Vanessa Anne Hudgens is an American actress and singer. She was born on December 14, 1988 in Oregon. She is half Caucasian (father) and half Filipino (mother)]. She has a younger sister named Stella. When she was still young, her family moved to San Diego, California.

She began her love of music and theater as a young child, in fact both sets of grandparents were musicians during the Big Band Era of the early part of the last century. 
She made her first television appearance in 2002 in an episode of the TV series "Still Standing".  This was followed up by another small TV appearance on an episode of Robbery Homicide "Division later that year".

She was no stranger to acting and has had a number of theatrical roles including: "The Wizard of Oz", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "The King and I", "Evita", "Carousel", "Dam Yankees" and "Cinderella".

Her first real role came only one year later, when in 2003 when she made her big screen debut in role of  Noel in the movie "Thirteen".

In 2004, she hit the big screen again as Tin-tin in the mildly successful sci-fi comedy/drama "Thunderbirds".

She continued with her pursuit of an acting career and appeared in an episode of "Quintuplets" in 2005.

Her big break came in January 2006, when she appeared as Gabriella Montez in the Disney made for TV movie High School Musical opposite Zac Efron.  The movie did very well in the ratings for its demographics, but to everyone's delight, the music from the soundtrack has made a big splash on the U.S. charts.  In fact, the single "Breaking Free" - a duo she sings with Zac Efron has reached no 4 on Billboard and made history when it dropped 82 places from no 86 one week earlier - the largest single jump ever!

She continues to sing and act and has recently appeared on an episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

Her debut album entitled "V" is slated to be out on September 26, 2006.

www.hollywoodrecords.go.com/vanessahudgens