‘High School Musical’ Turns 20 Today! See Where the Cast Is Now ...Saudi Arabia

When High School Musical premiered on Disney Channel 20 years ago on January 20, 2006, its cast was virtually unknown. Zac Efron? Vanessa Hudgens? Few viewers had any idea who they were. But practically overnight, the movie transformed its young stars into global sensations and bonafide teen idols. Now, their post–Wildcats journeys show just how far that breakout moment carried them.

“We knew before we started day one of rehearsal that we had an incredible rat pack,” director Kenny Ortega told Entertainment Weekly. “We knew that these kids had the potential to really create some thunder.”

The movie follows basketball stud Troy Bolton (Efron) and academic overachiever Gabriella Montez (Hudgens), who bond over singing and dare to audition for the school musical—despite pressure to "Stick to the Status Quo." The ensemble cast also includes Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman and KayCee Stroh.

A runaway success, HSM spawned two sequels—and instead of debuting on TV, 2008's High School Musical 3: Senior Year—was released in theaters. Since then, the cast has built impressive careers: Efron rose to major movie stardom, Hudgens expanded into film and television, while others have found success on Broadway and beyond.

“It was a joy waking up knowing that I was going to work with them every day for all these movies,” Ortega raved about the bunch. “We had such a good time working together. They were inspired—real players.”

Keep reading to learn more about where the cast of High School Musical is now.

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'High School Musical' Cast: Where Are They Now?

Zac Efron as Troy Bolton

Photo by Cindy Ord on Getty Images

Efron was cast to play Bolton—the most popular guy at East High—when he was 18. “[I]t was still, to this day, maybe one of the most fun experiences of my life,” Efron said of making the movie. 

After the franchise ended, Efron successfully transitioned into a Hollywood leading man. He started out with youthful heartthrob roles in movies like 17 Again (2009), Charlie St. Cloud (2010) and The Lucky One (2012). But it didn’t take long for him to prove his range: He tackled serious drama in The Paperboy (2012) oppositeNicole Kidman, and showcased his comedic chops in Neighbors (2014) alongside Seth Rogen. Since then, he’s continued to impress across genres in movies like Dirty Grandpa, Baywatch, The Greatest Showman, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and TheIron Claw. He recently reunited with Rogen for an episode of his hit series The Studio, playing a heightened version of himself, and he’ll next star in the Jody Hill thriller Famous, the Nick Stoller action-comedy Judgement Day and Disney’s remake of Three Men and a Little Baby. 

Beyond acting, Efron has explored travel and adventure with his Netflix series Down to Earth, which he made with his brother, Dylan, as producer. 

In terms of his personal life, Efron dated High School Musical co-star Hudgens for five years until 2010 and has since been linked to Michelle Rodriguez, Halston Sage, Alexandra Daddario and others, though he deliberately keeps his romantic life private.

Related: Zac Efron's Net Worth in 2026

Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez

Photo by Jamie McCarthy on Getty Images

By the time Hudgens tried out for the role of Gabriella, East High’s brainy new girl, she’d already gone on a string of unsuccessful auditions for Disney. So when she got the call that she was actually cast, she was ecstatic. “I was like, ‘Oh my God. It’s finally happening!’” she recalled.

Following HSM, Hudgens leaned into YA films, appearing in Bandslam (2009), Beastly (2011) and Sucker Punch (2011). But then she took a sharp turn with Harmony Korine’s debaucherous indie hit Spring Breakers (2012), which also starred Disney darling Selena Gomez. Hudgens followed that up by playing a young, homeless teen in Gimme Shelter (2013). 

“I take pride in my auditions because people in general know me as Gabriella Montez, so not only do they not know what I can do, but they have a preconceived idea of who I am,” she told Vanity Fair when asked if she had a hard time convincing directors to consider her for edgier roles. “So I auditioned for Gimme Shelter and Spring Breakers and won them fair and square. I think I showed my chops doing that.”

In 2015, Hudgens returned to her musical roots as the title character in Gigi on Broadway, followed by a scene-stealing turn as Rizzo in Fox’s Grease Live! in 2016. In more recent years, she’s found success with Netflix, leading the popular Princess Switch holiday movie franchise and appearing in films like Tick, Tick… Boom! She’s also become a go-to red-carpet host during awards season—and according to her IMDb page—she has two films in post-production.

On the personal front, Hudgens is raising two kids with her baseball player hubby, Cole Tucker. Prior to meeting Tucker, she had dated Elvis star Austin Butler from 2011 to 2020, which followed her 2010 split from her HSM co-star, Zac Efron. 

