Learn more about Rachel Zegler's career ahead of 'Evita'

The West Side Story and Snow White star makes her West End debut in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice classic, having made her Broadway debut in Romeo + Juliet in 2024.

Julia Rank22 May, 2025, 16:00

This summer, Rachel Zegler makes her West End debut in the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Evita. Director Jamie Lloyd has called Zegler “a phenomenal talent", and said: "I am delighted she will be making her West End debut as the iconic Eva Perón.”

Born on 3 May 2001 in Hackensack, New Jersey to a mother of Colombian descent and a father of Polish descent, Zegler is still only in her early twenties, yet her CV is already full of extraordinary accomplishments. She was cast from an open call as the lead in a movie musical directed by Steven Spielberg, starred in Shakespeare on Broadway, played a lead role in a Hunger Games prequel – and she has embodied a Disney princess.

Zegler was bitten by the theatre bug at an early age and made her community theatre debut in Fiddler on the Roof at the age of 12. In high school, her roles included Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, and Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street. In 2015, she started a YouTube channel where she posted clips from school productions and covers of pop hits and musical theatre classics, and her version of “Shallow” from A Star is Born went viral with over 7 million hits. Pretty impressive for a highschooler! Read on to learn more about Zegler’s professional career so far.

Book Evita tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler (Photo by Niko Tavernise for Twentieth Century Studios)

Breakthrough role: West Side Story

After Zegler learned about the casting call for Spanish-speaking actors for Steven Spielberg’s new version of West Side Story via Twitter, she submitted a video of herself singing “I Feel Pretty” in Spanish (“Me Siento Bonita”). Over 30,000 hopefuls applied and Zegler undertook about half a dozen auditions over the course of a year. She was cast during her final year of high school and gave up her college place to pursue this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

One of the greatest musicals of all time, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story is an update of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that’s set in 1950s New York, and Maria is the ultimate showcase for a young soprano. The Guardian observed that “Rachel Zegler's vibrantly natural performance almost singlehandedly justifies this ‘reimagining’ from director Steven Spielberg.” The film was nominated for seven Oscars (with a win for Ariana DeBose’s Anita) and four Golden Globes, including Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Zegler. She has the distinction of being both the youngest and the first actress of Colombian descent to win in that category.

Further film work

In 2023, Zegler starred in two action films. In Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Zegler played Anthea, youngest daughter of the god Atlas (her elder sisters were played by Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren). In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Zegler starred as Lucy Gray Baird, a Hunger Games "tribute" mentored by a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth). The character was also a travelling musician, which provided the perfect showcase for Zegler’s enchanting vocals. Her other film roles to date are Laura in the apocalyptic science-fiction comedy Y2K (2024) and the voice role of Princess Ellian in Netflix animated musical Spellbound, which featured music by Alan Menken (also 2024).

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Broadway debut: Romeo + Juliet

Having made her name as the Juliet-inspired Maria in West Side Story, Zegler made her Broadway debut as the original romantic heroine at Circle in a Square in autumn 2024. The production was aimed squarely at a TikTok-reared Gen-Z audience and featured original music from singer-songwriter and Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff. Zegler starred opposite Heartstopper’s Kit Connor and New York Theatre Guide’s reviewer noted that “these Insta-famous actors have genuine talent that commands attention all on its own”.

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Snow White

In this live-action remake of the Disney classic, Zegler played an assertive version of the put-upon princess and sang new songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman). The film received mixed reviews, with many critics agreeing that Zegler’s charisma and vocals were the highlight.

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West End debut: Evita

While Zegler has so far made her name playing ingenues, Evita is a true leading lady role and one of the biggest sings in musical theatre. Furthermore, the production is directed by Jamie Lloyd, one of the most innovative and celebrated directors of his generation. There could be no more prestigious vehicle for Zegler as a professional musical theatre debut.

On the role Zegler, said: “Evita has been such an important musical to me since I was a little girl, when my dad and I would sing ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ together on my back patio. The opportunity to bring Jamie Lloyd’s singular, visionary ideas to life onstage is an honour unlike any other. The stage has always felt like home to me, and I can’t wait to make my West End debut in such great company.”