Nini Salazar-Roberts

## Nina Salazar-Roberts

* Season 3
* Season 2
* Season 1

**Nina** "**Nini" Salazar-Roberts** was the female lead in the Disney+ original series *High School Musical: The Musical: The Series* in the first three seasons. She is the daughter of Carol and Dana Salazar-Roberts. Her biologial father is Marvin. She was a junior at East High School in Season 1 and Season 2. She attended Y.A.C. from *Typecasting* to *The Storm*. In Season 1, she was cast as Gabriella Montez in East High School's production of *High School Musical*. In Season 2, she was originally cast as the rose, but her role got cut and she played a fork instead in East High School's spring production of *Beauty and the Beast*. She is portrayed by Olivia Rodrigo.

## Background

### Personality

Nini is kind, creative, calm, and helpful. personality wise, Nini is shown to be kind, caring and protective of her friends. She is also shown to be smart, passionate for theater and music and, like most teenagers, is still trying to find her path in this world. Nini is very creative and talented, but never felt like she could play the lead in the musical. This is compounded when she finds out that EJ gave the lead actress at Summer Camp food poisoning, so Nini could have a chance at playing the lead. However, as the series progresses, Nini realizes that she is a very talented and competent performer and gains confidence in herself. Nini is also able to use this confidence as she embarks on new experiences in performing.

Nini spends some of the series trying to find herself and her place in the world, as well as navigating her relationship with Ricky. Throughout the series, Nini starts to realise her own dreams and goals in isolation from how other people feel. Nini also takes a chance on herself and on a new experience at the Youth Actors Conservatory and later with her songwriting. However, Nini can struggle in conflict and often keeps her true feelings to herself, seeing as didn’t tell Ricky about her acceptance into the Youth Actors Conservatory and her moving to Denver until the last possible minute. She didn’t want to ruin their time together with the news. Nini also has a hard time understanding her own wants and needs as she is always focused on other people.

### Physical Appearance

Nini has dark brown hair, brown eyes and tanned skin. She is an average height. She usually wears sweaters, dresses, skirts, and quirky clothing, like most stereotypical teenage females.

## Biography

### Early Life

Nina Salazar-Roberts was born sometime in 2003 in Southern California to her two mothers who raised her Carol and Dana Salazar-Roberts who used their friend Marvin as a sperm donor.

### Season One

#### The Auditions

On the first day of junior year, Nini tells Kourtney all about her "showmance" filled summer with E.J. Caswell and her time at theater camp. She decides to tell her ex-boyfriend, Ricky Bowen about him until the right time which was instantly neglected as soon as Ricky decided to say "hey" as soon as he saw her in the halls. It turns out, Ricky just wanted a "pause," but mistranslated into a break up. This all started six weeks before the first day of junior year, when Ricky and Nini were at the latter's house on their one year anniversary. Nini gives him a gift of a song titled "I Think I Kinda You Know" in a video format of her singing and playing ukulele publicly on Instagram. After the video stops playing, she says, "I do, Ricky. I love you." Ricky followed the statement with an "Oh," leaving Nini heartbroken. Back to reality, Nini sees this in a positive light. She takes it as a fresh start, and everyone is on the same page.

Being the theater nerd Nini is, she was obviously excited when Miss Jenn announced that this years show was going to be *High School Musical: The Musical*. She wants to audition for Gabriella Montez.

At lunch, Kourtney is telling her and E.J. what she's done over summer break, but immediately talk about auditions for the musical right after she finishes. E.J. suggests that they go in costume to the auditions. Nini quickly turns that idea down, not wanting to jinx anything about her getting the role she is hoping for. E.J. then comforts her by saying that they are a package, meaning that if one of them doesn't get a role or is cut from the show, the other is not going to participate as well. E.J. also shares some more comforting remarks by saying that they have a better chance than last year since all the talented seniors are out of their way. After their conversation, they share a kiss.

After E.J. gets whisked away by some fellow jocks, Nini asks for Kourtney's opinion on him. Kourtney explains how she doesn't want another boy to hurt her after Ricky crushed her. Kourtney claims that Nini didn't come out of her bedroom for forty-eight hours after the break up. Nini then tells her that it's different now, and that she is her own person. E.J. then pulls her into a conversation with another athlete.

After school, she has a talk with her grandmother, Malou, about her first day back as well as a dream of being alone on this big, Broadway stage where she opens her mouth, and nothing comes out. She's been having since she was little. Malou explains that this dream means that there is something about being heard feels off-limits to Nini. Then Nini's mothers, Carol Salazar-Roberts and Dana Salazar-Roberts arrive with twelve glazed donuts after their car broke down in front of the donut shop.

The next day, Nini, E.J. and Kourtney are at auditions. E.J. boasts about not having any competition which Nini hesitantly agrees.

#### The Read-Through

Nini gets upset with Ricky for only auditioning because of her but gets more impressed with him when she sees how hard he is trying in the musical.

