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Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world (including PBS in the United States). Sesame Workshop was instrumental in the establishment of education children's television in the 1960s, and continues to provide grants for educational children's programming four decades later. Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett were the original founders, with the intention of producing a revolutionary television series based on cutting-edge research into childhood learning. The result was Sesame Street, a landmark program which has been reproduced in countries around the world.

Although it was originally funded by the Carnegie Corporation and the United States Office of Education, the majority of the Workshop's funding is now earned through licensing the use of their characters to a variety of corporations to use for books, toys, and other products marketed toward children. This ensures that the Workshop has reliable access to funding for its programming without depending on unpredictable grants.

History[link]

Founded by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett in 1968 to produce Sesame Street, the company, currently run by President and CEO H. Melvin Ming, has since produced many other shows and a variety of multimedia content. The CTW name was officially changed to Sesame Workshop on New Years Day 2000 to reflect the company's reach into new media and capitalize on the worldwide recognition provided by the Sesame Street name (although Sesame Street continued to use the CTW name until April 2000).

[edit] Gathering talent for Sesame Street

Moving to Carnegie Corporation of New York, the grant-issuing foundation, to act and advise independent of what is now WNET, Cooney began laying the groundwork for the Children's Television Workshop. Carnegie hired Linda Gotley to help Cooney write the proposal. Barbara Finberg and Lloyd Morrisett, program officers at Carnegie would regularly react as funders, every few days trying to find holes in the proposal. During these days, segments like "One of these things is not like the others" were established.

Despite the insistence of the US Office of Education that there was no money to fund the project, Howe persisted, and insisted the project be classified as a research project. Ford joined funding, as did the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was being established just as Sesame Street was. Between those organizations and Carnegie, US$8 million was raised to create a semi-autonomous organization. This organization was established to become completely separate, should they succeed.

At a press conference in March 1968, the Children's Television Workshop and Sesame Street were announced. Jack Gould, television critic for The New York Times, gave the project front page space. "If you had Jack Gould in your corner, you could not believe what it meant," said Cooney decades later.^[1]

With Cooney, an assistant, and a secretary, CTW began production on the show. Cooney tried to talk George DeSarde of WCBS-TV to come to CTW as producer of the series. Within a few days of being graciously declined by DeSarde, Cooney received a letter from Mike Dann of CBS, who eagerly wanted to join as an executive producer.^[1] Dann and Fred Silverman decided Cooney should try to get David Connell as a producer.

Connell had recently left Captain Kangaroo, and started his own company in an attempt to get out of the kids' TV industry. After four meetings, Cooney talked Connell into signing on, after being assured creative freedom and no micromanagement on Cooney's part. Connell insisted on a few "non-negotiables". First, he wanted to include four hosts, both black and white, male and female, none of whom would ever "own the show", as Bob Keeshan "owned" Captain Kangaroo, or Fred Rogers "owned" Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He also wanted "commercials" to promote letters of the alphabet, like this one for example ^[2]. Perhaps most importantly, Connell wanted a guarantee that education and entertainment would never be separate elements of the program.

While attracting Connell, Cooney received a call from Lou Hausman, who worked for the Commissioner of Education; he suggested Jon Stone, also from Captain Kangaroo, a producer who had retired to Vermont, though no more than 35 at the time. Stone came to New York to speak with Cooney, but declined the opportunity to be an executive in the production. Stone wanted to be a producer, reporting to Cooney; Cooney suggested such an organization structure would only create "madness". Stone and Connell had a history of disputes, which were smoothed out, after the two re-met. Sam Gibbon, CTW's third alumni, had also initially declined joining any children's programming. According to Cooney, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Gibbon called her to say "if you still want me, I'm yours." He was primarily involved with integrating curriculum into the series.

Edith Sornow, who was not yet the film producer for Sesame Street, called Cooney, asking her to come to the Johnny Victor Theatre to see a reel of commercials by Jim Henson. Cooney had heard of Henson before then, but never actually seen his work; the commercial had not aired in New York, and she had never tuned into The Ed Sullivan Show when his Muppets appeared. After "almost falling on the floor laughing," she was open to getting him to sign on, but was doubtful he'd agree. Jon Stone, who'd worked with Henson on ABC television special Hey, Cinderella!, discussed the idea with a reluctant Jim.