Related: ‘High School Musical’ is Nearing a 20-Year Milestone — Here’s How Disney is Celebrating

Ashley Tisdale (now French) as Sharpay Evans

Photo by Michael Tullberg on Getty Images

Tisdale, who now goes by her married name, French, was acting for years by the time she was cast in HSM—with small parts in Donnie Darko, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed. While she already had a starring role in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, being cast as spotlight-hungry drama queen Sharpay catapulted her into superstardom.

After HSM wrapped, Tisdale briefly reprised her role in the 2011 spinoff Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure. But she was soon itching to show her range. “I feel like it’s so funny because before Disney, I did tons of stuff; I did network shows, I had done Donnie Darko,” she said in 2012, while promoting a gritty, two-episode arc on Sons of Anarchy. “...I’m so grateful for what Disney gave me and the experiences that I got, [but] at the end of the day, I can do so much more than what I did on that channel and what I did in those movies.”

She went on to star in Scary Movie 5 (2013), which was a box-office disappointment compared to its predecessors, then poured herself into Blondie Girl Productions, the production company she formed in 2008, most notably producing the ABC Family/Freeform series Young & Hungry, which starred Emily Osment and ran from 2014 to 2018. 

Tisdale also cemented her status as a prolific voice actor, continuing to voice Candace Flynn on Disney Channel’s long-running animated hit Phineas and Ferb. (She’s also lent her famous vocals to Kim Possible, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and more.) In 2019, she returned to music with her third studio album, Symptoms, released a decade after her previous album, Guilty Pleasure.

These days, Tisdale is perhaps most focused on her wellness and beauty line, Being Frenshe, which launched at Target in 2022. The brand grew out of her blog, Frenshe, where she shared personal insights about mental health and self-care. “What I’m really proud about is that I know people know me as [the characters I’ve played], but now through Being Frenshe, they get to know who I am personally for the first time,” she told Cosmopolitan. “I’m so glad people have grown up with me, but I do feel like I’m doing something more meaningful in my life, which is really important to me.”

Tisdale, who shares two young daughters, Jupiter and Emerson, with her husband of more than a decade, Christopher French, recently made headlines for a piece she wrote for The Cut about stepping away from a “toxic” mom group after being repeatedly left out of plans. “Motherhood has enough challenges without having to wonder if the people around you are on your side,” she wrote. “You deserve to go through motherhood with people who actually, you know, like you.”

The group in question was rumored to include Mandy Moore,Hilary Duff and Meghan Trainor. Although Tisdale’s publicist denied the rumors, Duff's husband, Matthew Koma, seemed to confirm it, posting a faux article of his own with the headline "When You're The Most Self Obsessed Tone Deaf Person On Earth, Other Moms Tend To Shift Focus To Their Actual Toddlers." Tisdale has not responded to the backlash.

Related: ‘High School Musical’ Star Says Castmate Refuses to Appear on Podcast: ‘I’m Done Talking About It’

Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans

Photo by Mathew Tsang on Getty Images

When Grabeel was cast as Ryan Evans, Sharpay’s glamorous, scene-stealing twin, he had $3 in the bank and a job at Blockbuster—despite already having starred in Disney’s HalloweentownHigh. “That was a real amazing dose of humility because the movie came out. It was on the shelf,” he recalled on Ned’s Declassified Podcast Survival Guide. Then, Kenny Ortega cast the struggling actor in HSM, and his luck changed in an instant. “I was like, oh, thank god. I don't have to sell my car and walk everywhere,” he joked. 

Following the success of the franchise, Grabeel appeared in five seasons of Switched at Birth and established himself as an in-demand voice actor, with long-running roles in series like Sheriff Callie’s Wild West, Pinky Malinky and Family Guy. 

To the delight of fans, Grabeel returned as Ryan in 2022 for the fourth and final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, joining other characters from the original films for a high school reunion storyline. His comeback was especially memorable because Ryan’s character was finally confirmed as gay. Though the original movies never addressed his sexuality on screen, director Kenny Ortega later revealed that Ryan was gay and “probably came out in college.”

Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth

Photo by Gareth Cattermole on Getty Images

Bleu had already been pounding the pavement as a child actor for years when he was cast to play Troy’s loyal BFF and basketball teammate, Chad Danforth. (He even did the pilot episode of Hannah Montana before starring in HSM.) 

But after the franchise wrapped, his career took a somewhat unexpected pivot to the stage when he made his Broadway debut playing Usnavi in In the Heights. 

“When it was first announced I would be playing the role, there was a lot of opposition,” Bleu told Playbill. “First, they wondered why this Disney kid was playing a lead role in a Broadway production. Second, why I was playing a Dominican character, when I myself am Jamaican and Italian so I don’t have any Latino descent. But it ended up being received really well, and it was a very proud moment for me.”

