First Look: Meet Steven Spielberg’s New Maria, Rachel Zegler

Written by Tiffany Wilkie

January 15, 2019

Concluding a worldwide search of more than 30K people, Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic West Side Story has found its Maria a 17-year old High School student from New Jersey Rachel Zegler who will make her feature film debut opposite already cast Ansel Elgort as Tony.

In January 2018,  Zegler spotted a casting notice on Twitter for Latinx actors and submitted a video of herself singing “Tonight” and “Me Siento Hermosa” (“I Feel Pretty”). The rest is history. Zegler, who has an active Youtube account where you can watch videos of her singing classic Broadway as well as contemporary songs and most recently, videos of her singing the songs of Freddie Mercury, whom she calls a significant influence in her life.

We wish Rachel all the best. You can see why Rachel will be the perfect Maria in the videos below:

Zegler Performs Maria’s Iconic Final Monologue  


Zegler Performs “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” from West Side Story



Zegler Performs “Somebody to Love” by Freddie Mercury 



Zegler Performs “La Vie En Rose” by Édith Piaf



Zegler Performs “Gimmie, Gimmie” from Thoroughly Modern Millie



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Tiffany Weagly-Wilkie is the Director of  Social Media Marketing and Theatricals for PerformerStuff.com.