High School Musical: Where Are They Now?

Yeah, Glee was OK, but it’ll never be as good as High School Musical. THERE. WE SAID IT.

Unbelievably, it’s been 10 years since Troy and Gabriella first met at that karaoke party and our lives were forever changed. The musical numbers, the dancing on lunch tables, Zac Efron’s swishy Bieber-esque fringe….

We may not know if Troyella made it beyond college (we’re still waiting on College: The Musical!), but we do know what the cast of HSM have been doing since 2006. Their hair has improved significantly…

Troy Bolton (Zac Efron)

We’ve not seen much of Zac since High School Musical 3 wrapped – LOL, just kidding, we’ve seen A LOT.

From 17 Again to Bad Neighbours and We Are Your Friends, the one we call Zefron is a pretty big deal (but let's just sweep over that stint in rehab).

We’ve seen even more of him recently, thanks to him going topless in Dirty Grandpa. If he doesn’t take home the MTV Movie award for Best Shirtless performance for a third year in a row, something is wrong with the world.

Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens)

Aww, she looked so innocent back then! These days V gives us serious festival goals looking on fleek at Coachella, and well as regularly winning at Instagram.

Since HSM, she’s been appearing on Broadway and in cult films such as Spring Breakers and Sucker Punch, and can recently be seen shimmying as Rizzo in Grease: Live. Which is INCREDIBLY EXCITING.

Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale)

No one in HSM was as sassy as the East High drama club president (she even had her own spin-off, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure), but we’re glad to say Ashley has not held on to Sharpay’s unique sense of style and instead marched to the beat of her own high heels, launching fashion blog ‘The Haute Mess’ last year.

Not only that, she was recently made creative director for uber-cool tee brand, Signorelli. As she has said herself on Instagram, “Forget the rules.  If you like it, wear it”, so we can only hope she’s at least held on to that Sherpa vest, because we cannot even handle it right now.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_7HR1Lm09n/?taken-by=thehautemessdotcom

Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel)

Ahh, Ryan – just how many hats did he own? We shall never know.

Fresh from HSM, Lucas lost his locks to play a young Lex Luthor in Smallville and has been in various US TV shows, including Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.  He’s now a series regular on ABC’s Switched At Birth and basically looks exactly the same as he did 10 years ago. Is he a vampire?

Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu)

You can take the boy out of Disney, but you’ll never take Disney out of the boy – in 2014 Troy’s best mate got engaged to fellow Disney star Sasha Clements at none other than Disney World. Talk about being brand loyal.

Like V-Hudge, Corbin went all jazz hands and did a spot of musical theatre post-HSM and some TV here and there, but we shall never forget him dressed as Khal Drogo and waltzing to the Game Of Thrones theme tune on Dancing With The Stars. Unleash the dragons!

Taylor Mckessie (Monique Coleman)

Never was a truer word spoken when Taylor gave her pep talk to Bessie Gabriella, “Girl, your future is calling loud and clear. You have to grab it while you can.”

It would seem that ambitious Taylor rubbed off a bit on Monique, who became the first ever UN Youth Champion and launched her own online platform “Gimme Mo” to empower today’s youth. She was also the first High-Schooler to get hitched, marrying Walter Young in 2012.

Kelsi Nielsen (Olesya Rulin)

Although Kelsi was a fairly minor character, but fortunately blessing us with ‘Twinkle Town’ and THE BEST SONGS EVER, Olesya’s been busy since graduating East High and starred in all sorts of TV shows and movies, such as Flying By alongside Miley Cyrus’s dad, Billy Ray.

Is it us, or has everyone from HSM become even more gorge with every passing year? It just isn’t fair.

- By Becky Suter @Becky_Super