Gomez was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, to Ricardo Joel Gomez and Amanda ‘Mandy’ Teefey, who was 16 when she gave birth to Selena. She was named after the Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. Her parents divorced when she was five, and she was raised primarily by her mother, who worked multiple jobs while Gomez took early acting roles, including a recurring part on the children’s series Barney & Friends starting in 2002, to help support the family.

Gomez’s breakout role came as Alex Russo on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012), which turned her into one of the network’s biggest stars and launched a parallel music career with the band Selena Gomez & the Scene. She transitioned into film roles, including the controversial Spring Breakers (2012), and continued releasing solo music, with albums including Revival (2015) establishing her as a mainstream pop artist independent of her Disney image.

Gomez has continued to build a dual acting and music career, most notably co-starring in and executive-producing Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short since 2021, a role that earned her multiple Emmy nominations. Musically, she released the album Rare (2020) and, in February 2025, an album titled I Said I Love You First made with her now-husband, record producer Benny Blanco. Her business career, however, has increasingly overtaken her entertainment work as the dominant force in her overall wealth.

Photo: The White House via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Gomez’s traditional entertainment earnings from acting and music are substantial but modest compared to the paper value generated by her stake in Rare Beauty, which reported net sales of over $200 million in the twelve months ending March 2025. Reports covering her overall 2026 net worth attribute roughly 80 percent of her wealth to Rare Beauty alone, a highly unusual structure for an entertainer of her profile.

Gomez’s Only Murders in the Building salary and Hulu producing fees are reported to be in line with other lead actors on a major streaming series, though these figures are dwarfed by her equity stake in Rare Beauty. Her earlier Disney Channel and music recording contracts, while lucrative for a young star at the time, represent a small fraction of her current overall wealth.

Gomez has held endorsement partnerships over the years with brands including Coach and Pantene, and has used her large social media following, among the largest of any public figure, to support both third-party campaigns and her own Rare Beauty marketing. In recent years, her personal brand marketing has increasingly been directed toward promoting Rare Beauty and Wondermind rather than outside endorsement deals.

Gomez founded Rare Beauty in 2020 with an exclusive Sephora retail partnership, later expanding distribution into more than 1,500 Ulta Beauty stores in February 2026. She is widely reported to hold a majority ownership stake, commonly cited around 51 percent, in the company, which outside investors including Sequoia Capital have valued at well over $2 billion. She also co-founded Wondermind, a mental health media and wellness platform, in 2022 alongside her mother, Mandy Teefey, and entrepreneur Daniella Pierson.

Gomez has owned residential property in the Los Angeles area, including in Studio City, consistent with her long career based in Southern California. As with many entertainers whose wealth is concentrated in business equity rather than liquid assets, the bulk of her net worth is tied up in her Rare Beauty ownership stake rather than real estate or other tangible holdings.