Who's Who in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES Season 2

See performance clips from the multi-talented cast below!

By: Nov. 29, 2020
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Disney Plus' delightfully meta original series will return in 2021 for a second season! The story of a group of students counting down the days until they get to perform in their school's first-ever production of High School Musical: The Musical includes a cast of young triple threats, including Joshua Bassett, Olivia Rodrigo, Sofia Wylie, Matt Cornett, Kate Reinders, Julia Lester, Larry Saperstein, Dara Reneé, Frankie Rodriguez, Joe Serafini, and Mark St. Cyr.

Tim Federle created the series. He's recently known to theatre audiences as the co-writer of "Tuck Everlasting," which played Broadway in 2016.

Before the start of the second season, HSMTMTS will premiere a holiday special on December 11th. The cast will perform their favorite Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year's songs and share anecdotes from their memorable holidays, best - and most embarrassing! - presents, favorite holiday traditions, family Christmas photos, and poignant New Year's resolutions.

Want to know more about the talented cast and crew - most of whom track their roots to musical theatre? Find out what we know below!


Tim Federle
Series Creator, Showrunner, Executive Producer

Tim Federle started his career on Broadway - he starred in the original cast of "The Little Mermaid," and has further performance credits in "Billy Elliot," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and the 2003 revival of "Gypsy."

Federle co-wrote the "Tuck Everlasting" musical with Chris Miller, Nathan Tysen, and Claudia Shear. It played 39 performances on Broadway in the spring of 2016. Based on the book by Natalie Babbitt, "Tuck Everlasting" tells the story of good girl Winnie Foster, whose world has been safely contained behind the picket fence that surrounds the house she shares with her mother and grandmother. Yearning to break free, Winnie runs deep into the woods behind their house where she discovers the Tuck family and the secret they've been keeping. That secret sets Winnie and the Tucks out on an adventure that will test what they believe and challenge them to truly be alive, now and forever.

Federle also serves as executive producer of the animated musical "Foster" for Blue Sky Studios, with songs by Pasek & Paul. He won the Humanitas Prize for co-writing the Golden Globe and Academy Award-nominated Best Animated Feature "Ferdinand," starring John Cena and Kate McKinnon. Federle is also the author of several books, including the YA novel "Better Nate Than Ever," a New York Times Notable Book, and its Lambda-winning sequel, which Lin-Manuel Miranda called "a wonderful evocation of what it's like to be a theater kid" (New York Times).

See highlights from "Tuck Everlasting here:


Kate Reinders
Miss Jenn

HSMTMTS' "Miss Jenn" has many a Broadway credit to her name. She was most recently seen starring as Cynthia Weil in "Beautiful, the Carole King Musical," and her previous Broadway credits include "Steve Martin's Meteor Shower," where she served as standby for Amy Schumer; Portia in "Something Rotten!" (Original Cast recording); Glinda in "Wicked" for which she received a Jefferson Award nomination (Broadway and Original Chicago company); June in Sam Mendes' revival of "Gypsy" starring Bernadette Peters; Caroline in the Beach Boys musical "Good Vibrations;" and the 2002 revival of both "Into the Woods" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

On television, Reinders was a series regular on both ABC's "Work It" and Lifetime's "Sherri" and has guest starred on many shows including "Instinct," "Anger Management," "Modern Family" and "Ugly Betty." Her film credits include "Russell Madness," "Grudge Match," "Such Good People," "Certainty" and "Kinsey." As half of the singing/songwriting comedy duo "Tastiskank", Reinders has performed on the New York comedy and cabaret circuit, the TBS Comedy Festival in Las Vegas and the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, where the duo received the 2007 Breakout Award.

Watch Reinders perform "For Good" from "Wicked" with her Elphaba, Ana Gasteyer:


Joshua Bassett
Ricky

Joshua Bassett started his career in theater, landing nearly a dozen lead roles in California stage productions including Apostle James in "Godspell," The Cat in the Hat in "Seussical," Peter Pan in "Peter Pan," Kurt vonTrapp in "The Sound of Music" and Charlie in "Willy Wonka."

The 18-year-old actor, singer, and songwriter plays the lead role of "Ricky" on "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series." He co-wrote and performed "Just For a Moment" with Olivia Rodrigo for season one and will debut an acoustic version of "The Perfect Gift," a song he penned for season two, on "High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special." He is also known for his recurring role as Aidan Peters on Disney Channel's "Stuck in the Middle." He recently guest starred on "Dirty John" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." An artist with Warner Records, Bassett unveiled his solo debut "Common Sense" in 2020. Within a month, it tallied 5 million total streams.

Bassett performs "When There Was Me and You" here:


Olivia Rodrigo
Nini

Rodrigo began her career performing in school plays and regional musical theatre productions.

With nearly 300 million streams worldwide, the season one hit she wrote and composed, "All I Want," entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #90 and has been certified Gold in the U.S. and Canada. Rodrigo also debuted at #18 on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart.

