Rachel Zegler Featured in the 2023 Time100 Next List; Rita Moreno Comments
The list features artists, leaders, advocates, innovators and phenoms on the rise.
By: Stephi Wild Sep. 13, 2023
Time has just released its Time100 Next list, which features artists, leaders, advocates, innovators and phenoms on the rise. Among those featured on the 2023 list is Rachel Zegler, who was recently seen in the new film adaptation of West Side Story.
Rita Moreno wrote the commentary for Zegler's inclusion in the list, stating, "I first heard her singing during rehearsals for a film, and I thought, Wow, this is a find! I told her that I sh-t a brick when I heard her voice. You just don’t hear voices like that in movies anymore."
"A very important lesson I learned—being Latina in particular, which worked against me so much and for so long—is that you need to have the stuff to withstand all that and still remain a positive person," Moreno writes. "I know, without a doubt, Rachel has all that and more."
Read Moreno's full commentary here and check out the full Time100 Next list here.
About Rachel Zegler
Zegler made her film debut in West Side Story, which was released in December 2021, and earned acclaim from critics and audiences. For her performance, she received a Critics' Choice Movie Award nomination for Best Young Performer and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, making her the first actress of Colombian descent to win in that category as well as the youngest winner in that category at 20 years old.
Next, Zegler starred as Anthea in the superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023).
Zegler is set to play Snow White alongside Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen in a live-action film adaptation of the 1937 animated Disney film, which is scheduled to be released in 2024. Zegler is also cast to voice the lead character in animated musical film Spellbound, directed by Vicky Jenson, which is also scheduled to be released in 2024. She plays heroine Lucy Gray Baird for the upcoming film adaptation of the Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Zegler is also set to appear in Kyle Mooney's directorial film debut Y2K produced by A24. She will also star in Paddington in Peru, the third instalment of the Paddington film series with Emily Mortimer, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent.
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