Rachel Zegler's Real Name: Rachel Zegler

Quick answer: Rachel Zegler is known professionally and in official awards records as Rachel Zegler. She was born on May 3, 2001, in New Jersey. She won a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a motion picture — musical or comedy for playing María in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story (2021) (Golden Globe Awards).

Real name and early life

The Golden Globe Awards site describes her as a Colombian American actor and singer-songwriter born on May 3, 2001, in New Jersey. The Library of Congress heading is "Zegler, Rachel, 2001-." A longer form, Rachel Anne Zegler, appears in Library of Congress citations to IMDb and Wikipedia; because those are the only places it is documented in the sources used here, this page uses the public name in the title. As a high school student she played María in a Performing Arts School presentation at the Bergen Performing Arts Center, the Golden Globes profile says. In 2018, during an open casting call, Spielberg selected her from more than 30,000 applicants.

Career highlights

Her feature film debut was as María, opposite Ansel Elgort's Tony, in Spielberg's 2021 remake of West Side Story. The Golden Globe Awards site records a nomination and then a win for best actress in a motion picture — musical or comedy. A Library of Congress citation to the film's title frame likewise lists Rachel Zegler among the cast. The same awards profile notes later announced work in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, with Helen Mirren, and a live-action Snow White adaptation. Those later credits, together with the West Side Story debut, are what first made the name familiar to a wide film audience.

The profile also mentions earlier online visibility, including a widely circulated cover of the song "Shallow" from A Star Is Born. The documented career that searchers are usually looking for, however, begins with the Spielberg musical and the Golden Globe that followed.

Name notes for searchers

Rachel Zegler is the name used by the Golden Globe Awards and in the Library of Congress authorized heading. A middle name, Anne, appears only in IMDb- and Wikipedia-based Library of Congress citations and is not used in the title here. Searchers looking for the West Side Story María are usually aiming at the same person.