Zachary David Alexander "
Zac"
Efron (born October 18, 1987) is an American
actor and
singer. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s, and became known to young audiences after his roles in the
Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the
WB series
Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the
Broadway musical
Hairspray.
In 2007, right before the release of
High School Musical 2,
Rolling Stone declared him the "poster boy for tweenyboppers" and featured him in their late August 2007 issue.
Early life and background
Efron was born in
San Luis Obispo,
California, and later moved to
Arroyo Grande, California. His father, David Efron, is an
engineer at a
power plant, and his mother, Starla Baskett, is a former
secretary who worked at the same power plant.
Efron had a self-described "normal childhood" in a
middle class family. He has a younger brother, Dylan.
Efron is of
Jewish ancestry and is an
agnostic, having never been religious.
He has said that he would "flip out" if he got a B and not an A in school but endorsed being a
class clown.
Although self-described as not academically gifted, he remained focused enough to achieve an overall
GPA of 4.3.
[www.usaweekend.com/09_issues/090412/090412zac-efron.html] Efron's father encouraged him to begin acting when Efron was eleven.
He subsequently appeared in theater productions at his high school,
worked in a theater called The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville,
and began taking singing lessons.
Efron performed in plays such as
Gypsy;
Peter Pan, Or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up;
Little Shop of Horrors; and
The Music Man. Efron was recommended to an agent in Los Angeles by his drama teacher, Robyn Metchik (the mother of actors
Aaron Michael Metchik and Asher Metchik).
He was later signed to the
Creative Artists Agency.
