Born in New York City and growing up in Grand Prairie, Texas while living “pay check to pay check” Selena Gomez surprisingly found her knack for acting at the age of 7 when she premiered on “Barney and Friends” in 2001. During this time she met her soon to be long time best friend, Demi Lovato, at the show auditions. After only two years on the program Gomez quit. She later had minor roles on TV for “Walker Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire” and the movie “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” in 2003.

     In 2004 she was discovered at a Disney casting call which landed her roles on a few Disney Channel shows before casting her for her own television show. She premiered as a guest star on “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and also played, Mikayla, which was the rivaling role of Hannah on “Hannah Montana.” Currently she stars on the award winning show “Wizards of Waverly Place” and plays one of the main characters Alex Russo. During this year the “Wizards of Waverly Place” movie drew in approximately 11.4 Million viewers for its first showing, which is Disney Channel’s second highest rated film to this date. “The appeal of ‘Wizards’ is simple: It’s our extraordinary cast…This is undoubtedly one of the strongest comedic ensembles on television,” said Disney’s Gary Marsh (the president entertainment for Disney Channels Worldwide). The “Wizards of Waverly Place” soundtrack was released on Aug. 4, 2008 and had four hit songs recorded by Selena.

     In 2008 she stared in the movie “Another Cinderella Story” with Drew Seeley, which was the sequel to the Hilary Duff film “A Cinderella Story”. For its January 2009 Premiere it gathered more than 5.3 million viewers on ABC Family which ranked as the number one cable movie of the month. She also played along side Steve Carelle as the voice of one of the mayor’s daughters in the animated movie “Horton Hears a Who!” however she never had the chance to meet him.

One of her dreams in her acting career was to star along side her best friend Demi, that was soon accomplished during this year. The film Princess Protection Program that had 8.5 viewers for its premiere which landed as the fourth highest viewed movie for Disney Channel. The movie tells a story of a princess in danger who is immediately whisked away and trained to act like regular girl by Selena’s character and family. She even recorded a music video for the movie with her co-star, Demi Lovato, called “One and the Same”.  “I still can’t believe that everything the two of us have wanted since we were seven is finally coming true,” Said Selena to Teen Vogue Magazine.

     Recently, Selena Gomez released her first debut album with her band ‘Selena Gomez & The Scene’. Her album titled “Kiss & Tell” under Hollywood Records was released Sept. 29, 2009 and sold 66 thousand copies in the first week.The “techno-rock-pop” album she has created resembles her life, “It’s what I’ve gone through with heartache, friendships, and things like that. I want my fans to know me a little bit better after they hear this record,” said Selena to Teen Vogue. Her single “Falling Down” reached number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 list and 83 on Canadian Hot 100. Her newest film that she is working on is “Romona and Beezus” that is based on the children novels by Beverly Cleary. The film has an upcoming release date of March 2010 which Selena plans to play the role of Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby who is the older sister of Ramona Quimby.