Zachary David Alexander Efron born on October 18, 1987 is an American actor and singer. He was born in San Luis Obispo, California. His father David, an electrical engineer, and mother Starla, an administrative assistant, met while working at the same nuclear power plant. The couple relocated to Arroyo Grande, California, a town roughly 200 miles north of Los Angeles, to raise Zac and his younger brother, Dylan.
His father encouraged him to begin acting when Zac was eleven years old. Later on he started taking on singing classes and was active in theater production in his high school. He was making regular trips to Los Angeles for auditions while attending Arroyo Grande High School. He auditioned for the role in a long-running production of Gypsy and was cast in a small part. He was then even more filled with passion for acting.
In 2002, he made his first television appearance on the short-lived series “Firefly”. In 2003, Efron landed guest roles on ER and the pilot for The Big Wide World of Carl Laemke. The following year, he could be seen in the film “The Guardian”, as well as the pilot for Triple Play and the made-for-television movie “Miracle Run”.
From 2004 to 2005 he starred in a regular series on The WB’s Summerland. Although the series got cancelled in in July 2005, he was a regular media presence, with guest roles on NCIS (2003-), Disney’s”The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (2005-08)”and CSI: Miami (2002-12). He also landed a leading role in his first feature film, “The Derby Stallion (2005)”.
His career reached a turning point with the teen musical television film “High School Musical (2006)”,which helped him gain recognition among teenage audiences. Eventually recognized as one of the most successful made-for-television movies ever, the movie produced unprecedented ratings, a best-selling soundtrack and loyal fans. Offers for acting roles and record deals followed, but he declined. He chose instead to take time off to focus and graduate from high school.
In an effort to avoid typecasting, he decided to make a departure from musicals. However, to honor his fans, he agreed to appear in “High School Musical 3 (2008)”, the final installment of the trilogy. After then he appeared in Richard Linklater’s period drama Me and Orson Welles (2009), title role in the supernatural romantic drama “Charlie St. Cloud (2010)”.
While filming the light-hearted comedy “17 Again (2009)”, he had a near-fatal experience on the set. He was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy while shooting the role-reversal film with co-stars Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann. He returned to the set a mere two days after surgery to resume shooting.
In 2012, he began to play more mature roles, that year, he took on the lead role yet again in the film “The Lucky One”, opposite Taylor Schilling. In 2014, he played an infuriating frat boy opposite new suburban dad Seth Rogen in the comedy “Neighbors”. He went on to star in the comedies Neighbors (2014) and its 2016 sequel, “Dirty Grandpa (2016)” and “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)”, as well as the 2017 movie reboot of “Baywatch”. In 2017, it was announced that he will play notorious serial kill Ted Bundy in the upcoming biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.
Effron and co-star Vanessa Hudgens started dating during the filming of High School Musical but the couple broke up in December 2010. He began a romantic relationship with model and entrepreneur Sami Miró in September 2014. The couple split in April 2016.
