What Has Vanessa Hudgens Been Up To Since High School Musical?

"High School Musical" premiered on the Disney Channel in January 2006, and the world was never the same. The young cast was launched instantly to millennial superstardom, making icons out of actors like Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, and, of course, Vanessa Hudgens. As sweetheart math whiz Gabriella Montez, Hudgens won legions of fans, but behind the scenes, she wasn't sure whether starring in the hit franchise was the right career move.

Hudgens later told The Guardian that she'd always envisioned a more serious acting career for herself than the kid-friendly roles that came her way in the wake of the Disney smash. "'High School Musical' was a fantastic journey, but it completely derailed me from where I originally saw my career going. I always wanted to be the indie girl," she said. "I always wanted to be in the movies where I'm playing a drug addict or a stripper or a prostitute. That was my goal since I was like, 11."

In the years since first finding fame, Hudgens has gotten a chance to take on those kinds of roles anyway. She's become an entrepreneur, a mother, a tabloid fixture, and a style icon; she's leaned into her theater-kid roots, and she's found new avenues to make her name in entertainment. In other words, she's still going strong. To paraphrase Baby V's sorely underrated song "Sneakernight" from 2008, "basically what we're gonna do is" catch up with everything Vanessa Hudgens has been up to since "High School Musical."

"High School Musical 3" came out in 2008, and at that point, Vanessa Hudgens and co-star Zac Efron's off-screen relationship was going strong. Hudgens would later tell The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast that it was helpful to date the Troy to her Gabriella in real life. "... by being in a relationship, I feel like it kind of kept me stabilized and grounded, and I had someone to lean on who was going through it as well," she noted.

Two years after "High School Musical 3," though, the two decided to tell one another that they "gotta go their own way." The couple split that December, and it seems to have been a mutual decision that didn't lead to any bad blood. "They are 100% still good friends," a source told People at the time. Another source spoke with E! News and insisted there was nothing particularly bad that had happened, but the relationship just petered out. "They were together for so long," the source said. "It just ran its course."

Like Hudgens, Efron looks back on that time in his life fondly. "She was a really interesting, sweet person," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, adding that being part of the franchise "was hands down the most honest, carefree, passionate experience of my life."

In the years following "High School Musical," Vanessa Hudgens acted in a handful of bold, controversial films that helped shed her Disney Channel image. First came 2011's "Sucker Punch," directed by Zack Snyder, which saw her play an asylum patient named Blondie involved in a series of hyper-violent, hyper-sexualized fantasy scenarios. Still, Hudgens disputed the idea that the role was meant to change up her star persona. "It's not me trying to push aside everything else that people know me as," she told Collider. "It's just that this is an incredible project that I wanted to be a part of." The film was a critical disappointment, currently clocking in at only 22% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2013, Hudgens went blond again for her role in "Spring Breakers," a film by Harmony Korine. The movie paired her with fellow Disney Channel star Selena Gomez, and their characters headed down to Florida for a Spring Break filled with violence and sex. This time around, in an interview with The Upcoming, Hudgens confessed that she was choosing projects with more of an edge. "Recently, I've been doing a few projects that are way darker and deeper and heavier," she said. "Reading these situations in the movie where our characters go wild, that harsh, hard element was something that I really liked." This one was more of a success, landing at 68% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and becoming one of her signature roles.

Vanessa Hudgens made her name in "High School Musical," so it makes sense that she would eventually move on to a more grown-up musical situation. In 2015, Hudgens was cast as the lead in "Gigi," a Broadway musical about a girl living in Paris at the turn of the century. She was excited for the challenge of singing live on stage, telling Today, "I think it's the ultimate test for an actor." Hudgens was used to acting on film sets, a method of storytelling that brings new challenges each day, but Broadway required her to get it right in front of a live audience. "I'm so used to film or television where you have multiple takes to get it right and with this, figuring out that I only had one time was like the hardest thing to accept because I'm not used to that."

Later, in an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Hudgens revealed that one night, things went wrong on stage. An understudy broke a champagne glass just as they were supposed to sing, and the "Beastly" star panicked. "Eventually we picked it back up," she said, "but for those few seconds, I felt like I was literally going to die. Like, just spontaneously combust ... Horrible. Horrible."

