Naya Rivera

Biography

Naya Marie Rivera ( NY-ə riv-AIR-ə; January 12, 1987 – July 8, 2020) was an American actress, singer, and model recognized for her work on the popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. 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 Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee. 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 a Grammy Award and a Brit Award. She was signed to Columbia Records as a solo musical artist in 2011 and – despite never releasing a studio album – released a single, "Sorry", in 2013. She won two ALMA Awards as a music artist. On the big screen, Rivera made her debut in the horror film At the Devil's Door (2014) before playing a supporting role in the comedy Mad Families (2017). Besides performing, Rivera championed various charitable causes, particularly for LGBT rights, immigrants' rights, and women's rights. She also spoke out against racism, especially in entertainment. Her personal life garnered significant press and media attention throughout her career, and in 2016 she published a memoir titled Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up. Because of her varied roles across her three decades as a performer, Rivera is seen as having been a vanguard of Afro-Latino and LGBTQ representation on television. On July 8, 2020, Rivera drowned at Lake Piru, near Santa Clarita, California, while saving her four-year-old son when their boating trip went awry. Following a five-day search, her body was recovered from the lake on the morning of July 13. At the time of her death, she was between seasons of the television series Step Up, in which she played Collette Jones.

== Early life == Naya Marie Rivera was born in Valencia, California, on January 12, 1987. She was raised in Valencia and lived in or around Los Angeles for most of her life. She was of African-American, German, and Puerto Rican descent. When the term "Afro-Latinx" became widespread in the 2010s, she was often identified as such. Her mother, Yolanda Previtire (née White), is a real estate agent and former model, while her father, George Rivera, worked various IT jobs including positions at Disney and Universal Music. 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, but did not really know her grandparents. 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, and who organized protests with and was represented by activist and lawyer Lloyd Barbee. Rivera did not grow up speaking Spanish at home, but understood it and later learned to speak it. She was the oldest of three children: her younger brother is former NFL tight end Mychal Rivera (b. 1990), and her younger sister is runway model Nickayla Rivera (b. 1994). During the time her parents were married, the family's income would fluctuate dramatically, sometimes allowing them to live lavishly, and other times leaving them struggling; 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. The family owned a boat and often went boating when Rivera was a child; she still enjoyed boating as an adult and took many trips to Lake Piru near her home, which she considered a "sanctuary". 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. 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). 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. Rivera attended Valencia High School in Santa Clarita and graduated in 2005. 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. She had wanted to be a cheerleader, but her family could not afford this. Instead of high school activities, Rivera spent her free time at acting auditions. She suffered with anorexia as a teenager, something she opened up about as an adult. In 2019, Rivera described her high school experience as "terrible", indicating at other times that part of this was her attitude towards education (compared to her career), the lack of coffee served there, and racism.

== Career ==

=== 1991–2008: The Royal Family and early career === Rivera appeared in commercials for Kmart as a baby, but her first significant acting job was at the age of four when she appeared as Hillary Winston on the CBS sitcom The Royal Family in 1991. As she could not read the scripts, she would learn her lines through recitation and memorize them. This skill stayed with her, as she was known for learning lines quickly and always performed them perfectly on set. The show received positive reviews and high ratings initially, but star Redd Foxx suffered a fatal heart attack on set in October 1991, which Rivera witnessed; the series was retooled after Foxx's death, but was eventually canceled. Rivera wrote that she and Foxx "were intergenerational BFFs from the moment [they] met", and that she considered him like a grandfather. Watching Foxx die in front of her at a young age affected her career, particularly around filming season finales. She said that on The Royal Family she "fell in love with being on TV"; she received a Young Artist Award nomination for her performance in the series. As a child and teen actor between 1992 and 2002, Rivera was part of the golden age of black sitcoms, and had roles in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, The Jersey, Live Shot, Baywatch, Smart Guy, House Blend, Even Stevens and The Master of Disguise. In 2002, she also appeared in the music video for B2K's "Why I Love You". She then had a guest appearance on The Bernie Mac Show in 2002, before returning to the show for ten episodes throughout its five-season run. Growing up mixed-race in the entertainment industry, she found that her ethnicity could both help and stifle her opportunities; sometimes she found that she could not be typecast by casting directors because she "wasn't Black enough, or Latina enough" and struggled to get roles as either ethnicity, but has also said that she "could play a lot of different ethnicities, from just plain old dark-skinned white girl, to Latino, to African-American", broadening the roles she could audition for. This also concerned her, feeling that she may have been chosen for modeling jobs to be the "ethnic girl". In 2016, she discussed how she still faced racism in casting at this point in her career, using the example of an audition where she was told that the part was instead cast to a white woman because "the size of [her] lips [was] distracting to male execs", saying: "does she know that's racist? I'm Hispanic and black; you can't say that". As she was getting older, she was featured in episodes of 8 Simple Rules and CSI: Miami. She also recorded music as a teenager, with her father sneaking her into his workplace, and worked with Al B. Sure! at the age of fourteen. By this point, she was working less frequently. In between auditions and roles, Rivera worked jobs as a telemarketer, a nanny, and a greeter at an Abercrombie & Fitch store. In 2006 and 2007, she took part in a production of Mark E. Swinton's play, U Don't Know Me: The Musical, both in Los Angeles and when the production was taken on national tour. She also auditioned for an unspecified season of American Idol during the San Francisco auditions, but was cut in the first round. In March 2008, Rivera began studying screenwriting at New York Film Academy, graduating the same year.

