What is Vanessa Hudgens’ Net Worth and Salary?
Vanessa Hudgens is a singer and actress from the United States with a $18 million fortune. She gained popularity as Gabriella Montez in the Disney Channel smash film and soundtrack record “High School Musical” and went on to have a prosperous career in both acting and music.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
On December 14, 1988, Vanessa Anne Hudgens was born in Salina, California. Her father, Gregory Hudgens, was a firefighter, and her mother, Gina (née Guangco), worked at an office. She was raised in a variety of locations from Southern California to Oregon throughout the US West Coast. Stella, her younger sister, is an actor as well. Hudgens has Native American, Irish, and French ancestry through her father, and Filipino ancestry through her mother.
Hudgens was drawn to acting from a young age. At the age of 10, she started participating in neighborhood musical theater events in 1998. These included renditions of shows such as “Carousel,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “The King and I,” “The Music Man,” and “Cinderella.” A few years later, she started auditioning for other TV series and advertisements in an attempt to make the switch to television. Her family relocated to Los Angeles to help support her profession after she landed her first commercial. She attended Orange County High School of the Arts for a short while before finishing her education at home with tutors.
Career
When Hudgens was chosen to play Tiffany in a “Still Standing” episode, it was her first professional acting gig. After appearing as a guest performer in a “Robbery Homicide Division” episode, she made her feature debut as a supporting role in the 2003 film “Thirteen”. After Hudgens was cast as Gabriella Montez, the lead female character in the Disney Channel Original film “High School Musical” (2006), starring opposite Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale, her career truly took off. Upon its initial release in the United States, this film attracted 7.7 million viewers, demonstrating its immense popularity. The movie not only highlighted Hudgens’s acting prowess but also her singing abilities. She wrote several songs for the movie’s soundtrack, including the duet “Breaking Free” with Zac Efron, which peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Other songs she recorded turned into commercial hits. Taking “High School Musical” as a springboard, Hudgens released “V,” her debut studio album, in September 2006. Within its first week of release, it sold over 34,000 copies, debuting at No. 24 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Since then, the Recording Industry Association of America has certified the record as Gold.
Hudgens returned to the character of Gabriella in the August 2007 release of the follow-up movie “High School Musical 2”. With over 17.2 million viewers in the US on the night of its release, this movie was even more successful than the first one. It is the most-watched Disney Channel Original Movie ever, based on figures like those. Hudgens swiftly followed up on the movie once more, releasing “Identified,” her second studio album, in July 2008. She left her record label, Hollywood Records, as the album was deemed a commercial failure, even though it debuted at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 chart. Hudgens returned to her role as Gabriella in October 2008’s “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the third installment in the High School Musical series. Out of the three films in the franchise, this is the only one that has been released in theaters, and during its opening weekend, it debuted at the top of the North American box office. The movie shattered the record for the greatest opening by a musical, which was previously held by the movie “Mamma Mia!”, with an impressive $42 million in its first weekend of release. In the end, the movie made $252 million globally, making it a huge hit.
Hudgens stepped back from her singing career after the High School singing series to concentrate on acting. Following that, she starred in movies such as “Bandslam” (2009), “Beastly” (2011), which was based on a novel by Alex Flinn, “Sucker Punch” (2011), an action film directed by Zack Snyder, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” (2012) starring Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson, “Spring Breakers” starring Selena Gomez, a former Disney star, “Gimme Shelter” (2013), directed by Ron Krauss, “The Frozen Ground” (2013), “Dog Days” (2018), “The Princess Switch” (2018), “Second Act” (2018), “The Knight Before Christmas” (2019), on which she also functioned as executive producer, and “Bad Boys for Life” (2020), a movie in the Bad Boys franchise. In 2017, Hudgens also had an appearance in the first (and final) season of the television series “Powerless” on NBC.
She has also participated in a number of theater plays, including as the Neil Patrick Harris-directed “Rent” in 2010 and the 2015 Broadway and Kennedy Center production of “Gigi”. Additionally, in 2016 and 2019, she made appearances in two Fox live musical productions, “Grease: Live” and “Rent: Live.”
Personal Life
Hudgens dated co-star Zac Efron of “High School Musical” from 2005 to 2010. After that, she dated actor Austin Butler from 2011 till 2020. She has suffered from the unapproved disclosure of private, intimate images, including pilfered images in her undies. In 2016, her father succumbed to cancer.
Real Estate
Vanessa has purchased and sold a number of stunning properties throughout the years. She bought a 5,200 square foot, six bedroom, six and a half bathtub property in Studio City, California, in 2008 for $2.75 million. The three-story house also has a dining room, a wine cellar, an office area, a spacious living room that leads onto a terrace, a well-equipped kitchen, and a winding staircase in the main foyer. There are several wrought iron features, three fireplaces, hardwood floors, and stone embellishments. Along with a large backyard with a pool, the house boasts stunning views of the neighboring San Fernando Valley.In February 2019, she put this house up for sale, asking $3.85 million; in April 2019, she finally accepted $3.15 million.
She paid $4.9 million in 2018 for a house in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The performer Gary Oldman was the seller. Vanessa sold this house to Ronan Farrow and his partner Jon Lovett in March of 2022. Hudgens was paid $6.7 million by them. Shortly before the sale, she recorded the house for Architectural Digest:
She also possesses a $1 million Brooklyn condo.