Prior to HSMTMTS, Rodrigo stared as Paige Olvera in Disney Channel's live-action comedy "Bizaardvark." Her first professional acting job was in an Old Navy commercial and she then went on to star as the bubbly Grace Thomas in the popular direct-to-DVD movie, "An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success."

Watch the official video for "All I Want" here:


Sofia Wylie
Gina

Wylie began as a professional dancer, training in ballet, lyrical, Hip Hop, Contemporary, and Jazz. She studied at the world-renowned Second City Training Center in Hollywood and performed on stage with Justin Bieber for his World Tour. She currently shows off her dancing in Disney Channel's short-form series "SHOOK."

Wylie also starred in one of Disney Channel's award-winning, history-making, comingof-age series, "Andi Mack" and continues to voice the character of Riri Williams (AKA Ironheart) in the "Marvel Rising: Heart of Iron" and "Spider-Man: Maximum Venom" animated shorts as well as the "Spider-Man" animated series. Wylie starred in MarVista's "Back of the Net," which was released theatrically in Australia in April 2019 and debuted on Disney Channel in the US in June 2019. When not filming or on stage, Wylie choreographs her own dance routines, leads dance classes and interacts with her 8 million-plus followers on TikTok.

Watch Wylie dance in every episode of "SHOOK" here:


Larry Saperstein
Big Red

Formally trained as a dancer and vocalist, Saperstein has starred in several regional musicals including "Oliver!," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Miracle on 3th Street." Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Saperstein is an alumni member of the prestigious Tap City Youth Ensemble and now works with the American Tap Dance Foundation. He has also trained extensively at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company.

On television, Saperstein portrayed the role of Timmy in the first season of "First Wives Club." He can also be seen opposite Kiernan Shipka in the film "Fan Girl," directed by Paul Jarrett.

Watch Saperstein tap dance:


Julia Lester
Ashlyn

Trained with an extensive musical theatre background, Lester has performed in almost 30 stage productions, including the title role in "Carrie: The Musical," "Next to Normal" and "Calvin Berger." Also a dancer since the age of two, she has choreographed professionally for various dance teams and is trained in hip-hop, jazz, contemporary and tap dancing.

Lester's television credits include recurring roles on "Mom," "Prince of Peoria" and "Mr. Student Body President." Her guest starring roles include "Game Shakers," "The Thundermans" and "Bella and the Bulldogs."

Julia Lester performs the title song from "Carrie" here:


Dara Reneé
Kourtney

Reneé and her mother opened "Encouraging Youth to Dream" in Baltimore, Maryland, where Reneé trained and performed memorable roles in countless productions including "Annie," "West Side Story," "The Wiz," and "Grease." Most recently, she starred as Savannah in the Disney Channel Original Movie musical "Freaky Friday."

She's also been featured in a recurring role on the hit ABC series "black-ish" and a guest starring role on ABC's "The Kids Are Alright."

Dara talks about "Freaky Friday" with Broadway star Heidi Blickenstaff here:


Matt Cornett
EJ

Matt Cornett plays "E.J" on "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" for Disney+. He is also known for his recurring guest star role as Zach Barnes on "Bella and The Bulldogs," for which he earned a 2016 Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a TV Series - Recurring Young Actor." Recently, he shared the big screen with Natasha Henstridge in the feature film, "Inconceivable."

Other credits include notable roles on "Life in Pieces," "Game Shakers" and "Criminal Minds," as well as a host on Disney Channel's "Movie Surfers." Born in idyllic rural Rogers, Arkansas, Cornett moved to Southern California to pursue his acting career full time in 2012. Soon after relocating, he booked a role on "Southland", for which he won a Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a TV Series Guest Starring Young Actor."

Cornett covers "Shallow" here:


Frankie Rodriguez
Carlos

Rodriguez holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from The American Academy. Most recently, he was featured in a recurring role on ABC's "Modern Family."

He sings "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" here:


Joe Serafini
Seb

Serafini recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Musical Theatre.

Watch a video starring Serafini from the University here:


Mark St. Cyr
Mr. Mazzara

St. Cyr plays "Mr. Mazzara" on "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series." Notably, St. Cyr can be seen opposite the late Chadwick Boseman in the critically acclaimed film "Marshall" as well as the independent feature "A Modern Persuasion," a Jane Austen adaptation. His television credits include guest starring roles on "Chicago P.D.," "Kevin Can Wait" as well as starring in the indie series "Doomsday" which won top awards at NYTVF, ITVFest and Brooklyn Webfest. Born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, St. Cyr is a graduate of Elon University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting. He is an alumni of the ABC Diversity Talent Showcase alongside the likes of Chadwick Boseman, Laz Alonso, and Jesse Williams. St. Cyr currently resides in New York.

St. Cyr teaches "Acting 101" here:



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