Gerald S. Lesser of Harvard became the head of CTW's board of academic advisors, and later brought in the Educational Testing Service.^[3]

Establishing curriculum[link]

The Department of Education and other funders had decided they wanted to study children's comprehension of topics before and after watching Sesame Street. Lesser set up four two-and-a-half-day seminars over the summer with producers, meeting to establish what was important to teach children. The session topics were: on perception, reasoning skills, pre-reading and pre-math, and "affective skills", the period's term for emotional skills.

Cooney remembered seeing a leather-coated Jim Henson come into one of the seminars at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and becoming worried by his appearance that he was one of the Weathermen. Her concern was heightened due to the recent event of a building in Greenwich Village having been blown up by Weathermen. Cooney whispered her fears to Connell, who reassured her. Once Cooney and Jim met, Cooney says they automatically clicked. Jim much preferred general family audiences, but Cooney was able to allay Jim's fears of being "ghettoized" into children television. Joe Raposo, who worked with Henson and Stone before, was added soon after.

When the Corporation for Public Broadcasting signed on to sponsor the program, the organization's chairperson was Frank Pace. Pace warned strongly against the broad curriculum Sesame Street aimed to teach. "Pick only a few goals, and accomplish them. Don't try and do too much; show... only three or four or five goals," Pace told Cooney and Connell.

Early investments[link]

Knowing that government funding would not last forever, the Ford Foundation helped CTW start investing. The company bought into small cable systems in Akron, Ohio, Hawaii, and another location, worthwhile investments, according to Cooney. Not as worthwhile was 1977 Emmy Award winning mini-series The Best of Families. While Noble and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting each chipped in money, the Workshop came up $1 million short. Too late to turn around, it was forced to fund the miniseries with Ford Foundation money meant for Sesame Street.

International growth[link]

In 1970, Mike Dann finally came to the Children's Television Workshop from CBS, in the capacity of international sales. He called the CTW "one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of media".^[4]

Later[link]

In the 1980s, CTW created a series of video games under the name of Children's Computer Workshop, including Cookie Monster Munch and Alpha Beam with Ernie. Today the company also publishes Sesame Street Magazine in cooperation with Time Inc.'s Parenting magazine. At one time it also published The Electric Company, Kid City, 3-2-1 Contact (later Contact Kids), and Sesame Street Parents magazines.

In August 1997, Fox Family started efforts to increase its quantity and quality of children's entertainment, "which could lead to an equity investment by Fox in the non-profit CTW in exchange for programs for its Family Channel." Nothing ever materialised.^[5]

In 1999, CTW partnered in a joint venture with Viacom's Nickelodeon to launch Noggin, a 24-hour cable channel aimed at 6-13 year olds; Viacom's MTV Networks division (which also operates Nickelodeon) operated the channel with CTW and MTV Networks jointly owning Noggin. In 2002, low ratings in part prompted the now-renamed Sesame Workshop to pull out and sell its interest in Noggin to Viacom. As a result, most of the Sesame Workshop-produced series carried by the channel were dropped. Noggin soon after became a timeshare service (in the same vein as Nickelodeon is by carrying Nick at Nite over the same channel space) starting the teen-oriented The N that fall, which became a separate channel from Noggin on December 31, 2007 with Noggin becoming a 24-hour channel for preschoolers; the Noggin channel was rebranded Nick Jr. on September 28, 2009.

Although Sesame Workshop is occasionally confused with PBS,^{[citation needed]} Sesame Workshop is an entirely separate and independent organization. Some Workshop programs are broadcast on PBS, and although PBS provides some funding for those programs, the money received covers only a fraction of production costs. Other financial support comes from individual donors, charitable foundations, corporations, government agencies, program sales and licensed products. Sesame Workshop grants licenses to various manufacturers who create toys, apparel and other products featuring Sesame Street characters, and Sesame Workshop receives a portion of the proceeds.

