Naya Rivera is an American actress and singer who might be best-known for playing Santana Lopez on Glee. Recently, her name has been showing up in the news because she was arrested for assaulting her husband Ryan Dorsey while they were in the state of West Virginia.
Here are five things that you may or may not have known about Naya Rivera:
First Significant Role at the Age of 4
Rivera started being represented by the same talent agent as her mother when she was still 8 or 9 months old. However, her first significant role as an actress wasn’t until the age of 4 when she played Hillary Winston on The Royal Family, which was a CBS sitcom. The reception for the series as a whole was positive, but unfortunately, it failed when its star Redd Foxx passed away because of a heart attack.
Breakthrough Role Was on Glee
After The Royal Family, Rivera managed to get a number of minor roles on a number of series. However, her breakthrough role came in 2009 when she was cast as Santana Lopez on Glee. Rivera chose to audition for the role because she was interested in something that would let her act, sing, and dance at the same time, which was helped by the fact that she had been a fan of the series co-creator Ryan Murphy’s previous series Nip/Tuck. To prepare for the role, Santana drew on her own school experiences while also watching Mean Girls to get into the right mood.
Musical Debut in 2013
In 2013, Rivera released a single called “Sorry,” which happened to feature Big Sean. This was her musical debut, though she had lent her vocals to a cover of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole” on a previous occasion. Before the release of the single, it had been announced that Rivera had been working with Columbia Records to produce a single album. However, those plans fell through for unknown reasons, with some sources claiming that it was because her single had underperformed, which is a claim that she has denied.
Is Religious
In an interview with Latina, Rivera revealed that she is religious because she was raised as a devout Christian. However, she prefers to keep her religious views a personal matter because she believes that if she is more open about it, she will come under criticism from people who feel that she isn’t puritanical enough considering her career of choice.
Alcohol Contributed to the Domestic Battery Incident
The office of the Kanawha County Sheriff has stated that alcohol was a contributing factor to the argument that broke out between Rivera and her husband, which resulted in her striking him on the head and lip. The argument was about their son Josey, who had been with them at the time of the incident. Since Rivera was arrested and then picked up by her father-in-law, her husband has spoken out to ask the media to respect their privacy at a difficult time for everyone in their family.
