JANUARY 12
Naya Rivera was born on January 12, 1987 in Valencia, California. She began her career as a child actress and model, appearing in national television commercials. She landed her first TV role in CBS’s sitcom The Royal Family in 1991. However her breakthrough role came in 2009 when she was cast as the lesbian cheerleader Santana Lopez on the FOX television series Glee. She received various awards for this role including a SAG Award, an ALMA Award and two Grammys for her singing in the series.
A few years later she signed with Columbia Records and had begun her solo musical career recording the single Sorry.
Her film credits included the horror film At the Devil’s Door. She also worked on the comedy (2014) Mad Families (2017). And in 2016 she published a memoir titled Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up.
Besides performing, Rivera championed various charitable causes, particularly for LGBT rights, immigrants’ rights, and women’s rights.
Rivera was getting ready to return to her role of the female role of Collette Jones in the TV series Step Up, when on June 8 she died in Lake Piru in California while swimming with her four-year-old son. Her body was found five days later on July 13, 2020.
Rivera left an indelible mark on the TV screen with her roles and having been a vanguard of Afro-Latino and queer representation on television.
— Latin Heat News Service