Naya Rivera
Rivera at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Naya Marie Rivera (1987-01-12)January 12, 1987 Valencia, California, U.S.
Died	July 8, 2020(2020-07-08) (aged 33)[a] Lake Piru, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Drowning[b]
Body discovered	July 13, 2020
Burial place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), California
Other name	Naya Rivera Dorsey[4]
Occupations	Actress singer model
Years active	1991–2020
Spouse	Ryan Dorsey ​ ​ (m. 2014; div. 2018)​
Children	1
Relatives	Mychal Rivera (brother)
Musical career
Genres	Pop R&B
Instruments	Vocals
Label	Columbia
Musical artist

Naya Marie Rivera (/ˈnaɪə rɪˈvɛərə/ NY-ə riv-AIR-ə;^[5][6] January 12, 1987 – July 8, 2020) was an American actress, singer, and model recognized for her work on the popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. She began her career as a child actress and model, first appearing in national television commercials. At the age of four, she landed the role of Hillary Winston on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Royal Family (1991–1992), earning a nomination for a Young Artist Award at age five. After a series of recurring television roles and then guest spots as a teenager, she got her breakthrough role in 2009 as Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee. For the role, she received critical acclaim and various awards, including a SAG Award and ALMA Award, as well as earning nominations with the rest of the cast for a Grammy Award and a Brit Award.

She was signed to Columbia Records as a solo musical artist in 2011 and – despite never releasing a studio album – released a single, "Sorry", in 2013. She won two ALMA Awards as a music artist. On the big screen, Rivera made her debut in the horror film At the Devil's Door (2014) before playing a supporting role in the comedy Mad Families (2017). Besides performing, Rivera championed various charitable causes, particularly for LGBT rights, immigrants' rights, and women's rights. She also spoke out against racism, especially in entertainment. Her personal life garnered significant press and media attention throughout her career, and in 2016 she published a memoir titled Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up. Because of her varied roles across her three decades as a performer, Rivera is seen as having been a vanguard of Afro-Latino and LGBTQ representation on television.

On July 8, 2020, Rivera drowned at Lake Piru, near Santa Clarita, California, while saving her four-year-old son when their boating trip went awry. Following a five-day search, her body was recovered from the lake on the morning of July 13. At the time of her death, she was between seasons of the television series Step Up, in which she played Collette Jones.

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