me Van,Nessie or Nessa!!I was born in Salinas, California and grew up in San Diego; I have a younger sister, Stella Hudgens, who is also an actress. Our father, Greg Hudgens, is of Irish and Native American descent and our mother, Gina Guangco, is of Filipino, Chinese and Spanish descent. All of my grandparents were musicians during the Big Band period. Starting at the age of eight, I performed in musical theatre as a singer, and appeared in local productions of Evita, Carousel, The Wizard of Oz, The King and I, The Music Man, and Cinderella, among others. I successfully auditioned for a commercial and subsequently moved to Los Angeles with my family. Career: I made my feature debut in Thirteen as Noel and appeared in the 2004 summer film, Thunderbirds as Tintin. I appeared television appearances including guest roles on Quintuplets, Still Standing, Cover Me, Robbery Homicide Division, Brothers Garcia and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, as a classmate of Ashley Tisdale and Brenda Song's characters. I also appeared on Drake & Josh, playing Drake's girlfriend. I came to fame among teenage audiences after starring opposite Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel ,Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman in the Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical, which I premiered in January of 2006; BBC News specified that the film's success turned me into a "household name" in North America. Me and Efron won the "Best Chemistry" award at the Teen Choice Awards for their roles. As a result of the film's popularity, I was offered a contract by Old Navy to appear in multiple commercials for the company; I had previously appeared in a swimwear commercial for the company in 2005. I also appeared in a Blockbuster commercial for no late fees, as the teenage daughter. I participated in the Disney Channel Games 2006, which was filmed in April of 2006 and aired two months later. I was on the winning Blue Team, along with Brenda Song, Corbin Bleu, Cole Sprouse, Monique Coleman and Jason Earles. In June 2006, I signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records; my album, V was released September 26, 2006 in the United States and debuted at #24 on the album charts with 34,000 copies sold during its first week. There was limited promotion for the album, as it was released in the midst of the High School Musical worldwide press tour. The album is scheduled for a January 2007 release in the U.K. I described my album as "pop-rock, pop-R&B and pop-dance... almost like a mix-tape". The first music video from the album, for the song "Come Back to Me", premiered on the Disney Channel in August 2006; In the fall of 2006, I opened for The Cheetah Girls in their The Cheetah Girls tours #The Party's Just Begun tour; I performed in 20 of the cities included in the tour, between October 17, 2006 and November 15, 2006. I am at the moment a part of the High School Musical: The Concert tour which will perform at 40 cities from November 29, 2006 - January 28, 2007. The only cast member not present on the tour is Zac Efron, as he will still be filming the movie version of the musical Hairspray. I will film The High School Musical 2 Movie in March, in St. George and Salt Lake City, Utah. After filming has wrapped up, I will start working on my sophomore album.