Selena Marie Gomez is an American actress, singer, and businesswoman who rose to fame as a Disney Channel star before building one of the more diversified and commercially significant celebrity business portfolios in entertainment. She is best known for starring as Alex Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place, for a recording career that has produced four number-one Billboard 200 albums, and for founding Rare Beauty, a cosmetics company that reached a valuation of approximately $2 billion within a few years of its 2020 launch.
Gomez has also become one of the entertainment industry’s most prominent advocates for mental health awareness, speaking openly about her own diagnoses of lupus, bipolar disorder, and anxiety, experiences that directly shaped the design and mission of Rare Beauty.
Quick Facts
| Quick Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Selena Marie Gomez |
| Date of Birth | July 22, 1992 |
| Age | 34 years, 3 months, 3 days |
| Place of Birth | Grand Prairie, Texas, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Actress, singer, producer, businesswoman |
| Known For | Wizards of Waverly Place; Only Murders in the Building; Rare Beauty |
| Years Active | 2002 to present |
| Education | Homeschooled during her teenage years while working; did not attend college |
| Spouse/Partner | Benny Blanco, married September 2025 |
| Children | None |
| Net Worth | Estimated between $700 million and $1.3 billion as of 2026 (see Net Worth section) |
Who Is Selena Gomez?
Selena Gomez is an American entertainer whose career began as a child actress and has since expanded into music, film and television production, and business ownership. Named after Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, she was discovered by Disney through a nationwide talent search at age ten and became a household name among young audiences as the star of Wizards of Waverly Place from 2007 to 2012, a role she later reprised as a producer on its sequel series.
Beyond acting, Gomez built a recording career with four number-one albums on the Billboard 200, transitioned into adult dramatic and comedic roles including her Emmy-nominated performance in Only Murders in the Building, and founded Rare Beauty in 2020, a cosmetics brand that grew into one of the most commercially successful founder-led beauty companies of the decade. She has also become a leading public voice on mental health, having disclosed her own diagnoses of lupus, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, and having undergone a kidney transplant in 2017.
Early Life and Childhood
Selena Marie Gomez was born on July 22, 1992, in Grand Prairie, Texas, an only child of Ricardo Joel “Rick” Gomez, who is Mexican American, and Amanda Dawn “Mandy” Cornett, who is of Italian descent and worked as a stage actress. Her parents divorced when she was five, and she was raised primarily by her mother in Grand Prairie; her mother later remarried when Gomez was fourteen.
Gomez has said her interest in performing developed from watching her mother prepare for theater roles. At age seven, she landed a recurring role on the PBS children’s series Barney & Friends, appearing alongside fellow young actress Demi Lovato, with whom she formed a lasting friendship. She was let go from the series after roughly two years as she outgrew the role, and continued auditioning through her early teenage years before Disney discovered her in a nationwide talent search at age ten.
Education
Gomez attended public school in Grand Prairie during her earliest years but transitioned to homeschooling as her television and film commitments intensified during her preteen and teenage years, ultimately completing her high school education that way rather than through a conventional classroom setting. She did not pursue a college degree, choosing to continue building her acting and music careers following the sustained success of Wizards of Waverly Place.
How Selena Gomez Started Her Career
Gomez’s earliest professional acting work came through a recurring role on Barney & Friends beginning in 2002, followed by guest appearances on Disney Channel series including The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Hannah Montana, and a supporting role in the 2003 feature film Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. These smaller roles built her profile within Disney’s talent pipeline ahead of her signature breakthrough role.
In 2007, Gomez was cast as Alex Russo, one of three sibling wizards, in the Disney Channel original series Wizards of Waverly Place, for which she also recorded the theme song. The series became one of Disney Channel’s most successful original programs and made Gomez a defining young star of the network’s mid-to-late-2000s lineup, running for four seasons until 2012.
Breakthrough and Rise to Fame
Wizards of Waverly Place established Gomez as one of Disney’s most visible young stars, and she used that platform to launch a parallel music career, signing a non-exclusive recording deal with Hollywood Records shortly before her sixteenth birthday and forming the band Selena Gomez & the Scene. The group’s debut album, Kiss & Tell, released in September 2009, reached number nine on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum, giving Gomez a second, independent avenue of mainstream success alongside her acting career.
This dual-track breakthrough, sustained television stardom paired with a genuinely successful recording career, distinguished Gomez from several of her Disney Channel contemporaries and established the foundation for her eventual transition into more mature acting roles and, later, business ventures.
Career
Following Selena Gomez & the Scene’s three studio albums between 2009 and 2011, Gomez launched a solo recording career, releasing Stars Dance (2013), Revival (2015), and Rare (2020), each of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. In early 2025, she released I Said I Love You First, a collaborative album with her now-husband, producer Benny Blanco, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200.
