American actress, singer and model who began her career as a child, appearing in national television commercials before landing the role of Hillary Winston on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Royal Family at the age of 4 (1991–1992), for which she received a nomination for a Young Artist Award.
After a series of recurring television roles and guest spots as a teenager, Rivera received her breakthrough role as an adult as Santana Lopez on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015), for which she received nominations for numerous accolades.
She was signed to Columbia Records as a solo artist in 2011 and released a single in 2013, “Sorry”, featuring rapper Big Sean.
On 8 July 2020, Rivera was declared a missing person after her four-year-old son Josey was found alone in Rivera’s rented boat at Lake Piru in Fillmore, California. According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, Rivera came to Lake Piru in Ventura County, California, north of Los Angeles, around 1 p.m. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department suspended the search and rescue operation that evening and resumed again the following day. The sheriff’s department said the lake would be closed to the public, with dive teams from across the region taking part in the search.
On 13 July it was announced that a body had been found floating in Lake Piru by divers when the search resumed in the morning, at around 9:30 am. The body was confirmed to be Rivera’s at a press conference held later that day. She was officially declared dead on 13 July. The media noted that Rivera’s body was found on the same day as the death of her Glee co-star Cory Monteith seven years earlier.
Link to Wikipedia biography