It’s been a long time since we watched High School Musical, and we have been silently hoping for the return of our favorite musical teens.
Thankfully, High School Musical has returned as a series, and it will feature stars such as Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett. The stars of the new show will hope to make as big an impact as the stars of the original High School Musical.
His family played a pivotal role early on in his career
Joshua Bassett was born on 22nd December 2000 in Oceanside, California. He was raised by his parents, Laura and Taylor Bassett in California. Joshua grew up alongside five talented sisters who had a great impact on his life and his career as an actor.
Bassett’s sisters were passionate about acting and singing, and they gave Joshua a lot of confidence and motivation. He told 1883 Magazine;
“… I have five sisters who kind of did it when I was younger so I wanted to give it a try. My first show ever was High School Musical, doing ‘Jock No. 2’. So, you know, I peaked there clearly… long story short, they asked me to come to their offices and I ended up taking few meetings and things started working out.”
Joshua’s dad was also instrumental in his trajectory as an entertainer. Taylor gave Joshua a lot of motivation, and it left a permanent mark on him. Joshua has stated on several occasions that he would love to emulate his father.
Joshua appeared on stage early on his career. He started out on stage at the age of 7, and he went on to appear in many stage productions. Joshua has more than 30 stage musical productions. His stage appearances played a huge role in shaping the talented actor that we know today.
In 2015, Joshua made his professional acting debut when he played the role of Caleb in the film Limbo. He gained popularity when he appeared in nine episodes of Disney’s Stuck in The Middle.
Joshua then played the role of Linus in two episodes of Grey’s Anatomy before landing the leading role of Ricky Bowen in High School Musical: The Musical – The Series.
Joshua related to his role as Ricky Bowen in High School Musical: The Musical – The Series
Back in 2008, Joshua didn’t know that he would star in the High School , but he was always a huge fan of the Wildcats. According to Elite Daily, Joshua stated the following after landing the role;
“As someone whose childhood was shaped by the cultural phenomenon that is High School Musical, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to tell this story. Go Wildcats!”
Joshua’s promising career has been likened to Zac Efron’s career. Zac played a starring role in the High School Musical movies, and just like Joshua, he started his career at a very young age.
In the series, Ricky (Joshua), tells his girlfriend Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) that he needs a break from the relationship. To his surprise, Nini moves on quickly, and she starts a relationship with entrepreneur Ej (Matt Cornett). Desperate to re-ignite his relationship with Nini, Ricky decides to audition for the musical, hoping that it might re-unite him with his lost love.
Joshua told 1883 Magazine that it was easy to play the role because he connected with most of Ricky’s experiences;
“It’s exactly me in real life. When I read that description, I was kind of concerned that someone had been stalking me, writing a character based on my life. So I was like, ‘Oh, boy’. But yeah, going into it, it was a pretty smooth transition to the character just because I relate to him so much.”
He co-wrote several songs alongside co-star Olivia Rodrigo
High School Musical: The Musical – The Series has incorporated some old songs from the original movies. The showrunners sent the music to the cast, and Joshua found that he was familiar with most of the songs. Before that, Joshua thought that he had forgotten most of the songs from the film, but he quickly remembered most of the lyrics.
The showrunners also informed Joshua that he might have two write a song alongside co-star Olivia Rodrigo. Joshua told 1883 Magazine;
“So they sent us the breakdown, and what happens is they have a bunch of songwriters submit songs, blindly. So, Disney gets the songs and they don’t know who wrote them. They just listen to them. And then everybody votes their favorite song. And so, it was a unanimous vote for Olivia and I’s song, which is pretty astounding.”
He received advice from some of the original actors of High School Musical
Joshua has benefited a lot from the advice he received from members of the original cast of High School Musical. Monique Coleman was particularly instrumental in helping Joshua deal with the pressures of his new role. Joshua told Decider;
“She gave me advice. She said, ‘Just take it one day at a time because it’s going to be over before you know it. So you better enjoy it in the moment.’ … It was just so exciting, especially to have grown up watching these people. To have them as our comrades and for them to like something that we have made is pretty insane.”