Since the end of the High School Musical franchise, the cast has been very busy. Let’s see what it was like.
Want to feel old? The first High School musical came out 16 years ago. Those of us who watched it as children are fully grown up now. We at uni, we have jobs. Some of us even have children. Yikes.
The actors in it were also relatively unknown. After 16 years, that certainly wasn’t the case for some of them, so where are they now?
Zac Efron
Do we need to delve into this? It would be faster to say what Zack did not It was even since his HSM days. He’s been in The Greatest Shoman, Baywatch – he even played serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. The 34-year-old has a net worth of $40 million and moved to Australia last year. With countless projects ahead, we definitely haven’t heard the last from Troy Bolton.
Vanessa Hudgens
Perhaps less famous than Zach but still a huge star, Vanessa’s career didn’t quite take off in the same way. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t busy though. Unlike Zach in the first movie, she sang for Gabriella in all of the HSM movies – but she was an actor she wanted to pursue. Right after High School Musical, she starred in films like Beastly with Alex Pettyfer, Sucker Punch, and Spring Breakers.
Most recently, she was on Netflix’s Princess Switch franchise, playing three characters at a time. She also worked alongside Andrew Garfield on Tik… Tik..Boom! Academy Award nominee, to once again play a singing role.
Just this year, she co-hosted the Met Gala in Manhattan.
Ashley Tisdale
If you don’t secretly love Sharpay Evans, you are lying to yourself. Her version of You Put The Music In Me is the superior version, and that’s the hill we’re going to die on.
After High School Musical, Ashley pursued a singing career, releasing her debut album Headstrong in 2007. Her character’s success also meant pursuing a solo film after the original franchise ended. She then took on her talents for expressing acting, playing Candice on Phineas and Ferb from 2007 to 2015.
Most recently, she starred in CBS’s Carol II Act and was a panellist on The Masked Dancer.
Lucas Grapel
The 37-year-old has lived a slightly quieter life than the other cast members. The actor, singer, and songwriter has worked on many projects since HSM, but none of them have been very popular. However, he has appeared in the revival of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
The list of his television work is quite extensive, appearing in Family Guy, Phineas, Ferb and Pinky Malinky as the titular role.
Monique Coleman
Gabriella’s best friend, Taylor McKissie was one of our favorite characters from High School Musical. But what has she been doing since then? Well, Monique had a recurring role on The Suite Life of Zac and Cody (which also starred Ashley Tisdale!) and appeared on Dancing With the Stars.
Since then, unfortunately, Monique has not been around much. However, in 2012 she got married and was the first-ever United Nations Youth Champion in 2010!
Corbin Blow
The youngest of the main cast, Corbin Bleu has just turned 33. After a short-lived musical career, Corbin dedicated his time to Broadway, playing Usnavi in In the Heights and Bill Calhoun/Lucentio in Kiss Me, Kate.
In 2016, he married Canadian actress Sasha Clements.
In other news, is Purple Hearts on Netflix based on a true story?