Naya Rivera

Naya Marie Rivera (January 12, 1987 – July 8, 2020) was an American actress, model, and singer. She began her career as a child actress and model, appearing in national television commercials before landing the role of Hillary Winston on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Royal Family at the age of 4 (1991–1992), for which she received a nomination for a Young Artist Award. After a series of recurring television roles and guest spots as a teenager, Rivera received her breakthrough role as an adult as Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015), for which she received nominations for numerous accolades. She was signed to Columbia Records as a solo artist in 2011 and released a single in 2013, "Sorry", featuring rapper Big Sean.

Rivera made her feature film debut as Vera in the horror film At the Devil's Door (2014). Beginning in 2015, she had a recurring role as Blanca on the third season of the Lifetime television series Devious Maids. In animation, she voiced Mary Jane Young in the 2017 Disney/Xtranormal film Boing! and Skitte, a skittle flavored cat in the 2018 20th Century Fox Animation short Orie’s Big Night Out.

On July 8, 2020, she was declared a missing personafter her four-year-old son was found alone in their rental boat at Lake Piru, near Santa Clarita, California. The following day, Ventura County Sheriff's Office officials reported that Rivera was presumed dead and that they would be focusing efforts on recovering her body, which they did several days later on July 13.