Zendaya as a queer closeted actress: a summary.
My plan for this post is to dive into Zendaya's PR image and possible hidden sexuality. I think recontextualizing Zendaya's career through a non-heteronormative lense will be a good exercise in recognizing queer signalling, understanding audience projections, and career trade-offs.
If you're not interested in this type of writing, or you strongly feel that Zendaya could only be straight, I'd encourage you to skip past this post.
I think that Zendaya's recent wedding rumors have increased the discussion around her possibly bearding. In case you weren't aware, Law Roach, Zendaya's long-time stylist, told an interviewer that "The wedding has already happened, you missed it" at a red carpet interview at the Actor Awards.
Many fans were shocked by this. Zendaya is known to be very private, so her stylist giving away such personal information was a surprise. Zendaya seemed to confirm the rumor by wearing a wedding band at the 2026 Oscars a week later.
Now let's backtrack for a second. Previously, at the 2025 Golden Globes, Zendaya had appeared wearing a burnt orange Louis Vuitton dress, and a Jessica McCormack engagement ring.
Now if you've read my blog before, you know that Jessica McCormack also designed Zoë Kravitz's engagement ring. Zoë Kravitz was in a PR relationship with Channing Tatum. It seems that Jessica McCormack is a go-to jeweler for a fake engagement!
Lastly, the vintage-inspired, old-fashioned look is another shared similarity between Taylor, Zoë, and Zendaya's engagement rings. And if you've been following Kaylor blogs for a while, you know that the color orange is used to signal a 'stunt', that is, some sort of public event with a beard.
In a New York Times interview prior to the event, Law Roach mentioned that the look would take inspiration from the 1950s singer Joyce Bryant.
Now let's take a moment for Joyce Bryant. She was known as 'The Black Marilyn Monroe', and her signature look was a glamorous, tight fitting gown with silver hair.
She was a singer in a time where black performers were not allowed to perform in certain venues, and black women were actively discouraged from wearing anything form fitting. As an example, Joyce was invited to The Ed Sullivan Show, and the host Ed Sullivan told her to wear a bandana with her evening gown. Later in life, she became a civil rights activist who often collaborated with Martin Luther King.
Wearing a gown influenced by a political figure, on the night of revealing her engagement ring, seems like a deliberate choice to me. Zendaya seemed to be hinting at the many constraints of someone in her position. Like Joyce, Zendaya is breaking racial barriers, and like Joyce, there are rules for how she is allowed to portray her sexuality.
Zendaya has had many instances of hinting at queerness over the years. I'm not able to cover all of them here, but I'll highlight the ones that stood out to me.
The first thing that popped into my head was this video from 2021:
Zendaya Answers Personality Revealing Questions | Proust Questionnaire | Vanity Fair
She is prompted with the question, "What traits do you find desirable in a man?" And she immediately corrects them with "What do I like most in a person, how about that?"
Also note her shy smile in answering the next question, "What traits do you find desirable in a woman?" "Well I guess those-that's the same answer."
She was also a cover-star for Interview magazine in 2021 where she was interviewed by Coleman Domingo. Here's part of their conversation below:
ZENDAYA: So, the hope is that I’ll be able to, one day, make the things that I want to see.
DOMINGO: Like what? Give me an example.
ZENDAYA: Like a simple love story about two Black girls.
ZENDAYA: And I don’t want it to be rooted in anything other than just a story about two people falling in love and that’s it. Something simple and beautiful, that leaves you happy and wanting to fall in love yourself.
DOMINGO: Are you a bit of a romantic?
ZENDAYA: Of course. But I also feel I just haven’t seen that without it dealing more with the traumatic side of things—which is really important to talk about, but I would love a coming-of-age story where awkward and funny things happen, just like when any other young person is trying to figure out who they are.
Finally, Zendaya's style of dressing (before becoming the red carpet glamazon she is today) was notably tomboyish. By itself, it would not mean anything, but in context of everything else I've mentioned, it's interesting to think about.
For those wondering why Zendaya would choose to stay closeted, just look at the state of the world currently. There is bigotry everywhere. Zendaya has the triple whammy of being a black queer woman in a racist, patriarchal, homophobic society. She's dealt with racism simply for wearing her hair in dreadlocks on the red carpet. Only one Best Leading Actress Oscar has ever been awarded to a black woman in the history of the Oscars.
Choosing to be paired off with someone like Tom Holland has many career benefits. They are a familiar couple, since many people have seen one or more of the Spider-Man movies, where they are the leads.
Not only that, but they are both perceived in the same way that their characters would be perceived in the movie. They are wholesome sweet teenagers who save the day.
I remember hearing the idea that Zendaya and Tom were told not to date by one of the executives of the Spider-Man movies for fear that it would ruin the movie. I had to chuckle at that. In reality, it is known in the business that having the two leads of a movie date sells movie tickets. Audience members are interested in seeing the chemistry on-screen. The love between the actors mirrors the love between the characters.
None of this is meant to shame Zendaya, or criticize her choice in staying closeted. Zendaya is not at fault here. My goal in writing this is to expose how closeted celebrities are often hidden in plain sight, and to hopefully get people to think critically.
