Zendaya and Sheeraz Hasan: The Early-Career Strategy

Before the global stage

“He took us from zero to 100.” — Kazembe Coleman

Sheeraz and her family trained her on camera, clarified how she should be positioned and took that strategy into international markets.

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At a glance

Zendaya

The position came before the global career.

Working with Zendaya and her family, Sheeraz helped make her confidence, judgment and international demand visible beyond the category the early market had assigned her.

Relationship: Early-career media and brand strategy
Sheeraz's role: Media strategist and on-camera coach
Starting point: Zendaya at fifteen
Family mandate: Build value without compromising the person
Method: Camera training, brand positioning and international proof
Public outcome: CoverGirl, Spider-Man, global fashion and worldwide audiences

Watch · Kazembe Coleman

Kazembe explains the early strategy

Kazembe Coleman, Zendaya's father and manager, explains why the family hired Sheeraz and how the strategy changed the value the market placed on her.

Full filmFAME MasterclassFull film
The Zendaya story, told by her father
Kazembe Coleman, Zendaya's father and manager, gives a direct account of the coaching, positioning and international strategy behind her early career.
Read how the position was built

Emirates News · FAME archive

The international position appears on camera.

Emirates News records Zendaya's audience in the Gulf: the preparation, public appearances and international demand that established her beyond the United States.

The family brief

At fifteen, Zendaya had talent but little brand demand.

“Sheeraz gave us the formula. He put us on the map.”
Kazembe Coleman, Zendaya's father and manager

Zendaya had talent, discipline and a Disney platform. What she did not yet have was a position the wider market understood. Her father and manager, Kazembe Coleman, wanted to build that position without compromising the person at the centre of it.

Archive frame
FAME Masterclass
Why Kazembe hired Sheeraz
Kazembe Coleman explains why the family brought Sheeraz in and credits the formula that changed how the market saw Zendaya.
Zendaya's father and manager directly credits Sheeraz with changing how the market saw her.

He brought in Sheeraz Hasan while Zendaya was still a teenager. The brief was not to manufacture a personality. It was to make the confidence, judgment and ambition already there legible to brands, media and audiences beyond children's television.

On-camera practice

Sheeraz trained Zendaya for the camera.

Sheeraz visited the family home with a camera team and turned the lens into a training tool. Zendaya rehearsed product stories, watched the playback and tried again. Each exercise joined presentation to substance: understand what you are saying, believe it and make another person believe it too.

Watch00:10.2–00:30.6
Training Zendaya for the camera
Zendaya rehearses a brand story, takes direction and refines how she speaks on camera.
On-camera confidence was trained before it became part of Zendaya's public image.

These sessions happened before the global campaigns. Zendaya was practicing the skills she would later use in front of much larger audiences.

The long view

Kazembe called Sheeraz “the closer.”

“I would call Sheeraz the closer.”
Kazembe Coleman

The work was never simply about accepting the first deal. Kazembe and Sheeraz treated each opportunity as a signal about the career they were building. A fee could be attractive and the fit could still be wrong.

Watch00:09.5–00:28.5
Preparation before the global campaigns
Zendaya repeats the exercise until the delivery feels natural and convincing.
The polished campaign presence followed repeated preparation and direction.

That discipline protected the larger proposition: Zendaya would not be presented as a short-lived television personality. She would be positioned as an actor, performer and credible global partner whose choices made sense together.

International positioning

International appearances moved Zendaya beyond Disney.

A young career can look smaller than it is when every proof point comes from the same market. Sheeraz widened the frame. London built fashion visibility. The Gulf offered an audience that already understood Zendaya's reach. International appearances could show demand the American industry had not yet priced in.

The sequence was deliberate: prepare the person, sharpen the position, then place that position in markets where the response could be seen.

Archive frame
Emirates News
Emirates News records the plan
Emirates News reports on Zendaya's growing audience in the Gulf.
Regional television documented the international position as it was being built.

Dubai Mall

Dubai made Zendaya's international audience visible.

At Dubai Mall, the strategy became physical. Fans filled the activation and gathered across the surrounding levels to see Zendaya perform. The crowd was more than spectacle. It was evidence that her audience crossed borders.

Watch01:11.8–01:33.2
Dubai made the audience visible
At Dubai Mall, Zendaya faces a packed international crowd while her American career is still taking shape.
International demand was visible while the American market still treated Zendaya as an emerging talent.

The teenager who had rehearsed brand pitches on camera was now holding the attention of an international crowd.

From preparation to recognition

Kazembe: “He took us from zero to 100.”

Zendaya's talent and judgment are her own. The early work helped brands and audiences see those qualities clearly. She learned to command the camera, and international appearances showed that demand for her already crossed borders.

Her later career makes the foresight easy to see, but Kazembe made the decision before the outcome was guaranteed.

Watch00:00–00:08.1
Zendaya names Sheeraz in Dubai
Zendaya names Sheeraz and Millions of Milkshakes while speaking about Dubai.
Zendaya publicly connects Sheeraz and the Dubai activation to her international story.

The scale of the outcome

Zendaya became a global star.

The work began at fifteen, before that outcome was obvious. Sheeraz and the family built the on-camera confidence, brand position and international proof around a long-term career. CoverGirl, national television, Spider-Man and global red carpets later made the scale of that success visible.

“Sheeraz gave us the formula. He put us on the map.”
Kazembe Coleman, Zendaya's father and manager

CoverGirl
Global beauty campaign: Spider-Man
Major studio franchise: US television
National media recognition: Global premieres
Worldwide cultural presence

Zendaya in her CoverGirl campaign — Global brand
Zendaya becomes a CoverGirl
A global beauty campaign placed Zendaya at the centre of a household brand.

The Hollywood Reporter coverage of Zendaya joining Spider-Man — Major franchise
The Hollywood Reporter announces Spider-Man
The Spider-Man announcement marked her arrival inside one of the world's largest entertainment franchises.

Zendaya on the Spider-Man red carpet — World stage
A global leading woman
The teenager once rehearsing brand pitches was now appearing at a global film premiere.

ABC30 Action News anchors introducing Zendaya coverage — US television
The American media follows the rise
Her career was now a national entertainment story far beyond children's television.

Zendaya appearing on Access Hollywood Live — Entertainment television
Access Hollywood Live
National television presented Zendaya as an actor, performer and fashion authority.

Sources

The preparation is on camera.

Kazembe's account, the coaching sessions and the Dubai crowd document how the early strategy worked.

Family account

Full film

FAME Masterclass

Kazembe Coleman recounts why the family hired Sheeraz and how the early strategy worked.

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Preparation

Two archive films

FAME coaching archive

Two filmed sessions preserve the on-camera practice behind the public confidence.

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Dubai activation

01:11.8–01:33.2

Millions of Milkshakes archive

The Dubai Mall performance records an international audience at the beginning of the strategy.

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Regional television

Full report

Emirates News

A regional television report documents the strategy outside the United States.

Watch

Questions