Vanessa Hudgens' experience on Broadway wound up being important preparation for her career's next big moment, as Rizzo in "Grease! Live" and as Maureen in "Rent: Live." The former part especially earned her rave reviews in 2016, thanks to a bravura performance of the iconic "Grease" song "There Are Worse Things I Could Do." One person wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "Vanessa Hudgens' mastery of Rizzo's body language should get awards." Someone replied in agreement, admitting, "she brought me to tears."

Fans were stunned to learn that Hudgens had suffered a great personal loss just before the show kicked off. That morning, she tweeted, "I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer. Thank you to everyone who kept him in your prayers. In a second tweet, she added, "Tonight, I do the show in his honor."

Years later, she reflected on that night in an interview with Glamour UK. She insisted that her father would've wanted her to go on with the show; after all, he'd ensured that she had space while growing up to explore her love of entertaining. "Obviously if I [hadn't performed], that would be okay, too," she said. "But knowing that I was kind of doing it in honour of him is what made it really special and made me feel even more connected to him."

Though things have changed somewhat in recent years, throughout the 2010s there was no cooler place to be — and to be seen — than at Coachella. The California music festival was a stomping ground for celebrities eager to show off their flower crowns and festival fashion, and there was no celeb more emblematic of Coachella culture than Vanessa Hudgens.

Baby V was called "The Queen of Coachella" by numerous fans, which she acknowledged in an appearance on "The Ellen Show." Taking issue with Ellen DeGeneres' characterization of her Coachella 'fits as "outrageous," Hudgens protested, "They're not outrageous, they're like, bohemian! ... Which is why I love Coachella, because it gives you an excuse to wear things you wouldn't normally wear."

DeGeneres handed Hudgens an outfit covered in the word "Ellen," promising to donate $10,000 to the charity of her choice if Hudgens were to wear the outfit to Coachella and get it photographed by a major publication. Hudgens does not seem to have done so, and there's no word whether the scandal-plagued former talk-show host donated the money anyway.

Toward the end of the 2010s, Vanessa Hudgens transitioned from being The Queen of Coachella to being the Queen of Christmas. Actually, our apologies to Mariah Carey ... perhaps we should call Hudgens Netflix's Queen of Christmas. In 2018, she starred in "The Princess Switch," a "Prince and the Pauper" style story where she played dual roles. That led to two more sequels, "The Princess Switch: Switched Again" and "The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star."

In the later films, she even played a third character, and Hudgens told Screen Rant that it was far more difficult than she expected. "I do love a challenge, and a challenge it was! Because it's not just the three characters," she said. "The characters are switching, so it's, like, six characters, all put together in one of me! So my brain, definitely, was working on overdrive. But I feel like what we achieved is magic."

The success of the "Princess Switch" films led to another Netflix Christmas movie for Hudgens: "The Knight Before Christmas." In that one, her character falls in love with a hunky knight sent forward from the Middle Ages. "The Knight Before Christmas" marked a new chapter in her career, as she also served as an executive producer. "Ten years ago I wouldn't have even thought about becoming an executive producer, and now everyone is being respected and seen. There are no boundaries," she told Entertainment Weekly. "If you want to do it, do it."

Vanessa Hudgens closed out the 2010s with another breakup, just as she'd opened the decade. This time, she split from her longtime boyfriend Austin Butler, whom she dated for most of the intervening years since she and Zac Efron parted ways. The "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" actor would later go on to receive an Oscar nomination for his work in "Elvis," but when the two were together, Hudgens was the bigger star. 

As with Efron, the two seem to have split somewhat amicably. While on the Oscar campaign trail, Butler confirmed to The Los Angeles Times that Hudgens was the one to urge him to take what would become a career-defining role. "We'd been together for so long, and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment and so I really — I owe her a lot for believing in me," he said.

Details about why they split are scarce, but Hudgens insisted to Nylon that she would spill the story someday. "The public only sees so much," she said. "I've also been through two very long life-changing relationships, and no one really knows what happened except for me. When I write my memoir, it'll be amazing."

While Vanessa Hudgens spent most of the 2010s in her lane and thriving, she kicked off the 2020s with a scandal. As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down life around the country and forced the cancellation of any event where lots of people would be gathered together, the Queen of Coachella was horrified to learn that the festival would not be taking place that year. She hopped on Instagram Live and delivered an incredibly tone-deaf rant about the disease.