On the acting side, Gomez transitioned from Disney Channel projects into more mature roles during the 2010s and took on an increasingly active producing role, serving as an executive producer on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. Her most significant recent acting work has come through Only Murders in the Building, a Hulu comedic mystery series in which she stars as Mabel Mora and serves as an executive producer, earning her multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations for acting since the show’s 2021 premiere. She also reprised her role as Alex Russo as an executive producer on the 2024 sequel series Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.
Music Career
Gomez’s musical evolution has moved from the pop-rock sound of Selena Gomez & the Scene toward more electronic and dance-pop production on her solo albums, with Revival marking a particularly notable stylistic maturation that critics linked to her personal growth following a highly publicized on-and-off relationship with Justin Bieber. Her catalog includes hit singles such as “Come & Get It,” “Good for You,” “Same Old Love,” “Bad Liar,” and “Lose You to Love Me,” several of which have accumulated hundreds of millions to billions of streams.
Her 2025 collaborative album with Benny Blanco, I Said I Love You First, marked her first major release since Rare and represented a departure from her prior solo format, pairing her vocals directly with her husband’s production and songwriting across the full project.
Business Ventures and Endorsements
Gomez founded Rare Beauty in February 2020, launching the brand in September of that year exclusively through Sephora and the brand’s own website. She has described the company’s mission as rooted directly in her own experience with lupus, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, and the product packaging, including matte finishes, low-resistance caps, and easy-to-remove applicators, was developed in partnership with hand therapists and the Casa Colina Research Institute to accommodate users with limited hand mobility, a condition Gomez has said affects her directly due to lupus-related muscle weakness and tremors. The brand generated more than $100 million in revenue in 2022 and $367 million in 2023, according to a California business filing, and industry reporting in 2024 and 2025 placed its valuation at approximately $2 billion, with some later 2026 estimates citing figures as high as $2.7 billion. Rare Beauty expanded from Sephora-exclusive distribution to more than 1,500 Ulta Beauty stores in February 2026. One percent of the brand’s sales fund the Rare Impact Fund, which supports mental health services and had donated more than $25 million by 2025.
In 2021, Gomez co-founded Wondermind, a mental health media and content startup, alongside her mother, Mandy Teefey, and entrepreneur Daniella Pierson, with Gomez holding the title of Chief Impact Officer. The startup raised $5 million in a round led by Serena Williams’s venture fund in 2022, valuing the company at approximately $100 million at the time. This venture has since become the subject of a significant legal dispute, detailed in the Controversies section below.
Awards and Achievements
Gomez has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her role as Mabel Mora on Only Murders in the Building, including nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, though she had not won the award as of the most recent ceremony. Wizards of Waverly Place won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Series during its run, recognition tied to the show’s broader production rather than an individual acting award for Gomez specifically.
Her four number-one Billboard 200 albums, Stars Dance, Revival, Rare, and her 2025 collaborative album with Benny Blanco, represent her most significant chart accomplishments. She holds the distinction of being the most-followed woman on Instagram, with more than 430 million followers, a platform reach that has directly supported the marketing and visibility of her business ventures, particularly Rare Beauty.
Personal Life
Selena Gomez had a widely publicized, on-and-off relationship with singer Justin Bieber for several years during the early-to-mid 2010s before the two ultimately went their separate ways. She was also in a shorter, more private relationship with singer the Weeknd. In late 2023, Gomez publicly confirmed she was dating record producer and songwriter Benny Blanco, with whom she had collaborated professionally on music since 2019; the couple became engaged in December 2024 and married in a ceremony in Santa Barbara, California, in September 2025, attended by high-profile guests including longtime friend Taylor Swift.
Gomez has been candid about a range of health challenges throughout her adult life. She was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, in 2015, and underwent a kidney transplant in 2017, with the kidney donated by her close friend and fellow actress Francia Raisa; Gomez disclosed the procedure publicly via social media only after it had taken place. In 2020, she disclosed a bipolar disorder diagnosis, and she has also spoken about experiences with anxiety, depression, and a psychotic episode, subjects she explored at length in the 2022 documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me.
Family
Gomez, an only child, was raised primarily by her mother, Mandy Teefey, following her parents’ divorce when Gomez was five; her father, Rick Gomez, has remained a presence in her life into adulthood. Teefey has remained closely involved in Gomez’s career and personal ventures, including co-founding Wondermind alongside her daughter.
Selena Gomez Net Worth
Selena Gomez’s net worth is estimated between $700 million and $1.3 billion as of 2026, with the wide range reflecting genuine disagreement among financial trackers about how to value her privately held stake in Rare Beauty. Bloomberg has cited a figure of approximately $1.3 billion, which would place her among the youngest self-made female billionaires, while other outlets, including some analyses noting the uncertainty introduced by Wondermind’s 2026 legal troubles, have cited more conservative figures closer to $700 million to $1 billion.