On March 12, 2009, Sesame Workshop announced that it had planned to cut 20% of its workforce due to the recession.^[6]

On October 15, 2009, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. announced a distribution deal for the Sesame Street library, including new and old titles. They plan to release 10 titles a year starting in 2010 with Elmo's World: Let's Play Music on February 2, 2010, Elmo's Rainbow and Other Springtime Stories on March 9, 2010, Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures on April 6, 2010, The Best of Elmo 2 on May 4, 2010, Firefly Fun and Buggy Buddies on June 1, 2010, Preschool is Cool!: ABCs with Elmo on July 6, 2010, P is for Princess on August 3, 2010, Preschool is Cool!: Counting with Elmo on September 14, 2010, Iron Monster and Other Sesame Heroes on October 5, 2010, and C is for Cookie Monster on October 19, 2010, but none were released from Warner Bros. for the remainder of 2009.

Notable persons at Sesame Workshop[link]

• H. Melvin Ming, President, & CEO^[7]
• Jerald Harvey, Senior Adviser
• Joan Ganz Cooney, Co Founder
• Lloyd Morrisett, Co Founder
• Franklin Getchell, Executive Vice President
• Nina Elias-Bamberger, Chief Executive Officer
• Majorie Kalins, Series Administrative Officer
• Susan Kolar, Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer
• Dr. Lewis Bernstein, Executive Vice President, Education, Research and Outreach
• Carol-Lynn Parente, Executive Producer of Sesame Street
• Terry Fitzpatrick, Executive Vice President, Distribution
• Daniel J. Victor, Executive Vice President, International
• Maura Regan, Vice President and General Manager, Global Consumer Products
• Sherrie Westin, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Office
• Myung Kang-Haneke, Vice President, General Counsel
• Hillary Rodham Clinton, former director, board member
• David C. Cole, former director^[8]

Productions[link]

Television series[link]

	Wikinews has related Sesame Street news:

Sesame Street[link]

• Sesame Street (1969–present; from 1969–2001, the Muppet characters were owned by The Jim Henson Company)
• Plaza Sesamo (1972–1974, 1983–1984, 1995–1996, 1998–2001, 2004–2006, 2008-)
• Canadian Sesame Street / Sesame Park (1972–2002) (in conjunction with CBC Television)
• Sesamstrasse (1973–1984, 1986-)
• Vila Sésamo (1973–1977, 2007-)
• Rechov Sumsum (1982–1987, 1998–1999, 2002–2006, 2007–2011)
• Rua Sésamo (1989–1994)
• Elmo's World (1998-2009)
• Sesame English (1999–2002)
• Takalani Sesame (2000-2003, 2006-2009)
• Play with Me Sesame (2002–2007)
• Hikayat Simsim (2003–present)
• Global Grover (2003–2007)
• 5, Rue Sésame (2005–2007)
• Jalan Sesama (2007–present)
• Galli Galli Sim Sim (2006–present) (in conjunction with Turner International India)
• Sesame Tree (2008–present) (in conjunction with BBC Northern Ireland)
• Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures (2008–present) (in conjunction with Misseri Studio)
• Abby's Flying Fairy School (2009–present)
• Murray's Science Experiments (2011)^[9]
• Munchin: Impossible (TBA 2012)^[10]
• Elmo's Backyard (TBA 2012)^[11]

Other series[link]

