Vanessa Hudgens

Hudgens was born in Salinas, California, and has lived with her parents throughout the West Coast from Oregon to Southern California. Her mother Gina (née Guangco),held a succession of office jobs, and her father Gregory Hudgens was a firefighter. She has a younger sister, Stella Hudgens, who is also an actress. She was raised as a Roman Catholic Hudgens is of mixed cultural background, as her father is of Irish and Native American descent, and her mother, a native of Manila Philippines, is of Chinese-Filipino-Spanish descent. All of her grandparents were musicians.

Starting at the age of eight, Hudgens performed in musical theater as a singer, and appeared in local productions of Carousel, The Wizard of Oz, The King and I, The Music Man, and Cinderella, among others.Two years after her career in stage plays and musicals, she started auditioning for commercials and television shows, and her family moved to Los Angeles after she won a role in a television commercial. Her acting career started at the age of 15, and she briefly attended Orange County High School of the Arts, followed by homeschooling with tutors.