Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez is a rare triple force in entertainment: a chart-topping pop singer, an acclaimed actress, and the billionaire founder of a beauty empire. Born Selena Marie Gomez on July 22, 1992, in Grand Prairie, Texas, and named after the Tejano star Selena Quintanilla, she grew up a Disney Channel favorite before building a music career that put three solo albums atop the Billboard 200. She has since become one of the most-followed people on social media and one of pop culture’s most recognizable figures, balancing music, film and business with unusual ease.

From Barney to Disney stardom

Gomez began performing as a child on the PBS series Barney & Friends, where she met her longtime friend Demi Lovato, before being discovered by the Disney Channel. In 2007 she landed the lead role of Alex Russo on the sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, a part that ran until 2012 and made her a teen idol known for her dry, sarcastic comic timing. While starring on the show she also moved into films, including Ramona and Beezus and Monte Carlo, and later took a sharp turn from her family-friendly image with the lurid drama Spring Breakers.

Finding her voice

Gomez’s music career began with the band Selena Gomez & the Scene, signed to Hollywood Records, which released three albums between 2009 and 2011 and produced hits like “Love You Like a Love Song” and “Who Says.” After the group split, she went solo. Her debut album, Stars Dance (2013), entered the charts at number one, led by “Come & Get It.” Revival followed in 2015 with the hits “Good for You” and “Same Old Love,” and in 2020 Rare gave her a first number-one single on the Hot 100 with the breakup ballad “Lose You to Love Me.”

A new chapter on screen

Gomez moved into more mature acting roles with the Hulu comedy-mystery Only Murders in the Building, which premiered in 2021 alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. Her deadpan turn as Mabel Mora drew wide praise, earning her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and comparisons to an older, sharper version of Alex Russo. She has also voiced Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania films and produced documentaries and series, steadily building a body of work far removed from her child-star beginnings.

Rare Beauty and beyond

In 2020 Gomez launched the cosmetics company Rare Beauty, which grew into a brand valued at around two billion dollars and helped push her own net worth past a billion, with a strong focus on mental health advocacy through its Rare Impact Fund. She has been candid about her own health, including a lupus diagnosis, a kidney transplant in 2017, and her mental health, which she explored in the documentary My Mind and Me. In 2025 she married producer Benny Blanco and released a collaborative album with him, I Said I Love You First, another step in a career that keeps expanding.

A reach beyond entertainment

Few artists of her generation have spread across so many fields at once. Gomez has been one of the most-followed people on Instagram, becoming the first woman to pass 400 million followers, and she has used that reach to champion mental health causes and Latino representation. Her openness about her own struggles has made her a relatable figure for millions of young fans, and her businesses and production work have given her a stake in the industry well beyond performing. The throughline is a steady, deliberate evolution from child star to multi-hyphenate adult.

From teen idol to serious actress

Gomez has worked hard to be taken seriously as a performer beyond her Disney years. She has spoken about being drawn to independent film and unconventional supporting roles, working with auteur directors and choosing parts that play against her early image. Her turn in Spring Breakers marked an early break from the family-friendly mold, and her acclaimed work in Only Murders in the Building, full of dry, deadpan wit, showed a mature comic actress fully in command of her craft.

A deliberate evolution

What ties Gomez’s many ventures together is a sense of careful, intentional growth. She did not rush to shed her Disney audience or chase every trend; instead she built a music catalogue, an acting résumé and a business empire step by step, on her own timeline. That patience, along with her candor about her health and her advocacy work, has earned her a loyal following that has stayed with her from Wizards of Waverly Place all the way to the top of the charts and the beauty world. Few performers who began as child stars have managed to grow into adulthood with their audience so firmly intact, and fewer still have turned that goodwill into success across music, film and business at once.

Most loved songs

A spread across her catalogue. Each title opens through the in-site player.

From Disney sets to the top of the charts and the beauty aisle, Gomez built a career few performers match. If one of her songs is stuck in your head, type it into the search box above to find it.