DarkMode/LightMode
Light Mode

‘Moana’ Star Auli’i Cravalho Lands Top TV Role

Moana_Featurette_cms
Disney

Teenage Moana star Auli’i Cravalho has bagged a leading role in a new high school TV drama.

The 16-year-old actress and singer, who voiced the title character in Disney’s Hawaii-themed animated movie, has been tapped up for a role as a student in U.S. TV network NBC’s new show, Drama High, according to Deadline.com.

Drama High is based on a book by Michael Sokolove about Lou Volpe, a drama at Pennsylvania’s Harry S. Truman High School, who pioneered adapting Broadway shows for students.
Auli’i will play Lilette, a student working part-time at a diner with big dreams of becoming a star in the school’s fabled drama department.

- Advertisement -

The show, which has received a pilot order, will be written by Friday Night LightsJason Katims and produced by Jeffrey Seller, the theatre producer who helped bring Broadway mega-hit Hamilton to the stage.

Auli’i, who made her movie debut in Moana, performed the film’s Oscar nominated theme song How Far I’ll Go at the Academy Awards on Sunday (26Feb17), and she was introduced on stage by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Lin-Manuel, who wrote How Far I’ll Go, performed a rap introducing Auli’i before she performed to an audience of Hollywood superstars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, and millions watching around the globe. Miranda’s Moana song lost out to La La Lands City of Stars at the Oscars.

The 36-year-old actor and musician and Seller have been collaborating for years – before Hamilton, the producer also backed Miranda’s first major musical project, In the Heights.

- Advertisement -