• The Electric Company (1971-1977; 2009-2011, including Spidey Super Stories, 1974–1977)
• Feeling Good (1974–1975)
• The Best of Families (1977)
• 3-2-1 Contact (including Bloodhound Gang, 1980–1988)
• Encyclopedia (1988)
• Square One (including Mathnet, 1987–1992)
• Zak Tales (1990–1991) (in conjunction with DIC Entertainment)
• Ghostwriter (1992–1995) (in conjunction with the BBC)
• Cro (1993–1994) (in conjunction with Film Roman)
• William's Wish Wellingtons (1994–1997) (in conjunction with Children's BBC and Hibbert Ralph)
• Groundling Marsh (1995-1997) (in conjunction with Portfolio Entertainment and J.A. Delmage Productions)
• Big Bag (1996–1998) (in conjunction with Cartoon Network)
• The New Ghostwriter Mysteries (1997)
• Dragon Tales (1999–present) (in conjunction with Nelvana, and Columbia TriStar Television) (1999–2002) Sony Pictures Television (2002–2005 and reruns from 2006–2010) (PBS)
• Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (2001–2002) (in conjunction with CinéGroupe) PBS
• Sponk! (2001–2002) (in conjunction with Noggin and Insight Production Company)
• Tiny Planets (2002–2005) (in conjunction with Pepper's Ghost Productions)
• Out There (2003–2004) (in conjunction with CBBC, Noggin and Blink Films)
• The Upside Down Show (2006)
• Pinky Dinky Doo (2006–present) (in conjunction with Cartoon Pizza, Nelvana Limited, and Sony Pictures Television)
• Panwapa (2008)
• Wibbly Pig (2009-present) (in conjunction with Wish Films, 9 Story Entertainment, Grand Slamm Children's Films and HiT Entertainment)

Films, telefilms, specials, and miniseries[link]

• Out to Lunch (1974 ABC special)
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978)
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979 CBS telefilm; produced with Bill Melendez Productions)
• Don't Eat the Pictures (1983)
• Big Bird in China (1983 NBC special; produced in conjunction with CCTV)
• Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985) (in conjunction with Warner Bros. Pictures and Henson Associates)
• Big Bird in Japan (1989) (in conjunction with the NHK)
• Elmo Saves Christmas (1996)
• Sesame Street: Lead Away (1996)
• Sesame Street: A is for Asthma (1997)
• Elmopalooza (1998)
• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999) (in conjunction with Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson Pictures)
• Sesame Street: Music Works Wonders (2001)
• Sesame Street: Happy, Healthy & Ready for School (2004)
• Sesame Street: Talk, Listen, Connect (2006)
• Sesame Street: The Get Healthy Now Show (2007)
• Sesame Street: Talk, Listen, Connect: Homecomings (2008)
• Sesame Street: Talk, Listen, Connect: Changes (2008)
• Panwapa (2008)
• Sesame Street: When Families Grieve (2010)
• Sesame Street: Math is Everywhere! (2010)

Sesame Street Muppets have appeared in cameos in various feature films, including The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009). These productions, however, were not produced by Sesame Workshop. Also excluded from this list are Julie on Sesame Street (1973) and A Special Sesame Street Christmas (1978)—while both featured the same elements and characters of Sesame Street, these specials were not produced by CTW, while video rights by Sesame Workshop.

Merchandising[link]

Current licensees include Procter & Gamble (Pampers diapers), Fisher-Price, Nakajima USA, Build-A-Bear Workshop (Build-An-Elmo, Build-A-Cookie Monster, And Build-A-Big Bird), GUND, Hasbro (Sesame Street Monopoly), Wooly Willy, Betty Crocker (Elmo Fruit Snacks), C&D Visionary (air freshners) and Children's Apparel Network. Former licences include Applause, Child Dimension, Gibson Greetings, Gorham Fine China, Ideal Toys, Milton Bradley Company, Nintendo, Palisades Toys, Questor, Radio Shack, Tyco, and the Western Publishing Company. Creative Wonders (a partnership between ABC and Electronic Arts) produced Sesame Street software for the Macintosh, since at least 1995 and on the PC since 1996; Atari produced Sesame Street games in 1983. Before going bankrupt, Palisades Toys was to release a line of deluxe series action figures, for adults, as part of Sesame Workshop's push to expand into retro products for teens and adults. Only a Super Grover figure was distributed to conventioneers.

The Sesame Beginnings line, launched in mid-2005, consists of apparel, health and body, home, and seasonal products.^[12] The products in this line are designed to accentuate the natural interactivity between infants and their parents. Most of the line is exclusive to a family of Canadian retailers that includes Loblaws, Fortinos, and Zehrs.

As a non-profit organization, a percentage of the money from any Sesame Workshop product goes to help fund Sesame Street or its international co-productions.^[13]

Barrio Sésamo, Plaza Sésamo, Sesamstraße, Sesame English and Sesamstraat have all had merchandise of their local characters. Shalom Sesame videos and books have also been released.

