My dad is so strong,” she said in 2015. “Having such a big, grounded family, I realized as you get older how important that is.”
Check out photos of the starlet and her number one fans — mom and dad.
