Zac Efron

Zac Efron (born October 18, 1987, San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.) is an American actor who came to fame as a teen in High School Musical (2006), a TV movie made for the Disney Channel. He later starred in such films as Neighbors (2014), The Greatest Showman (2017), Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), and The Iron Claw (2023). Efron’s ability to transform his physique for certain roles has often made him the subject of social media discussion.

Early life and first roles

Efron and grew up alongside a younger brother, Dylan Efron, in Arroyo Grande, a town in California about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles. His parents met at the nuclear power plant where they worked. David Efron was an electrical engineer, and Starla Efron (née Baskett) was an administrative assistant. Zac Efron’s parents noticed his musical ability when he was young. He often imitated the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz (1939) as a toddler and sang with perfect pitch songs he heard on the radio. Efron took acting classes at nearby Allan Hancock College, through which he appeared in such productions as Gypsy, Peter Pan, The Music Man, Auntie Mame, and Little Shop of Horrors. He soon landed spots on several TV shows, including Firefly in 2002, ER in 2003, The Guardian in 2004, and CSI: Miami in 2005.

High School Musical

In 2006 Efron played a starring role in the made-for-TV movie High School Musical, which aired on the Disney Channel. He played Troy Bolton, a jock in love with Gabriella Montez, a brainy transfer student played by Vanessa Hudgens, whom Efron dated until 2010. The movie was a huge hit, drawing 7.7 million viewers during its first airing, which was a Disney Channel record. Efron catapulted to fame, winning a Teen Choice Award for breakout star and millions of fans. Rolling Stone put him on its cover with the headline “The New American Heart Throb,” observing that his “aw-shucks charm, crush-worthy good looks and charismatic dance moves were to a large degree responsible for the movie, DVD and soundtrack shattering records.” Efron, however, admitted to the magazine that his singing voice had been dubbed by another singer. “So what do you do when the entire cast is supposed to accept an award at the Billboard Awards and your voice is only on the album in a select few lines?” Efron wondered out loud to Rolling Stone. “I felt extremely guilty.” Efron was never given a reason for the decision, and for the sequel, High School Musical 2 (2007), he fought Disney to allow his voice to be used in the movie and on the album. The second installment was an even bigger success than the first, drawing some 18.6 million viewers for the premiere, the most watched cable TV event in history. The final movie, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, was released in theaters in 2008 and broke the box office record for highest grossing musical on opening weekend.

Early movie roles

Between filming the High School Musical movies, Efron expanded outside of Disney, appearing in the big-screen adaptation of the hit musical Hairspray (2007) and Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles (2008). The latter was an effort by Efron to go beyond musicals and challenge his acting skills. He subsequently took on parts in various genres, starring alongside Matthew Perry in the time-travel comedy 17 Again (2009), the supernatural romance Charlie St. Cloud (2010), and an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s novel The Lucky One (2012). Efron also joined the star-studded cast of Lee Daniels’s The Paperboy (2012), which featured Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack, and Scott Glenn.

Rehab and Neighbors

In 2014 Efron spoke openly to The Hollywood Reporter about his struggles during this busy period. The previous year he had completed a rehab program to treat an addiction to alcohol and drugs. He had also broken his jaw in a fall at home in Los Angeles in 2013 and had been involved in a well-publicized tussle with a homeless person in 2014. “I had done films back-to-back-to-back. I was burnt out,” he told the magazine. “I clung to [work] in a way that became a little bit destructive.” Efron nonetheless returned to moviemaking in 2014, starring in the frat-boy comedy Neighbors alongside Seth Rogen, who praised Efron for his strong work ethic. Efron also produced his first movie, That Awkward Moment (2014), in which he also starred with Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller as friends trying to enjoy being single.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and other movies from the late 2010s

Efron continued appearing in comedies, including Dirty Grandpa with Robert De Niro, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (all 2016). He returned to musicals in 2017 with The Greatest Showman, the popular film about American showman P. T. Barnum (played by Hugh Jackman). In the movie Efron demonstrated his singing skills, performing with Zendaya on one of the movie’s most-talked-about songs, “Rewrite the Stars.” That same year he emerged with a more muscular physique in Baywatch, a movie spinoff of the hit ’90s TV show. He later admitted that he overdid the training, telling Variety in 2023, “I learned a lot over the course of Baywatch—I learned the hard way about not sacrificing my real health for a look on camera.” Efron finished the decade by playing serial killer Ted Bundy in the Netflix movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which also starred Lily Collins. The Guardian wrote of Efron, “The star’s charismatic and creepy performance as the notorious serial killer is the best thing about an otherwise pedestrian and graceless drama.”

The Iron Claw and other projects from the 2020s

Between 2020 and 2022 Efron led the Netflix series Down to Earth, which was billed as “a travel show that explores healthy, sustainable ways to live.” After living in Byron Bay, Australia, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Efron starred in The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022), alongside Russell Crowe. He played a Marine Corps veteran who journeys to Vietnam in 1967 to deliver beer to his childhood friends who are fighting in the war. The next year, Efron again transformed his body, this time for The Iron Claw, portraying Kevin Von Erich, the only surviving brother in a family of professional wrestlers. Variety described his performance as “proof that some golden boys have the potential to melt themselves down and reshape themselves into something new. In this small-scale, low-budget indie, Efron, at 36, is unambiguously and finally all grown up.” Movies from 2024 included the comedies Ricky Stanicky and A Family Affair.

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