In 2004, Copyright Promotions Licensing Group (CPLG) became Sesame Workshop's licensing representative for The Benelux,^[14] adding to their United Kingdom representation.^[15]

Toys[link]

Tickle Me Elmo was one of the fastest selling toys of the 1996 season. That product line was and still is one of the most successful products Mattel has ever launched. Both it and its most notable successor, TMX, have caused in-store fights, because Elmo starred in a Christmas special that year, in which he wished every day of the year was Christmas.^[16]

After Fisher-Price recalled a large number of Sesame Street brand toys (among multiple licenses) in 2007,^[17] Sesame Workshop announced that they would independently inspect the products of all manufacturers. It went so far as to threaten withdrawing entirely from toy licensing, if it were not satisfied with the manufacturer's guarantees.^[18]

Books[link]

Its fiction books are published on five continents, primarily by Random House in North America. Over 18 million Sesame Street books and magazines were purchased in 2005.^[19] The books often mention that children do not have to watch the show to benefit from its publications.

Public service campaigns[link]

Characters are also used to endorse safety and educational causes. Big Bird has promoted safe seating practices and the wearing of seatbelts, for the Ford Motor Company,^[20] while Grover promoted a new course on children's informal learning, created by Harvard University with Sesame Workshop.^[21] Elmo has appeared before the US Education Appropriations Subcommittee to urge more spending on music in schools.^[22]

Live performances[link]

In 1975, ice-skating show Sesame Street on Ice presented costumed actors and dancers as touring casts, each performing a unique-multi-million dollar budget ice show. Sesame Street on Ice ran from 1975-1980.

Live touring show Sesame Street Live presents costumed actors and dancers as characters from the series, in original plots. In recent years, VEE has had four touring casts, each performing a unique multi-million dollar budget show. Each season, the tours reach 160 different cities across North America, reaching 2 million people annually. Since the first production of Sesame Street Live on September 17, 1980, 48 million children and their parents have seen the show performed, across the world.^[23]

Theme park[link]

Busch Entertainment Corporation (BEC) is the license holder for Sesame Street in its U.S. amusement parks including a completely Sesame Street themed park, Sesame Place, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, United States. BEC also has a stage show at SeaWorld Orlando Elmo and the Bookaneers. In 2009 Busch Entertainment's Busch Gardens Williamsburg, located in Williamsburg, Virginia, opened "Sesame Street Forest of Fun" with "Sesame Street Safari of Fun" at its Busch Gardens Tampa Bay park in Tampa, Florida opened for the 2010 operating season.

Monterrey, Mexico based Parque Plaza Sésamo uses Sesame Street characters as does Universal Studios Japan in a three-dimensional movie based on the show.

Footnotes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Murphy, Tim, "How We Got to ‘Sesame Street’", New York Magazine, Nov 1, 2009

External links[link]

• Sesame Workshop
• Muppet Wiki: Sesame Workshop
• Children's Television Workshop collections and archives in the National Public Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland (College Park)
• Interview with Sesame Workshop CEO & President Gary Knell by Scott Traylor of 360KID with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Oct 2009

Zac Efron
Efron at the premiere of The Lucky One, Sydney, Australia, April 9, 2012
Born	Zachary David Alexander Efron (1987-10-18) October 18, 1987 (age 24) San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	2002–present

Zachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron (born October 18, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and became known with his lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray.^[1][2] Efron has since starred in the films 17 Again, Me and Orson Welles, Charlie St. Cloud, New Year's Eve, and The Lucky One.

