As a mixed-race actress she has made a degree of brazenly discussing her heritage, saying that her place as a 'light-skinned black woman' makes her Hollywood's 'acceptable version of a black girl'.
Now we are able to reveal one other intriguing a part of the shiny Spider-Man star Zendaya's ancestry: her great-grandfather was a heroic WW1 soldier from Dundee.
'Zendaya knows about her Scottish heritage and is proud of it,' says her mom Claire Stoermer, talking solely to the Every day Mail by phone from her residence in California. 'She hasn't been to Scotland but, however I do know she'd love to go to a while.'
The current premiere of the newest Spider-Man movie, No Approach Dwelling, noticed Zendaya - who performs Spider-Man's girlfriend MJ - on the purple carpet in a revealing Valentino cobweb costume, a lot to the delight of her boyfriend British actor Tom Holland, who performs Spider-Man.
It's all a great distance from nineteenth century Dundee, the place, the actress's maternal nice grandfather Douglas Whitelaw was born in 1896. Then, many of the jobs within the metropolis had been in jute manufacture - nevertheless it was ladies, fairly than males who had been employed to maintain prices down.
It meant Dundee had very excessive male unemployment, and plenty of males had been, in impact, home husbands - identified fairly disparagingly as 'kettle bilers', or kettle boilers.
It's towards this backdrop that Zendaya's family members determined to to migrate to Canada, as so many different Scots did on the time - first her great-great grandfather, Harry Tulloch Whitelaw, after which his son, her great-grandfather, Douglas, who made the lengthy and arduous journey by ship, in 1911.
'He was about 15 when he left Dundee and went to Canada, arriving first in Halifax, and then taking a train to Vancouver where his father had already set up a business as a certified public accountant,' says Claire.
But that wasn't the final time Douglas would cross the Atlantic. The household has preserved {a photograph} of their beloved ancestor, which Claire sends me: a black and white {photograph} of Douglas, in a kilt and Glengarry hat as a part of his navy uniform for the Canadian Highlanders. Douglas, it appears, was a patriotic soldier who volunteered for service in WW1.
'He fought in the First World War for about a year,' provides Claire. 'He was shot in the shoulder while in the trenches and came home [to Canada] with shrapnel wounds.'
There, Douglas went on to marry Thelma Ray Kelly, a Canadian, and their child lady - Zendaya's future maternal grandmother - Daphne Carol, was born in Vancouver. Whereas Douglas and his household settled completely in Canada, his daughter Daphne - Claire's mom - went to the US to review.
'She met my father and that's why the household is right here,' says Claire.
It's this combine - Scottish and German ancestry on her mom's facet and African American on her father's - which have contributed to Zendaya's elfin magnificence. So passionately does her Arkansas-born father really feel about his personal Nigerian ancestry that he modified his identify from Samuel David Coleman to Kazembe Ajamu Coleman.
An astute businesswoman, Zendaya has amassed 114million followers on Instagram and 19.4million followers on Twitter.
With this, has come her personal clothes and shoe line known as Daya, her childhood nickname, and endorsements from all kinds of vogue and wonder firms. Rumours abound that boyfriend Tom Holland, 25 - initially from Kingston-upon-Thames - may be about to stroll her down the aisle.
An engagement ring has seemingly been 'spotted' and he has spoken of his want to grow to be a father.
So will Zendaya be making a visit to Dundee, through Kingston? Her mom hopes so. 'When I was about 16, I went with my Mom to Scotland and we loved it,' remembers Claire. 'We did all the touristy stuff and we found out about the family tartan, which is called Drummond.'
