Auli’i Cravalho

Born and raised in Hawaii, Auli'l Cravalho took a rather unlikely path to becoming the first Disney princess of Polynesian descent. Although she always dreamt of becoming a professional singer and actress, Cravalho spent the majority of her childhood living a relatively normal life in her lush coastal town in Hawaii.

Singing was always a passion of hers, and throughout her town, she was known for having a beautiful singing voice. But aside from showing off her singing voice at school and charity events, not many people outside of Hawaii knew of her or it. As luck would have it, however, during one of her performances at a charity event in Oahu, a talent agent just happened to be sitting in the audience. He approached Cravalho after the show and told her about an upcoming audition for a new Disney movie.

At first Cravalho was skeptical but, thinking she'd be perfect for the part, the agent convinced her to fly to Los Angeles to audition for the role. Many girls had already auditioned for the part, so Cravalho was the last one to show off her singing chops. Her audition went amazingly, and she was later told that she beat out hundreds of other young women for the title role of "Moana."

Having long dreamt of being a Disney princess, the title role of "Moana" was a dream come true for Cravalho. The animated adventure comedy opened nationwide in late 2016 with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who's also of Polynesian descent, serving as her co-star. "Moana" was also Cravalho's first ever acting role.