The substantial majority of her wealth is tied to her ownership stake in Rare Beauty, which industry reporting placed at a valuation of approximately $2 billion in 2024 and 2025, with some later estimates citing figures as high as $2.7 billion. Secondary contributors include her music catalog and streaming royalties, her Only Murders in the Building salary and executive producer credits, and earlier television and film income dating back to her Disney Channel years. Because Rare Beauty is privately held and does not publish full financial statements, and because her Wondermind investment is currently the subject of active litigation, published net worth figures for Gomez should be treated as informed estimates rather than a precisely audited total.
Philanthropy and Social Impact
Gomez has been one of the entertainment industry’s most visible advocates for mental health awareness, using both her personal platform and Rare Beauty’s structural giving model, the Rare Impact Fund, to direct resources toward mental health services and access programs. The fund had donated more than $25 million by 2025, and Gomez has framed the initiative as a core part of the brand’s identity rather than an add-on marketing effort.
She has also used her public platform, including the 2022 documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, to discuss her own mental health journey in detail, an approach credited within entertainment and health commentary with contributing to broader public destigmatization of conditions including bipolar disorder and lupus-related health challenges.
Controversies and Public Debates
In August 2026, Gomez, her mother, Mandy Teefey, and Wondermind co-founder Daniella Pierson were named in a federal securities fraud lawsuit filed in Delaware by two investment entities that stated they had invested nearly $1.2 million in the startup in 2022. The lawsuit alleges that the company’s founders misrepresented Wondermind’s infrastructure, leadership, and business partnerships to investors, and that Gomez specifically failed to fulfill a contractual obligation to be “intimately involved” in marketing the company despite her stated role as Chief Impact Officer. The suit further alleges that promised initiatives, including a dedicated mobile app and various partnership deals, never materialized, and that investors were not informed of the company’s deteriorating condition until a September 2025 report in The Cut examined the startup’s internal troubles.
The complaint separately alleges Teefey told investors that Pierson had misappropriated investor funds for personal expenses, including rent of approximately $60,000 per month; Pierson, who left Wondermind in 2023, has denied these allegations and stated she welcomes the chance to present financial documentation refuting them. Gomez’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, described the allegations against Gomez as “completely meritless, both factually and legally,” and indicated an intention to file a motion to dismiss. As of this writing, the case remains in its early stages with no factual findings yet made by the court, and this article presents the allegations as claims made in active litigation rather than established fact.
Cultural Impact and Legacy
Selena Gomez’s career illustrates an unusually successful transition from child star to adult multi-hyphenate entertainer and entrepreneur, a path that has proven difficult for many of her Disney Channel-era contemporaries to sustain. Her willingness to speak openly about lupus, kidney transplantation, and bipolar disorder, particularly within an industry that has historically pressured public figures to project uncomplicated success, has been widely cited within entertainment and health commentary as an influential example of celebrity health disclosure shaping public understanding of chronic illness and mental health conditions.
Rare Beauty’s design philosophy, building physical product accessibility directly around Gomez’s own disability experience rather than treating inclusivity as a marketing afterthought, has also been discussed within the beauty industry as a notable departure from typical celebrity beauty brand development, and the brand’s rapid commercial growth has made it a frequently cited case study in founder-led beauty business strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Selena Gomez? Selena Gomez is an American actress, singer, and businesswoman known for Wizards of Waverly Place, Only Murders in the Building, and founding the cosmetics brand Rare Beauty.
How old is Selena Gomez? She was born on July 22, 1992, in Grand Prairie, Texas.
What is Selena Gomez famous for? She is famous for her acting career, beginning with Wizards of Waverly Place, her music career including four number-one Billboard 200 albums, and founding Rare Beauty.
What is Selena Gomez’s net worth? Estimates for 2026 range from approximately $700 million to $1.3 billion, with most of her wealth tied to her ownership stake in Rare Beauty.
Who is Selena Gomez’s husband? She married record producer and songwriter Benny Blanco in September 2025, following their December 2024 engagement.
Does Selena Gomez have children? No, she does not have children.
Does Selena Gomez own Rare Beauty? Yes. She founded the company in 2020, and it has grown to a valuation reported between $2 billion and $2.7 billion.
What health conditions has Selena Gomez disclosed? She has disclosed diagnoses of lupus, for which she received a kidney transplant in 2017, along with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder.
Sources
- Britannica, “Selena Gomez | Benny Blanco, Age, Husband, Movies, TV Shows, Billionaire, Only Murders in the Building, & Facts”
- NBC News, “Selena Gomez and her mom accused of fraud over their mental health startup” (August 2026)
- CNN Business, “Selena Gomez and her mental health startup accused of fraud” (August 2026)
- Forbes, “Selena Gomez And Wondermind Startup Sued For Allegedly Defrauding Investors” (August 2026)
- TechCrunch, “Investors sue Selena Gomez alleging fraud tied to her mental health startup” (August 2026)
- Celebrity Net Worth, Selena Gomez net worth profile (2026)
- Fortune, “Selena Gomez’s mental health startup Wondermind gets a $100 million valuation” (August 2022)
- IBTimes UK, “Did Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco Sign a Prenup?” (September 2025)