He went on to play Jesus in a 2012 revival of Godspell, then spent years performing in various productions of Golden Age musicals, including Holiday Inn, the New Irving Berlin Musical at Studio 54 in 2016; Singin’ in the Rain at St. Louis’ Muny in 2018; Anything Goes at Arena Stage in D.C. that same year; and Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway in 2019. Following his impressive stage run, he co-starred with on-screen HSM girlfriend Monique Coleman in Lifetime’s 2021 movie A Christmas Dance Reunion. (On the subject of dance: He also competed on Dancing with the Stars back in 2013, placing second in the finale. )

In 2022, Bleu reprised his role as Chad for the final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. "I want people to see me in a different light. I don't want to be pigeonholed in this certain character. You grow. And in order to do that, sometimes, you have to pull away,” he told People. “But enough time has passed that I can now visualize it not as something that's dragging me or holding onto me, but as its own separate entity that I know that I came from. And I appreciate it so much."

Away from the spotlight, he’s been married to fellow actor Sasha Clements since 2016. 

Related: Zac Efron’s Original ‘High School Musical’ Vocals Has Fans Saying the Exact Same Thing

Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie

Photo by Stephanie Augello on Getty Images

It makes sense that Coleman played East High’s whip-smart student council president, because after High School Musical she spent much of her time helping other young people succeed. In 2010, she became the first-ever United Nations Youth Champion, a role that took her to 24 countries to learn about and draw attention to the issues facing youth around the world. She also stepped behind the camera as an executive producer on the Discovery Life series Gimme Mo’, earning a Daytime Emmy nomination for her work.

As far as acting goes, Coleman went on to star in the Lifetime movies A Christmas Dance Reunion (2021), which reunited her with HSM costar Corbin Bleu; Greed: A Seven Deadly Sins Story (2022); and the BET movie Love, Marry, Kill (2023). She also reprised her role as Taylor for Season 4 of HSMTMTS.

Off-screen, Coleman married Walter Jordan in 2012, but the couple divorced 10 years later. She’s since taken up adult figure skating. “A couple of weeks ago, I experienced my first (and only) fall to date,” she wrote on social media in December 2025. “As painful as it was, I was honestly THRILLED because it meant I was really going for it. Remember, we can’t make progress if we don’t take risks.”

KayCee Stroh as Martha Cox

Photo by Vivien Killilea on Getty Images

KayCee Stroh played HSM’s energetic, dance-loving brainiac and has popped up in a handful of projects—including The League, Andi Mack and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. But the devoted mom of two opted to step away from the spotlight and return to her home state of Utah in order to raise her family with husband, Ben Higginson.

But over the years, Stroh has built a loyal following on social media, amassing over 3.3 million followers on TikTok alone. With inspirational posts, high-energy dance videos and relatable mom-life content, it's easy to see why!

Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielson

Photo by CBS Photo Archive on Getty Images

Before breaking out as Kelsi, East High’s shy composer, Rulin starred in Disney Channel's The Poof Point, Hounded and Halloweentown High. Since then, she’s continued to act with small or recurring roles in TV shows like Greek, NCISand The Rookie. She married entrepreneur Joseph Noel Pauline in 2021 and the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Ondine Michelle Pauline, the following year.

Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus

Photo by Rodin Eckenroth on Getty Images

Before she became the eccentric drama teacher in High School Musical, Reed was already a Broadway star, earning a Tony nod for her role in the 1987 revival of Cabaret. She dazzled onscreen too, playing Cassie in A Chorus Line (1985) and appearing in loads of TV shows— including Ghostwriter, Party of Five and Providence. 

Since the HSM films, she’s popped up on series like How to Get Away with Murder, NCIS, Grace and Frankie and Modern Family—and in 2022, she reprised the role of Ms. Darbus for Season 4 of HSMTMTS. 

Bart Johnson (Coach Jack Bolton)

Photo by Dia Dipasupil on Getty Images

After his stint as Coach Bolton, Johnson kept busy with steady TV work, popping up on series like The Client List, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Rookie, Hawaii Five-0, Quantum Leap and Yellowstone. He also returned to East High by reprising his HSM role on HSMTMTS.

Ahead of the movie’s 20th anniversary, Johnson launched the podcast Get Your Head in the Game, which features interviews with HSM cast and crew. He sent fans into overdrive after revealing in a since-deleted post on X that one cast member declined to participate, saying, “No. I’ve talked about this movie for 20 years and I’m done talking about it.” Johnson later clarified that it wasn’t Zac Efron, and that there were no hard feelings.

“I didn’t take it personally at all—and nobody else should either,” he said. “I actually thought it was hilarious, and I can guarantee I’ll eventually get this person on the podcast. We’ll talk about it, have a good laugh. Promise!!”

Off screen, Johnson has been married for more than 25 years to actress Robyn Lively (Blake Lively’s sister), and the couple shares three children.

Up Next: Kenny Ortega Finally Settles the Zac Efron ‘High School Musical’ Singing Debate

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