Zendaya Coleman Replaces Publicist For Making Racially Insensitive Remark

Zendaya Coleman revealed that she fired her publicist for making a remark about her race — during an interview with Cosmopolitan released on Thursday.

Zendaya Coleman Replaces Publicist For Comment

Zendaya appears on the July cover of Cosmopolitan and shared with the magazine an instance in which she had to work with a racially insensitive publicist.

“I didn’t like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, ‘You should just be happy with it — they haven’t had a black girl on the cover since forever,’” Zendaya recalled. “She’s no longer my publicist.”

The former Shake It Up star is making her return to Disney Channel in a new role — as a co-producer.

Zendaya will both star and produce the upcoming series K.C. Undercover, which she says will hopefully help increase diversity for the network.

“The only way I was going to come back to the Disney Channel was if I was in a position of more power,” Zendaya admitted.

The actress finds diversity on the Disney Channel important and understands the struggles different ethnicities face while watching television.

“One thing that is really important to me is diversity on the channel,” Zendaya said. “It’s hard as a young person of a different ethnicity or background to look at the TV and not see anyone who looks like you. Representation is important.”