Reneé Rapp's remarkable rise came with a cost – and she's not shying away from it as her career climbs to new heights

What makes Broadway such a novelty is also what makes Reneé Rapp's rise even more remarkable.

Simply put, unless you find yourself flush with cash in New York City or equipped with the knowledge of what specific code words on YouTube will yield which dodgy recordings, seeing a show that's not an oft-toured stalwart like Wicked is a tall order.

So when snippets of Rapp's performance in a small rock musical broke into mainstream social media algorithms and kept making the rounds, one thing was clear: the then-19-year-old was a triple threat with so much talent you had no choice but to pay attention to her.

Watch the video above.

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Reneé Rapp rose to fame playing Regina George in Broadway's Mean Girls: The Musical, but she's since left acting behind. (Graphic: Polly Hanning)

From a young age, it was clear Rapp, now 24, would be a performer of some sort.

And when the North Carolina-born multi-hyphenate transferred from the local Hopewell High School to the prestigious Northwest School of the Arts, which she had to audition to be offered, it became clear she would be a good performer at that.

She did, after all, have a special distinction from her peers, according to her theatre teacher.

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"There is a difference when that vocal ability is coupled with sincere emotions that can move an audience and that literally can excite an audience," Corey Mitchell told The Charlotte Observer of his student after Rapp, at 18, won a National High School Musical Theatre Award.

Rapp also had confidence on her side, with actress Laura Benanti, after presenting Rapp with her award and $10,000 scholarship, remarking: "I will never be as confident as that 18-year-old."

But just two years later, after replacing Tony-nominated Taylor Louderman as Regina George in Mean Girls: The Musical, that confidence would be shattered.

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Rapp, pictured here in 2019, was only 19 years old when she joined the cast of Mean Girls: The Musical on Broadway. (Getty)

Reneé Rapp's fame came with an uncomfortable reality she's not shying away from

In 2019, Rapp – who had graduated from high-school just the year prior – had played Wendla in a local production of Spring Awakening and Monteen in a New York City workshop of Parade.

All of a sudden, she was plucked from obscurity to replace Louderman, joining an established cast of 20- and 30-something professionals for her first major leading role.

"OK, I've got a lot of work to do," is what she told Teen Vogue she remembered thinking when she was told she won the part.

Rapp debuted after three weeks of rehearsals, with her short run later being extended, much to the pleasure of critics and fans alike.

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Despite commanding the stage with her skills, Rapp quickly found herself at the centre of a conversation she has complicated feelings about.

"I think it's really important that I'm not a Regina who's 115 pounds," Rapp told Teen Vogue of her body, referencing the fact a lyric in the musical's original Meet the Plastics song included: "I'm the prettiest poison you've ever seen/ I never weigh more than one-fifteen."

"It's just super important that every single body type is celebrated," Rapp told the magazine.

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Rapp went on to portray Regina George in the Mean Girls: The Musical movie in 2024. (Jojo Whilden/Paramount)

"It's not like the tiniest Regina is that Regina because she's tiny," she continued.

"Whoever she is, is gorgeous. Every single body type, every single gender, race, everyone needs to be more represented in the arts, and we're inching closer to that."

While Rapp's body was something that continued to be celebrated throughout her three-season run as Leighton Murray in The Sex Lives of College Girls and when Mean Girls: The Musical was turned into a movie, she's also been open about how the unsolicited comments, even when they were intended to be empowering, had a negative impact on her mental health.

"It is always such a big topic of conversation and Twitter clickbait," she told Busy Phillips on the Busy Phillips Is Doing Her Best podcast in January, when the Mean Girls: The Musical movie was released.

"I knew it was going to be a thing again, I didn't think it would bother me but it definitely did and it definitely still does."

Less than a year earlier, Rapp had opened up to Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy about suffering from an eating disorder while on Broadway, alleging in the same interview that the production team on the show made her costumes more conservative than previous Regina Georges because she was "curvier".

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How Reneé Rapp is using her voice for future generations

In August 2023, Rapp further alleged to The Guardian that unnamed production members would "say some vile f--king things to me about my body" while she was working on the Broadway show – but in that same interview, she also revealed she's open about her mental health and what's going on with her behind-the-scenes for those that look up to her.

"My generation and the generation that will follow mine is much more open – especially women, non-men, queer people," Rapp, who has also opened up about being diagnosed with a mood disorder, ADHD, and being a lesbian, told the publication.

"I do think I've been afforded more opportunities than women before me, men and queer women before me... This generation is still super mean to each other. But we are more outspoken – and give less of a f--k."

The commentary surrounding her body is just one of the reasons Rapp has pivoted from acting into music, her safe space where she seeks solace from the noise around her while also using it as a vehicle to express her innermost thoughts and feelings.

The other reason? Well, she always wanted to be a pop star.

"I really wanted to do music, and I was working in and out of New York when I was in high school because I was recording," she explained to Cynthia Erivo for Rolling Stone.

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Rapp is in her pop star era. (Getty Images for TikTok)

"And I had switched to this performing arts high school because my parents really wanted me to go to college. I was like, 'Not for me'," she continued.

"And they were like, 'The f--k are you gonna do? You don't do well in school. You're not really picking up anything on the side. It's not going well for you'. I was like, 'Harsh, but correct'."

"Reneé was always really vocal with everyone about music being the focus," Rapp's manager Adam Mersel told The Los Angeles Times in September 2023, hosing down rumours her split from Mindy Kaling's The Sex Lives of College Girls was anything less than amicable.

"We were able to come together and find a way that I think is gonna work narratively," Mersel said.

Thank goodness, because it was that move that made it possible for Rapp to tour her Snow Angel album on the Snow Hard Feelings Tour.

Rapp also revealed to Erivo (for Rolling Stone in December) that new music is on the horizon.

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Rapp, pictured here in October, has also revealed a new album is coming. (Getty Images for Academy Museum)

"I feel so sure that I'm obsessed with it. It's everything that I want it to be," Rapp said.

"I've had my album name for months. I've known exactly what we're moving into. This is the world we're going into.

"My anxieties prior to that were not getting it, and now the world has actually been achieved, and not just an idea. Now I'm so stubborn. I'm like, 'This is gonna be amazing'."

If you're impacted by an eating disorder or body image concern, or know someone who is, contact Butterfly's National Helpline on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673), via webchat or email support@butterfly.org.au. Counsellors are available seven days a week, 8am-midnight (AEDT).