Selena Gomez

Selena Marie Gomez (/səˈliːnə ˈɡoʊmɛz/ sə-LEE-nə GOH-mez; born July 22, 1992) is an American actress and singer. Gomez began her career as a child actress, appearing on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004), and emerged as a teen idol for her leading role as Alex Russo on the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). She signed with Hollywood Records in 2008 and formed the band Selena Gomez & the Scene, which released three albums: Kiss & Tell (2009), A Year Without Rain (2010), and When the Sun Goes Down (2011).

Gomez has released three solo studio albums, starting with the EDM-infused debut, Stars Dance (2013), which featured the top-ten single "Come & Get It". She followed with Revival (2015), which included "Good for You", "Same Old Love", and "Hands to Myself". Her third album, Rare (2020), produced her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Lose You to Love Me". She also released the Spanish EP Revelación (2021) and her fourth album I Said I Love You First (2025), with her husband Benny Blanco. Gomez has collaborated on various singles, including "We Don't Talk Anymore", "It Ain't Me", "Wolves", "Taki Taki", and "Calm Down (Remix)", the last of which is widely regarded as the most successful Afrobeats song of all time.

Gomez has starred in films such as Another Cinderella Story (2008), Monte Carlo (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), The Fundamentals of Caring (2016), The Dead Don't Die (2019), and Emilia Pérez (2024). She also voiced Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise (2012–2022). Gomez has produced series such as 13 Reasons Why (2017–2020), Living Undocumented (2019) and Selena + Chef (2020–2023), and has played a lead role in Only Murders in the Building since 2021. Her accolades include an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and 16 Guinness World Records.

Gomez has worked with charitable organizations. She advocates for mental health, and gender, racial, and LGBT equality, and has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2009. She founded the cosmetic company Rare Beauty in 2020, valued at $2 billion in 2024, and non-profit Rare Impact Fund. She has appeared in listicles such as the Time 100 (2020) and Forbes 30 Under 30 (2016 and 2020), was named Billboard's Woman of the Year (2017), and Latin Women of the Year (2025), and was made a member of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Government of France (2024). She is the most-followed woman on Instagram, and among the wealthiest musicians.

Selena Marie Gomez was born on July 22, 1992, in Grand Prairie, Texas, to Ricardo Joel Gomez and Texas-born former stage actress Amanda Dawn "Mandy" (née Cornett) Teefey. She was named after Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. Her father is of Mexican descent, while her mother, who was adopted, has Italian ancestry. Gomez's paternal grandparents emigrated to Texas from Monterrey, Mexico in the 1970s. She has called herself "a proud third-generation American-Mexican" and once said "My family does have quinceañeras, and we go to the communion church. We do everything that's Catholic, but we don't really have anything traditional except go to the park and have barbecues on Sundays after church." Gomez's Spanish fluency waned after age seven, when she began working on television.

Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and she remained with her mother. Gomez's mother and her second husband, Brian Teefey, had a daughter, Gracie Elliot Teefey, born in 2013. Through her father and his second wife, Sara, she has a half-sister, Victoria "Tori" Gomez, and a step-brother named Marcus. For most of her childhood, she was homeschooled, save for a brief period when she attended a traditional school as a young girl. She earned her high-school diploma through homeschooling in May 2010.

Gomez was born when her mother was 16 years old. The family had financial troubles throughout Gomez's childhood, with her mother struggling to provide for the pair. At one point, Gomez recalls that they had to search for quarters to buy gas for their car. Her mother later recalled that the two would frequently walk to their local dollar store to buy spaghetti for dinner.

Gomez has said, "I was frustrated that my parents weren't together, and never saw the light at the end of the tunnel where my mom was working hard to provide a better life for me. I'm terrified of what I would have become if I'd stayed [in Texas]." She later added that her mother "was really strong around me. Having me at 16 had to have been a big responsibility. She gave up everything for me, had three jobs, supported me, sacrificed her life for me." Gomez had a close relationship with her grandparents as a child and appeared in various pageants. Her grandparents often took care of her while her parents finished their schooling, and she has said they "raised her" until she found success in show business.