Olesya Rulin

Early life
Rulin was born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. She spent her early childhood in the poor, 12-house village Likhoslavl located three hours north of Moscow. She was eight when she migrated to the United States to rejoin her father who had done so two years earlier. They lived first in Texas then later in Utah. She can read, write and speak in fluent Russian. She is 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. Rulin graduated from West Jordan High in 2005.