In 2007, Rolling Stone declared him the "poster boy for tweenyboppers" and featured him in their late August 2007 issue.^[3]

Early life and education[link]

Efron was born in San Luis Obispo, California,^[4] and later moved to Arroyo Grande, California. His father, David Efron, is an electrical engineer at a power station, and his mother, Starla Baskett, is a former secretary who worked at the same power plant.^[5][6] Efron has a younger brother, Dylan, and had, as he has described it, a "normal childhood" in a middle class family.^[1] He is an agnostic, having never been religious.^[3] His surname, "Efron", means "lark" in Hebrew (his paternal grandfather was Jewish).^[7][8][9]

Efron has said that he would "flip out" if he got a "B" and not an "A" in school, and has also described himself as having been a class clown.^[10] His father encouraged him to begin acting when he was 11 years old.^[5] Efron subsequently appeared in theater productions at his high school,^[11] worked in the theater The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville,^[1] and began taking singing lessons.^[5] He performed in shows such as Gypsy; Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up; Little Shop of Horrors; and The Music Man. He was recommended to an agent in Los Angeles by his drama teacher, Robyn Metchik (the mother of actors Aaron Michael Metchik and Asher Metchik).^[12][13] Efron was later signed to the Creative Artists Agency.^[14]

Efron graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 2006^[15] and was then accepted into the University of Southern California, but has deferred his enrollment to work on film projects. He also attended Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, a community college located in Santa Maria, California, which provided him with the opportunity to perform as a "young player" during the years of 2000 and 2001.^[16]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Efron in June 2010

In 2002, Efron began to appear in guest roles on several television series, including Firefly, ER, and The Guardian. He portrayed Cameron Bale on the now-cancelled WB series Summerland. Originally introduced as a recurring character, Efron became a regular cast member on the show in the second season in 2004, starring opposite the likes of Kay Panabaker, Lori Loughlin and Jesse McCartney. Since appearing in Summerland, he has also had guest roles on the shows CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Replacements. In 2003, Efron starred in the Lifetime original television movie Miracle Run. He played Steven Morgan, one of two autistic twins. For his performance, he was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie, Mini-series or Special — Supporting Young Actor.^[17] In 2005, he played a main character in Hope Partlow's music video for her song "Sick Inside." Also in 2005, he played horse-loving Patrick McCardle in The Derby Stallion, where his character wants to beat the town bully at the steeple chase race.

Breakthrough[link]

In 2006, Efron starred in the Disney Channel original movie High School Musical as Troy Bolton, a popular student and captain of the basketball team. The film, which he initially made with "low expectations",^[1] helped Efron gain recognition among teenage audiences as both an actor and a singer, even though his singing voice was overdubbed. As a result, he placed as high as #4 on the IMDBPro's STARMeter for the week of January 29, 2006.^[18] In August 2006, Efron won a Teen Choice Award in the Breakout Star and the TV — Choice Chemistry categories, shared with Vanessa Hudgens. The film's cast, along with Efron, toured Sydney, Australia, London, England, and other locations to promote the film.

Shortly after High School Musical aired, on February 4, 2006, Efron debuted with two simultaneous charted songs on Billboard Hot 100 from the film: "Get'cha Head in the Game" and "Breaking Free", a duet with Hudgens. On the following week's chart, Efron had five simultaneous song credits from High School Musical: "Get'cha Head in the Game", "Start of Something New", "What I've Been Looking For: Reprise", "We're All in This Together" and "Breaking Free." "We're All in This Together" was credited to the whole High School Musical cast. "Breaking Free", at the time, made the fastest climb in the history of the Billboard charts, from #86 to #4 between the two weeks; the record was beaten by Beyoncé and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar".^[19] Efron also appeared in the 2006 Disney Channel Games as captain of the Red Team.

Efron's singing talents were disputed when it was revealed that Drew Seeley's voice was blended with his on the soundtrack of High School Musical.^[20] An August 23, 2007 interview in Rolling Stone magazine revealed that he had been cast in High School Musical after the songs were written, and the songs (written for a tenor) were somewhat out of his baritone vocal range.

2007–present[link]

Efron at the TIFF premiere of Me and Orson Welles, September 2008

On April 7, 2007, Efron appeared in an episode of Punk'd. Efron also starred in the music video for Vanessa Hudgens's single "Say OK", in which he played her love interest. The video aired on March 16, 2007 on the Disney Channel. That year, he was named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in 2007. A picture and short profile of him was in the section "Coming of Age". In it, he related how he was always the shortest kid in school (as of August 2007, he was 5'8")^[6] and was teased for the "huge gap" in his teeth.^[21]

In 2006, Efron was cast as Link Larkin in a film version of Hairspray released on July 20, 2007. Efron performed all of his own vocals in the role,^[22] which was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, from September 5 to December 2, 2006. He cut and dyed his hair dark brown and gained about 15 pounds for the role.^[23] His performance and the film received positive reviews.^[12] Efron was not able to perform with his fellow castmates in High School Musical: The Concert because of commitments on the film Hairspray. Drew Seeley took over for him.

