Naya Rivera

Early life[edit]

Naya Marie Rivera was born in Valencia, California, on January 12, 1987.^[7] She was raised in Valencia and lived in or around Los Angeles for most of her life.^[7] She was of African-American, German, and Puerto Rican descent.^[8][c] When the term "Afro-Latinx" became widespread in the 2010s, she was often identified as such.^[12][13] Her mother, Yolanda Previtire (née White), is a real estate agent and former model,^[14][15] while her father, George Rivera,^[16] worked various IT jobs including positions at Disney and Universal Music.^[17] Her parents had married in 1986, but divorced in 1996, and her mother was remarried to Charles Previtire in 1999; Rivera was close with her stepfather,^[14] but did not really know her grandparents.^[18] Her maternal grandmother was Clara White, an abortion counselor and figure in the civil rights movement who was involved in the March on Washington, Selma to Montgomery marches, and 1968 Chicago riots,^[19][20][21] and who organized protests with^[22] and was represented by activist and lawyer Lloyd Barbee.^[23]


Rivera did not grow up speaking Spanish at home,^[24] but understood it^[25] and later learned to speak it.^[26] She was the oldest of three children: her younger brother is former NFL tight end Mychal Rivera (b. 1990),^[27] and her younger sister is runway model Nickayla Rivera (b. 1994).^[24][28] During the time her parents were married, the family's income would fluctuate dramatically, sometimes living lavishly and other times struggling;^[17] when they were in financial difficulty, Rivera approved the use of some of the money she earned as a child that was set aside in her Coogan account.^[18] The family owned a boat and often went boating when Rivera was a child;^[29][30] she still enjoyed boating as an adult and took many trips to Lake Piru near her home, which she considered a "sanctuary".^[31][32]


At 8 or 9 months old, Rivera began to be represented by the same talent agent as her mother, who had moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling.^[33] Rivera was a fan of Michael Jackson from a young age and became friends with one of Jackson's nieces as a child actress on the audition circuit, visiting Neverland Ranch twice (though not with Jackson present).^[34] She also met Tupac Shakur as a child; he was a fan of her acting and went over to introduce himself after spotting her family at LAX.^[35] Rivera attended Valencia High School in Santa Clarita and graduated in 2005.^[36][37] Her mother had convinced her to join a choir in her freshman year, but she quit it after a few weeks because she was constantly overlooked for classmate Nazanin Mandi. She challenged Mandi to a sing-off for a solo, but Mandi declined and so Rivera left.^{[14][18][35][38]} She had wanted to be a cheerleader, but her family could not afford this.^[24] Instead of high school activities, Rivera spent her free time at acting auditions.^[8] She suffered with anorexia as a teenager, something she opened up about as an adult.^[17] In 2019, Rivera described her high school experience as "terrible",^[39] indicating at other times that part of this was her attitude towards education (compared to her career), the lack of coffee served there,^[37][26] and racism.^[10]