Olesya Rulin

Rulin spent her early childhood in a poor, 12-house village located three hours north of Moscow. She was eight when she immigrated to the United States to rejoin her father who had immigrated two years earlier. They lived first in Texas then later in Utah. She can read, write and speak in fluent Russian. She's also a trained ballet dancer. When she was 12, she entered a model search contest at the urging of her mother and won representation by four different agencies. Prior to acting full-time, she worked for a year as a certified nursing assistant and also at stores such as Victoria's Secret; she was working at a Nordstrom's when the first High School Musical came out. She was studying economics in Paris when the casting for High School Musical 2 was being done. She is currently attending Columbia College Chicago and is majoring in Musical Theatre, with a minor in Marketing Communication.

In addition to her role in High School Musical and High School Musical 2, her other credits include the Disney Channel Original Movies Halloweentown High, The Poof Point and Hounded, the television series Everwood and the feature films Forever Strong, Mobsters and Mormons and The Dance. Rulin's part in High School Musical 2 was significantly larger than the first movie, including a solo in "You Are The Music In Me" and a few lines in "Work This Out". Rulin will also be starring with Hannah Montana co-star Billy Ray Cyrus in a drama, which though completed has yet to be released. She will play the supportive daughter of a businessman (Cyrus) alongside Oscar winner Patricia Neal, Robert Gossett (TNT's The Closer), Eric Allan Kramer (American Wedding) and Ted Hutton in a family-friendly indie feature.