High School Musical 2 was released in August 2007. Additionally, Lycos reported searches for Efron surged by 81%.^[24] The film set a new record, becoming the most watched basic cable program in U.S. history, with 17.2 million viewers.^[25] Efron also appeared on the cover of the August 2007 edition of Rolling Stone.^[3] The article about him revealed that he hoped to someday play an action hero. Efron presented the 2007 Teen Choice Award for "Favorite Movie" along with Queen Latifah, and later that year, he co-hosted the Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards with The Veronicas on October 10 in Sydney.^[26]

In early 2008, Efron was cast in the lead role in the film Me and Orson Welles. Based on Robert Kaplow's novel of the same name,^[27] the story, set in 1937 New York, tells of a teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar, where he becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant. The film was shot in the Isle of Man, London and New York, during February — April 2008. It was introduced to North America via the Toronto Film Festival on September 5, 6, and 11, 2008^[28] and was released in 2009. Efron was also scheduled to star in Paramount's musical remake of the film Footloose,^[29] and has said that he would like to add his "own little bit of flair" to the role originated by Kevin Bacon.^[6] In March 2009, he dropped out of the film.^[30] Efron was quoted as saying that while it was a promising gig, he left the project because he "was looking for a new challenge, and this was another musical."^[31]

Efron reprised his role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which was theatrically released on October 24, 2008. His next role was in 2009's 17 Again, a high school-set comedy-drama produced by Adam Shankman and based on a pitch by Jason Filardi;^[32] the plot involved an adult who is transformed into a 17-year old (played by Efron).^[33]

Efron at the Deauville Film Festival in 2010

On April 8, 2009, Efron's participation in a comedic short video entitled "Zac Efron's Pool Party" for the website Funny Or Die was released for public viewing.^[34] On April 11, 2009, Efron hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.^[35] In early June 2009 it was confirmed that Efron would be making a guest appearance during the sixth season of HBO's comedy series Entourage.^[36] Efron starred in a series of advertisements, along with Kristen Bell and Sean Combs, promoting the 2010 MTV Movie Awards and the host, Aziz Ansari. In 2009, he signed on to play title character in the movie Charlie St. Cloud.^[37] The film was released on July 30, 2010.

Efron was second on People's 2011 Most Beautiful list.^[38] That year, he appeared in Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve, which did well on the box-office despite receiving many negative reviews from critics.^[39] In 2012, he voiced Teg Wiggins in The Lorax and starred in The Lucky One, a film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel of the same name. He will co-star in The Paperboy alongside Nicole Kidman.

Upcoming roles[link]

Efron has been slated to star in the title role of the live-action adaptation of the Jonny Quest cartoons.^[40] Additional projects include Einstein Theory^[41] and an adaptation of Fire, by Image Comics. On February 11, 2011, it was reported that Efron will star in the action romance Charlie Countryman.^[42][43] He is also set to star in and produce the American remake of Swedish crime film Easy Money.^[44][45]

Personal life[link]

Efron with Vanessa Hudgens at the 81st Academy Awards, 2009

Efron was on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2008 as number 92 with estimated earnings of $5.8 million from June 2007 to June 2008. As of April 5, 2009, his personal wealth equaled about $10 million.^[46] People magazine said in 2007 that Efron and Vanessa Hudgens began dating in 2005 during the filming of High School Musical,^[47][48][49] although Us magazine said, after the two broke up in December 2010, that they "met in 2005 while making the first High School Musical flick, and became a romantic item about two years later."^[50]

Filmography[link]

Other awards and nominations[link]

Discography[link]

Soundtracks[link]

• High School Musical (2006)
• Hairspray (2007)
• High School Musical 2 (2007)
• High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Charted songs[link]

References[link]