Auli'i Cravalho

Auliʻi Cravalho, a singer and actress from Hawaii, has earned recognition for her grounded performances as the central figure in several movie musicals. Her first voice-acting assignment proved decisive when she was cast as the lead in Disney’s 2016 animated musical Moana, delivering the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated song “How Far I’ll Go.”

Born in Kohala, Hawaii in 2000, Cravalho won the title role of the teenaged Polynesian princess Moana at age 14. A high-school sophomore and glee-club member discovered with little prior notice, she secured the part through composure, assurance, and vocal power. The film reached theaters in November 2016 and drew widespread critical praise. Featured on its soundtrack was the Lin-Manuel Miranda song “How Far I’ll Go,” which Cravalho performed and which received the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. In 2017 she and Miranda sang the number together at the Academy Awards, where it had been nominated for Best Original Song. That same year she issued a single version of “How Far I’ll Go” with the B-side “You’re Welcome,” while the Moana soundtrack climbed to number two on the Billboard 200.

After this breakthrough, Cravalho took the lead in the 2018 NBC drama Rise and again voiced Moana for Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet. In 2019 she played Ariel in ABC’s musical The Little Mermaid Live, then appeared in a series of teen films that included All Together (2020), Crush (2022), and the supernatural comedy Darby and the Dead (2022). She returned to the role of Moana for the 2023 TV special LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest and supplied the voice of Hailey for Disney’s animated series Hailey’s on It! that year.

In January 2024 Cravalho appeared with Reneé Rapp and Angourie Rice in the screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Mean Girls, drawn from Tina Fey’s 2004 film. As Janis she featured prominently on the soundtrack album, which entered the Billboard 200 at number 124.