Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress, businesswoman and producer. She has won numerous accolades, including an American Music Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, broke 16 Guinness World Records, and received nominations for two Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and four Emmy Awards. One of the most influential people on social media, Gomez is the most-followed woman on Instagram and one of the most-followed people on Twitter. She was included in the Time 100 in 2020, and was named Billboard's Woman of the Year in 2017.
Gomez began her career as a child actress, starring on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004). She rose to prominence 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. As the lead vocalist, she formed the pop rock band Selena Gomez & the Scene, and released three studio albums from 2009 to 2011; all of the band's albums and singles were certified gold or higher by the RIAA.
Her EDM and electropop-flavored debut solo album, Stars Dance (2013), topped the Billboard 200 and yielded the international top-ten song "Come & Get It". After signing with Interscope Records, Gomez released Revival (2015), which topped the Billboard 200 and produced three Billboard Hot 100 top-tens: "Good for You", "Same Old Love", and "Hands to Myself". Her third album, Rare (2020), was met with critical acclaim and topped the charts in 11 countries. Its lead single "Lose You to Love Me", became an international hit and Gomez's first number-one in the U.S. and Canada. Her first the Spanish-language and Grammy Award-nominated EP, Revelación, was released in 2021. Gomez has also appeared on several collaborations throughout her career, including: "We Don't Talk Anymore", "It Ain't Me", "Taki Taki", and "Calm Down"—which charted high and achieved global commercial success.
Gomez has starred in multiple films, and voiced Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise (2012–2022). On television, she produced the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why (2017–2020) and documentary Living Undocumented (2019), and executive produced and starred in her cooking show Selena + Chef (2020–present). Gomez is an executive producer and main character in the mystery comedy series Only Murders in the Building (2021–present), for which she has received critical acclaim, a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and as a producer for a Primetime Emmy Award .
Philanthrophically, Gomez works with various charity organizations, and has focused on raising awareness about mental health, gender, racial, and LGBT equality. She has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2009; for many years being the youngest. Gomez launched her cosmetics company Rare Beauty in 2020. She also founded the nonprofit, the Rare Impact Fund, which focuses on mental health awareness, and is committed to raising US$100 million over the next ten years.
Early life
Selena Marie Gomez was born on July 22, 1992, in Grand Prairie, Texas, to Ricardo Joel Gomez and Texas-born former stage actress Mandy Teefey. She was named after Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, who died in 1995. Her father is of Mexican descent, while her mother, who was adopted, has Italian ancestry. Gomez's paternal grandparents emigrated to Texas from Monterrey in the 1970s. Of her heritage, Gomez has said she is "a proud third-generation American-Mexican" and "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 was fluent in Spanish until age seven. Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and she remained with her mother. Gomez has two younger half-sisters and a younger stepbrother: Gracie Elliot Teefey, through Mandy and her second husband, Brian Teefey, and Victoria "Tori" and Marcus Gomez, through Ricardo and his second wife, Sara. She earned her high-school diploma through homeschooling in May 2010.