Naya Rivera Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Height, Net Worth, Fast Facts

She began her career as a child actress and model, first appearing in national television commercials. At the age of four, she landed the role of Hillary Winston on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Royal Family (1991–1992), earning a nomination for a Young Artist Award at age five. After a series of recurring television roles and then guest spots as a teenager, she got her breakthrough role in 2009 as lesbian cheerleader Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015). For the role, she received critical acclaim and various awards, including a SAG Award and ALMA Award, as well as earning nominations with the rest of the cast for two Grammy Awards and one Brit Award.

Naya Rivera Wiki, Biography

Naya Marie Rivera was born in Valencia, California, on January 12, 1987.^[7] She was raised in Valencia and lived in or around Los Angeles for most of her life.^[7] She was of African-American, German, and Puerto Rican descent.^[8][c] When the term “Afro-Latinx” became widespread in the 2010s, she was often identified as such.^[12][13] Her mother, Yolanda Previtire (née White), is a real estate agent and former model,^[14][15] while her father, George Rivera,^[16] worked various IT jobs including positions at Disney and Universal Music.^[17] Her parents had married in 1986, but divorced in 1996, and her mother was remarried to Charles Previtire in 1999; Rivera was close with her stepfather,^[14] but did not really know her grandparents.^[18] Her maternal grandmother was Clara White, an abortion counselor and figure in the civil rights movement who was involved in the March on Washington, Selma to Montgomery marches, and 1968 Chicago riots,^[19][20][21] and who organized protests with^[22] and was represented by activist and lawyer Lloyd Barbee.^[23]

Rivera did not grow up speaking Spanish at home,^[24] but understood it^[25] and later learned to speak it.^[26] She was the oldest of three children: her younger brother is former NFL tight end Mychal Rivera (b. 1990),^[27] and her younger sister is runway model Nickayla Rivera (b. 1994).^[24][28] During the time her parents were married, the family’s income would fluctuate dramatically, sometimes living lavishly and other times struggling;^[17] when they were in financial difficulty, Rivera approved the use of some of the money she earned as a child that was set aside in her Coogan account.^[18] The family owned a boat and often went boating when Rivera was a child;^[29][30] she still enjoyed boating as an adult and took many trips to Lake Piru near her home, which she considered a “sanctuary”.^[31][32]

At 8 or 9 months old, Rivera began to be represented by the same talent agent as her mother, who had moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling.^[33] Rivera was a fan of Michael Jackson from a young age and became friends with one of Jackson’s nieces as a child actress on the audition circuit, visiting Neverland Ranch twice (though not with Jackson present).^[34] She also met Tupac Shakur as a child; he was a fan of her acting and went over to introduce himself after spotting her family at LAX.^[35] Rivera attended Valencia High School in Santa Clarita and graduated in 2005.^[36][37] Her mother had convinced her to join a choir in her freshman year, but she quit it after a few weeks because she was constantly overlooked for classmate Nazanin Mandi. She challenged Mandi to a sing-off for a solo, but Mandi declined and so Rivera left.

Personal life

Rivera dated actor Tahj Mowry between 2000 and 2004,^[180] after having first met shooting a commercial when Rivera was four^[36] and later working together on Smart Guy in the 1990s. She remained close with Tahj and his family, particularly his sisters, Tia and Tamera Mowry, for many years, including helping the sisters find an apartment when they got kicked out of their house and appearing on Tia Mowry at Home in 2017.^[126] In an Instagram tribute post on July 12, 2020, after Rivera was declared missing, Mowry wrote that he never stopped loving Rivera.^[180][184] Between 2008 and 2010, Rivera dated Glee co-star Mark Salling. The two had a rocky relationship and ultimately split at the request of Salling’s publicist; she later said that Salling breaking up with her felt like “the worst thing ever” at the time.^[185] Salling was arrested in 2015 for possessing child pornography; in her book (written before Salling’s subsequent suicide), Rivera expressed that she was not “totally shocked” at this, but it still took her by surprise.^[185] She then briefly dated actor Ryan Dorsey, whom she would later marry.^[186] In her memoir, Rivera revealed that she had an abortion in 2010, shortly after splitting from Dorsey, due to the fact that her career was taking off with the success of Glee;^[187] she did not tell Dorsey about the abortion until they got back together in 2014,^[38] and said that he was supportive and respectful when she did.^[188] She wrote about the abortion in her book “[to use] her platform [to] tackle the stigma”.^[189]

In April 2013 she began dating recording artist Big Sean,^[190] and the couple announced their engagement in October 2013^[190] but split up in April 2014.^[191] While they were together, Big Sean rapped about her in his featured part on the track “All Me” by Drake.^[192] In her memoir, Rivera wrote that she found out their relationship was over “at the same time as the rest of the world” when Big Sean published the news on the internet.^[193] After they broke up, she asked Big Sean not to write a song about her; this instead encouraged him to do so, and he added verses about Rivera to a song he was writing called “I Don’t Fuck with You”,^[38][194] which became the lead single from his 2015 album Dark Sky Paradise.^[195] The song peaked at number 1 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs^[196] and at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100.^[197] Rivera performed the song on a 2018 episode of Lip Sync Battle, seen as shading him.^[198] In 2017, Big Sean released another diss track about Rivera, “No More Interviews”, which In Touch Weekly said “really takes aim at Naya’s neck”.^[199]