Auliʻi Cravalho

Auliʻi Cravalho ( born November 22, 2000) is an American actress and singer who made her acting debut as the voice of the titular character in the 2016 Disney 3D computer-animated musical feature film Moana. She went on to star in the NBC drama series Rise (2018), the Netflix drama film All Together Now (2020) and the Hulu romantic comedy Crush (2022).

Early life
Cravalho was born in Kohala, Hawaii, to Cathleen (Puanani) Cravalho, of Native Hawaiian descent, and Dwayne Cravalho, of mixed Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent. At the time she made her breakthrough, she was living in Mililani, Hawaii with her mother and was in her freshman year of high school, singing soprano in the glee club at Kamehameha Schools' Kapālama campus.

Career
Cravalho has stated that she was initially not going to audition for Moana because "there were already so many great submissions over YouTube". However, an Oahu talent agent discovered her at a charity competition and encouraged her to audition for the role. The Walt Disney Company has stated that Cravalho was the last person to audition out of hundreds of actresses.

In February 2017, it was announced that she had been cast in the pilot for the NBC drama Rise, which was ordered to series on May 4, 2017. The series premiered on March 13, 2018, but NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2018, due to low ratings.

In November 2017, Cravalho announced she was going to reprise her role as Moana in the first Hawaiian-language dubbed Disney film. The dubbed Moana premiered on June 10, 2018.

On November 5, 2019, Cravalho portrayed Ariel in ABC's The Little Mermaid Live!, a live-action concert rendition of The Little Mermaid. In 2020, she starred in All Together Now, directed by Brett Haley for Netflix.

In 2020, Cravalho participated in Acting for a Cause, a live classic play and screenplay reading series created, directed and produced by Brando Crawford. Cravalho played Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest, Laertes in Hamlet, Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice, and Jeannie Bueller in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The reading raised funds for non-profit charities including Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Cravalho was cast as the title character, Hailey, in the animated comedy-adventure series Hailey's On It!, which is slated to premiere in 2023.

Personal life
In April 2020, Cravalho publicly came out as bisexual, with a preference for women. In June 2021, Cravalho announced that she was accepted into Columbia University and subsequently revealed that she plans to major in environmental science at the school.