Recognized for her work on the popular musical comedy-drama series Glee , in which she starred from to , she received various awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for two Grammy Awards. She began her career as a child actress and model, first appearing in national television commercials. After a series of recurring television roles and then guest spots as a teenager, she got her breakthrough role in as Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee.
She was signed to Columbia Records as a solo musical artist in and β despite never releasing a studio album β released a single, " Sorry ", in On the big screen, Rivera made her debut in the horror film At the Devil's Door before playing a supporting role in the comedy Mad Families 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 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 LGBT representation on television.
Following a five-day search, her body was recovered from the lake on the morning of July At the time of her death, she was between seasons of the television series Step Up , in which she played Collette Jones. Rivera did not grow up speaking Spanish at home, [ 24 ] but understood it [ 25 ] and later learned to speak it. 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. She challenged Mandi to a sing-off for a solo, but Mandi declined and so Rivera left.