"It's a virus? I get it, like, I respect it," she said (via YouTube). "But at the same time, like ... even if everybody gets it, like ... yeah, people are gonna die, which is terrible, but like, inevitable?" She seemed aware that her words weren't going to go over well, laughing as she added, "Maybe I shouldn't be doing this right now."

She, indeed, shouldn't have been doing that, and Hudgens later took to social media to address her now-infamous insensitive remarks. "Yesterday I did an Instagram Live, and I realize today that some of my comments are being taken out of context," she said (via YouTube), not actually apologizing for the way she'd spoken the day before. "I don't take this situation lightly, by any means," Hudgens continued, telling her followers to remain indoors and safe in quarantine. We have to admit: It's not the best apology we've ever heard!

In 2021, as the world emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanessa Hudgens pivoted. The multi-hyphenate star added another line item to her impressive resumé when she launched Caliwater, a cactus water brand. The drink, which comes in flavors like Wild Prickly Pear and Ginger Lime, has only half the calories of coconut water.

In an appearance at a beverage expo the following year, Hudgens spoke with BevNet.com about the brand. "It's so exciting because this is such a passion project of mine," she said. Hudgens revealed that she co-launched the brand with Oliver Trevena, a friend of more than a decade. He initially launched the product years ago, but she came onboard for a relaunch. "We just leaned into the things that we love," she said. "We're both very health-conscientious. We wanted to do something that's actually good for you, and delicious, and here we are!"

There's another reason why Hudgens decided to work with the brand: a personal health scare. "I have fainted twice in my life both from dehydration; it's really an issue. It's easy to say 'drink more water,' but as someone who thoroughly does not enjoy it, it's never on the top of my priority list," she revealed, per Forbes. "So, to have a drink that's super hydrating, full of electrolytes, and can give me everything I would need out of water is amazing."

Some time after her breakup from Austin Butler, Vanessa Hudgens met someone new. Their relationship began in a very 2020s way: over Zoom. She told Nylon, "I'm not going to call it a celebrity Zoom, but it was a Zoom meditation group that Joe Jonas put together. I did not expect it at all," she said. "I don't think if I entered a meditation Zoom, I'd be like, 'This is where I'll meet my person.' I just showed up and I was like, 'Who the f*** is that?'" The person in question turned out to be Cole Tucker, a baseball player for teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates. Soon enough, they were in love.

Hudgens confirmed their engagement in February 2023, sharing a photo on Instagram of the couple in Paris. "YES," she wrote in the caption. "We couldn't be happier." The couple has a significant age gap, but that doesn't matter; love wins.

They married that December in a ceremony in Tulum, getting hitched at a museum that required a 45-minute trip through the jungle. "I felt like I was transported to some kind of utopia, unlike anything I had ever been to before," Hudgens told Vogue about her first time visiting the venue. "It was whimsical and magical, and I just fell in love." She wore a dress by Vera Wang, telling the outlet, "We obviously had to spruce it up a little and add some extra love to it so that it was special, just for me."

In 2024, while attending the Oscars, Vanessa Hudgens debuted a heartwarming accessory on the red carpet: a baby bump! The "Second Act" star later shared a photo on Instagram of herself and her new husband, captioning the snap, "You can call it faith, you can call it angels, you can call it whatever you want."

"High School Musical" fans rejoiced when they realized this meant Hudgens was pregnant at the same time as former co-star Ashley Tisdale. On Instagram (via Hola!), a fan pointed out the coincidence in Tisdale's comments, and she replied, "It's very cool. I'm so excited for her and this new chapter in her life." Even Hudgens' former flame Zac Efron chimed in on the news, telling Access Hollywood that the additions would definitely make for a change to any "High School Musical" cast reunions: "They're gonna be the best moms ever. Those girls? Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh. Yeah, we're gonna have some fun family reunions coming up."

Hudgens gave birth in July, and unfortunately the paparazzi made the arrival of her new little one a little less special. She was photographed leaving the hospital after having her child, forcing her to release a statement on Instagram Stories (via Today). "We're disappointed that our family's privacy was disrespected and exploited during this very special time due to the greed of a long lens camera feeding the media," she wrote. "Despite all of that, Mom dad and baby are happy and healthy."