Get to Know Zendaya’s Parents, Claire Stoermer and Kazembe Ajamu Coleman

Zendaya‘s mom, Claire Stoermer, is a teacher. Growing up in Oakland, CA, Zendaya admired her mom for being a fiercely dedicated teacher to students from underprivileged backgrounds. Touching on her mom’s work, the “Euphoria” actor revealed to Teen Vogue in 2016, “My mom went above and beyond, working constantly to open her students’ eyes to an education that could lift them far beyond their current circumstances. She would introduce them to the arts, guide them through the language of Shakespeare, and show them the wonders of nature outside city life – all things that they wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.”

When Zendaya was a young, aspiring actor, Stoermer stayed in Oakland to work two jobs while Zendaya and her dad drove to and from LA for auditions. In 2017, she explained to Glamour, “I was basically like, ‘I want to do this,’ and my dad quit his job as a teacher to make it happen. My mom stayed in Oakland because she had two jobs: teaching, and working at the California Shakespeare Theater at night. Those two jobs paid for all of our car trips back and forth for the year I was auditioning.”

Outside of her work as a teacher, Stoermer also has her own jewelry business, Kizzmet Jewelry, which specializes in custom-made necklaces using crystals like amethyst, quartz, and more. Zendaya herself has promoted her mom’s jewelry and once wrote on Twitter, “So my mom’s a dope ass jewelry designer/maker and also slays my line.”

Stoermer also is a devoted advocate for her daughter. In December 2022, Stoermer seemed to come to her daughter’s defense after rumors that Zendaya and Holland might be engaged began to swirl online. “Clickbait typically refers to the practice of writing sensationalized or misleading headlines in order to attract clicks on a piece of content,” Stoermer shared in an Instagram story at the time. “It often relies on exaggerating claims or leaving out key information in order to encourage traffic. The term is generally used in a dismissive sense.”

Like Zendaya‘s mom, her dad, Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, was also a teacher. According to the actor’s Glamour interview, Coleman gave up teaching when Zendaya was a teenager to help her with auditions. Per People, he has recently worked as a manager for his daughter, though little is known about Coleman’s career or private life outside of his relationship with Zendaya.

The “Euphoria” actor revealed that her dad is very protective of her while in attendance at Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon in 2016, saying (via People), “My dad is going to vet any guy that even looks at me . . . If I decide to have my dad around to make sure dad vets them out and makes sure they are cool, they better go through dad first! You know what I’m saying?”