Photos: Selena Gomez: Career highlights
Selena Gomez in July 2013, just before the release of “Star Dance,” her first album since starring in the movie “Spring Breakers.” (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
From her beginnings as a child actress on “Barney and Friends” to her launch as a Disney star -- and now a solo artist -- we recap the career highlights of Selena Gomez.
By Christy Khoshaba
We’re serious about this one. Dating mega-famous tween heartthrob Justin Bieber in 2011 only amplified Gomez’s fame. Sure, she might have gained new fans, might have lost old ones -- heck, she was even threatened by some for kissing the Biebs, but the attention put her name all over the entertainment map. In this photo, the two are about to lock lips at a Lakers game. Before Bieber, Gomez dated “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner. And who can forget her first love, Jonas Brother Nick Jonas? (Noel Vasquez / Getty Images)
By 2011, Selena swapped her lapel microphone for one with a cord when she began hosting MTV award shows. She started by lending her talents to MTV’s VMA pre-show, where she was polite and pleasant. Things changed when she filmed the promotion video to host MTV’s Europe Music Awards two months later. Gomez got a whole lot “grown up” with the use of slight profanity and a new gangster inspired look. (Here, Gomez attends the Fulfillment Fund’s Star Gala in Beverly Hills, a week before she hosted the EMAs.) (Jason Merritt / Getty Images)
Hitting new heights, or perhaps trying to shed her squeaky-clean Disney image, Gomez starred in the just-in-time for spring 2012 movie “Spring Breakers,” directed by Harmony Korine, pictured center, of the famed “Kids,” “Gummo” and “Mister Lonely.” Gomez performed some pretty intense scenes, including one in which she said costar James Franco’s rapper-gangster character tried to influence her through emotional exploitation. “There were real moments in there,” Gomez said of that particular scene to The Times. “The way [Franco] was reacting really freaked me out.” (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
Gomez returns to her hometown of Dallas to perform the halftime show at the Minnesota Vikings vs. Dallas Cowboys football game on Thanksgiving Day 2013. A Dallas Cowboys fan, Gomez tweeted, “Feels SO good to be home. Hi Dallas. I hope I make TX proud.” (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Starring in another indie film, Gomez plays an angry girlfriend coping with the death of her beau in the dark film “Rudderless.” Gomez poses above with the film’s director, William H. Macy, left, and actor Billy Crudup, during the film’s promotional tour at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