=== 2009–2011: Breakthrough with Glee === In 2009, Rivera was cast as Santana Lopez, a high school cheerleader, on Fox's musical comedy series Glee, about a high school glee club. She auditioned for the opportunity "to sing, dance and act all in the same show", and because she was a fan of co-creator Ryan Murphy's previous work on Nip/Tuck. She drew on her own high school experience of unpopularity to prepare for the role, as well as watching films including Mean Girls to "really get in the zone and feel like a bitchy sophomore". Rivera described her character Santana as "a bit of a bad girl" and "your typical high school cheerleader, for the most part", saying that she enjoyed playing Santana because she "always has these really witty one-liners she throws out there". The LA Times wrote that Rivera was "woefully underused for much of Glee's first season", though Santana played a more prominent part in the last nine episodes of it; Rivera said at the time that "Santana's been wreaking havoc with people's boyfriends and people's babies and teachers – she's the high school terror, and she's going to continue to be the villain". Rivera continued as a nanny while working on the first three episodes of Glee, not knowing if they would bring her back; Murphy was so impressed by her that he "convinced the network" to contract her at this point.

After having her screen time and musical involvement increased in the second half of the first season, Rivera was promoted to series regular as of the beginning of the second season, something said to be earned because her "magnetism on screen was undeniable". She was given her first solo in the fifth episode of season two, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show", and performed several others as the season progressed. During the second season, Rivera's role in the show was radically changed when it was revealed that her character was a lesbian. Rivera portrayed Santana struggling to come to terms with her sexuality, with her love for her best friend, and with her inability to come out of the closet. Rivera spoke about the development of this aspect of her character, saying that it was first thought up by the writers as a "funny little thing" for a quick punchline; the actress pushed for the sexuality and relationship to be taken seriously. She received favorable reviews for her performance, and is celebrated for the representation that Santana and her portrayal of the character provide, one feature on Rivera's legacy said that "in a landscape starved of representation, Santana was an oasis. A bold, well-rounded, hilarious woman of colour who was openly and unapologetically gay". In 2013, Santana's second season coming-out scene was described as "one of the hallmarks of the entire series". In relation to the show, Rivera was a guest mentor on The Glee Project's second season episode "Sexuality", and in January 2011, she appeared in a Funny or Die parody of "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang", called "Nuthin' But a Glee Thang", which had been co-written by her Glee co-star Heather Morris. Rivera and Morris played girlfriends and ultimately wives on the show; Rivera said that the pair were comfortable filming intimate scenes, but that these became awkward because "all the guys wanted to visit the set". They remained close friends until Rivera's death. In 2011, Rivera won her first ALMA Award for Favorite Female Music Artist; she won two more in 2012, in the categories of Favorite TV Actress – Leading Role in a Comedy and Female Music Artist. She received a great amount of critical praise for both her acting and her singing performances in the latter part of season two and the beginning of season three of Glee. As 2011 ended, she or her character were on many "Best Of" lists, including HitFix's 25 Breakout Stars of 2011, TV Guide's Best Performances of 2011, and MTV's Best TV Characters of 2011. In 2020, Santana appeared on the Thrillist list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters of the 21st Century, ranking at number 85 and the only Glee character included. In the third season, Rivera's character Santana was outed and began to publicly accept her sexuality, giving Rivera more complex and emotional storylines. She also performed a duet with Ricky Martin, and worked with Gloria Estefan, who was cast as Santana's mother. Estefan said that she studied Rivera's performance as inspiration for her own character, explaining: "I already knew [Santana] was very sarcastic, but [she] also has a heart, [...] So her mother had to be tough as nails, but with that little sarcastic edge", while also being supportive. Discussing Emmy nominations in 2012, Collider said that Rivera was "arguably the only bright spot" of the season. Study Breaks highlighted that while Santana had impactful storylines about her sexuality, she strayed from the "popular trope" of queer characters being defined by their queerness, as "she also stars in many other storylines in the show. The writers of Glee make it abundantly clear that Santana is a lesbian, but she is also a fierce, motivated dreamer who loves and loses like everyone else", with the article adding that her "firm sense of self goes beyond her race and sexuality". As the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards approached in 2012, Rivera was listed by many critics and media outlets as deserving of a nomination; The Hollywood Reporter included her in their "Emmys 2012: Supporting Players" photoshoot, the annual class photo of the 25 top contenders across the various Supporting performance categories, and she was honored by media outlets like E!, HitFix, and TV Guide. She was chosen by the Television Academy to host the "Countdown to the Emmys" video for the then-upcoming awards ceremony, a video introduction to each year's ceremony that is watched by an estimated 25 million people. For the awards, Rivera submitted the Glee episode "Mash Off" for consideration in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category (an episode that had generated much Emmy attention) because it "was so well rounded. [Glee is] a comedy but [she] also got to show off some dramatic aspects of the character" in it. Despite this, Rivera was not nominated for an Emmy in 2012, nor in her career, with the media generally considering this a snub; The Daily Beast argued that she and other actors were overlooked because of their characters being young, while in 2020, Television Academy received criticism for years of Latin under-representation at the Emmys.

