NEED TO KNOW
Ashley Tisdale French, Lucas Grabeel and Monique Coleman are still all in this together.
Twenty years after the release of High School Musical, Tisdale French, 40, Grabeel, 40, and Coleman, 45, attended an anniversary event at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., in honor of the film franchise that started their careers. Tisdale French, who played the theatrical diva Sharpay Evans in the hit musical films, shared several photos of the event on her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Tisdale French posed for photos on an HSM-themed carpet with Grabeel, who played her onscreen brother Ryan Evans, and Coleman, who played brainiac Taylor McKessie. “Reunited,” Tisdale French captioned the photo, alongside a red heart emoji.
The Phineas and Ferb alum also shared a photo of a handwritten sign that read “HSM 20, EHS” alongside a paw print logo, representing East High’s fictional mascot, the Wildcats.
In another photo, Tisdale French tries on her pink graduation cap from High School Musical 3: Senior Year. “It still fits!,” she wrote.
Ashley French/Instagram
“Thank you @disney for this special moment,” Tisdale French wrote over a photo from the scene at the event.
Her daughter, Jupiter Iris French, 4, accompanied her mom to the celebration. Jupiter wore a hot pink dress complete with a gold star detail and matching gold accessories. The little one posed for a photo with Tisdale French in Sharpay’s famous pink golf cart from High School Musical 2. “Not Jupiter upstaging me,” Tisdale French captioned the post.
Jupiter also posed for pictures in an HSM-themed photo booth.
In a TikTok video shared in May 2025, Tisdale French revealed that Jupiter cannot get enough of High School Musical.
“I don’t know what kind of karma this is, but Jupiter saw my niece in High School Musical the play last weekend,” she began.
Ashley French/Instagram
The actress continued, “When she’s seen the movie in the past, like, she never really cared about it, but I think seeing my niece in the play, play me, has just changed her, so she had to watch all three movies.”
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She then revealed which movie in the franchise is Jupiter’s favorite.
“She will not stop listening to the music. It’s playing in the house right now. When I’m on walks with her, she asks for me to play it. When I’m in the car, she asks for me to play it. Specifically, High School Musical 2,” Tisdale French said at the time.
Ashley French/Instagram
Earlier on Tuesday. Tisdale French shared a video trying on her old HSM costumes. “You can take the girl out of East High … but you can’t take the Sharpay out of the girl,” Tisdale French wrote over a video of herself strutting down the halls of what appears to be a storage unit, wearing a variety of Sharpay’s pink-filled wardrobe.
“20 years and two babies later I’m still squeezing into these,” she wrote in the caption.
High School Musical was an overnight success when it premiered on the Disney Channel on Jan. 20, 2006, becoming the most commercially successful of the channel’s original films and generating 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast. The movie’s soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard 200, remaining on the list for more than 100 weeks.
The film’s iconic dance numbers were choreographed by Kenny Ortega, and the film centers on basketball star Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and a new academically gifted student, Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens). The pair first meet at karaoke on New Year’s Eve, and reunite when Gabriella unexpectedly transfers to East High — and the unlikely duo audition for the school musical, shaking up the drama and athletics departments.
Sequels followed in 2007 and 2008. Tisdale French also starred in the 2011 spin-off Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, and Disney+ is home to High School Musical: The Movie: The Series, which ran from 2019 to 2023.