=== 2012–2014: Musical solo debut and film debut ===

Rivera remained in a principal role on Glee in its fourth and fifth seasons from 2012 to 2014. While working on the later seasons of Glee, Rivera undertook other projects. In May 2011, it was announced that she had signed a deal with Columbia Records to produce a solo album; she said she had "been waiting for this day ever since [she] was a little girl" and that "it's always been [her] dream to release [her] own music". In 2012, the musical duo 2Cellos released the second single to their second album, a cover of Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" featuring vocals by Rivera. She also starred in the music video for the song. Rivera and 2Cellos had first met and worked together with Grant Gustin for a song featured on Glee, with the cellists thinking that Rivera's "sexy voice" would be perfect for their Muse cover. At a point in the early production of the 2012 movie adaptation of The Hunger Games, Rivera had been considered for the role of Katniss Everdeen, a part she did not get, and was later a favorite to be cast as Johanna Mason in the sequel Catching Fire, a role she said she "would love to play". When the fourth season of Glee went into production, Rivera expressed a desire for more of her character's family to be shown and for her to have more Spanish dialogue to "really celebrate the culture", saying that there should be more Latin characters; as it began airing she said that Santana was "in limbo" and directionless. Vulture said that Rivera was "the best part of [the fourth season], even if she hasn't been in every episode"; Santana's stories included separating with Morris' character Brittany and moving to New York City. In the summer of 2013, Complex described her as "the biggest star on the [show]" with her own "cult-like fan base". Production of the fifth season of Glee was briefly postponed following the death of actor Cory Monteith as it was due to begin filming in July 2013; Rivera was close to Monteith and provided a statement that said he "always will be a part of [her] own family", as well as leading a moment of silence for him at the Giffoni Film Festival on July 24, 2013. In the fifth season, Santana embarks on a new relationship with Demi Lovato's character Dani before returning to Brittany, though Rivera did not appear in the season finale. Rivera's debut single "Sorry", featuring rapper Big Sean, was released as a digital download on September 17, 2013. While her most popular performances on Glee were softer ballads, she chose to write "something a little more glossy and soulful" for her own music and worked with her own team, including Glee drummer John Lock, rather than go with Columbia's suggestions; she said she told the label: "This is what I'm doing. Get on or get off. I think ["Sorry"] is a summer song, and I want it on the radio by the end of the summer". The single quickly reached the top 40 on the Billboard Rhythmic chart and the top 10 of the iTunes download chart. However, production on the album "kind of halted" due to "so many things going on". Rivera said: "Politics got involved so I've been putting it on the back burner". During this period she starred in an M&M's commercial titled "Love Ballad" that aired during Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013, as the girlfriend of the anthropomorphic "Red" M&M character, and voiced a rebellious reindeer character called Sparkle in the 2013 Christmas movie The Naughty List, for which she won a voice acting award. At the Devil's Door, Rivera's debut feature film, in which she played the lead role of Vera, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, on March 9, 2014. The film has been described by its director, Nicholas McCarthy, as "a unique kind of genre film I think, almost like a Rubik's Cube of a horror movie". Rivera explained that "there wasn't much screaming. It's not a jumpy film." The film was released through video on demand on August 8, 2014, and theatrically released on September 12, 2014. It continued to play at festivals, receiving mixed reviews. Rivera's acting, however, received praise. Edgar Chaput of Sound on Sight called Rivera "the standout [and] the most natural performance in the film", and Marsha McCreadie of Film Journal wrote that the film "doesn't pick up steam until late in the story, when Rivera carries the narrative". Diabolique magazine's Jeremy Kibler wrote: "Coming primarily from a TV background and fun to watch [...] the eye-grabbing Naya Rivera adjusts to the big screen with ease in front of the camera. Her Vera is headstrong and rigid but cut with just the right amount of vulnerability". On May 1, 2014, it was reported that Columbia had dismissed Rivera because her debut single had underperformed, but Rivera's representative released a statement to news outlets stating that such claims were false, and they may pursue legal action to ensure Rivera's creditability. Rivera subsequently worked on a project with Guillermo Díaz, directing a short film PSA about the effect of immigration on children and their parents. Díaz's part of the project focuses on telling the stories of young DREAMers and the fear they have of their mothers being deported, and Rivera's part explores the culture of immigrants in the United States. The film is visually very stylized, and incorporates 360-degree shots. Rivera told Buzzfeed at the time that "immigration shows how beautiful America is as a country, how diverse it is [...] it's what you get when you have different cultures in one place. If everybody thought that way, [immigration] would be more of a no-brainer".