#### The Wonderstudies

Nini gets insecure because Gina choreographed a dance for Gabriella that she can't do after losing her phone. She assumes Gina stole it and steals her shoes and water bottle in retaliation.

#### Blocking

After finding out EJ stole her phone she confronts him and later blocks his number without properly breaking up with him. She later tries to comfort Ricky after he goes to her house because his parents are divorcing.

#### Homecoming

After trying to flush her homecoming dress down the toilet, Nini decides to skip homecoming to spend the night with Kourtney and Miss Jenn,

#### What Team?

After finding out Miss Jenn may be getting fired, she leaves rehearsals and is stopped by E.J. so that he can tell her all of his mistakes. After, she hears Ricky singing in the Drama Club room but sees he is singing to Gina, so she leaves. She later arrives at Big Red's house to try to find a way to save Miss Jenn. She calls the Drama Club her family.

#### Thanksgiving

Nini goes over to Ashlyn's house for a Thanksgiving party with the drama club. She talks to Ashlyn about how she loves the song she wrote for the show and Ashlyn suggests that she write a song for herself and herself only. E.J. tells Nini that he confessed what he did to Emily Pratt and Nini talks to Emily and learns about the Youth Actors Conservatory. She later talks to Ricky about speaking to his mother sine it is Thanksgiving. At the end of the episode, she writes a song about herself wanting more for her dreams.

#### The Tech Rehearsal

At the Tech Rehearsal, Nini and Ricky read over lines and continue to grow closer. They almost kiss.

#### Opening Night

On opening night, Nini makes a gift for Ricky, but doesn't give it to him. They sing Just for a Moment as they think about each other. Nini finds out that Kourtney called the Youth Actors Conservatory for her and there is a scout in the audience, so she gets nervous.

#### Act Two

In the Season finale, Nini gets thrown off by the fact that E.J. is now in Ricky's role. While singing Breaking Free, E.J. decides to step aside so that Nini can sing with Ricky. After the curtain call, Ricky confesses his love for her and she confesses her love for him and they kiss. She gives him a dog tag necklace and he gives her a guitar pick necklace. At the end of the episode, the head of the Youth Actors Conservatory offers Nini a spot at their school for next semester.

### Season Two

#### New Year's Eve

Nini doesn't know how to tell Ricky that she is leaving for the YAC on New Year's Day. She tries to tell him multiple times on Christmas Day and before the New Year's Eve party, but Ricky kept singing Bet On It to her. When Miss Jenn officially announces that the Musical will be Beauty and the Beast for this semester, everyone believes that Nini will be Belle, but Nini announces that she is moving to Denver shocking everyone.

#### Typecasting

Ricky calls Nini saying that he doesn't think he will be doing the show this semester, but Nini convinces him that it will be good for him to be around his friends. Nini also supports Kourtney when she calls about being nervous for auditions. While at YAC, rooming with Emily Pratt they go over lines for a class assignment. Emily gets annoyed that they do this scene at the every start of every semester, so Nini has an idea to change things up. Nini gets in trouble by her professor and he makes her go on vocal rest. At the end of the episode she is excited to find out all of her friends got their roles, but she begins to feel alone.

#### Valentine’s Day

For Valentine's Day, Nini secretly goes to Salt Lake to surprise Ricky with a song that she wrote for him, only to find out that he moved to a new house without telling her. The next day, they try to meet up to spend the day together, but one of Nini's mom's broke their ankle so she has to stay at the hospital. Nini finds out that Ricky wrote a song for her as well. They didn't get a chance to meet up with each other, so they decide to sing their songs for each other over the phone.

#### The Storm

Nini visits East High before having to return back to Denver. After talking to E.J. about not getting into Duke, she tells him that dream schools are not as great as they seem. Miss Jenn decides to take Nini to the bus station, but they get trapped in a snow storm. They begin to talk about how tough YAC is and how she is not really enjoying it there. She gets to the train station and says goodbye to Ricky. She then sings Granted and decides to stay in Salt Lake City with her friends. She tells Miss Jenn that YAC doesn't have a teacher like her.

#### The Quinceañero

Ricky wants to get Nini into the musical, but Nini says she is just okay with working on her own solo music. At the end of the episode, Miss Jenn comes up with the idea for Nini to play The Rose to combat North High's production.

#### Yes, And...

Nini is tasked to write a duet for the Beast and the Rose for the musical and Ricky gets annoyed that they won't be spending time with each other over the weekend and constantly texts her while she is working on the song. While working on the song at Salt Lake Slices, she encourages Kourtney to ask out Howie and gets her song inspiration from her. Instead of making it a duet, she writes a solo song for The Rose, The Rose Song. She doesn't want Ricky to know about the song, but Carlos records it and posts it to the East High Drama Club Instagram and it goes viral.

#### The Field Trip

Nini appears on the East High Morning News to discuss how important The Rose Song is to her. They end up having to sneak into North High to see if they stole their Beast mask and end up getting into a dance off. Nini doesn't think it's a good idea, and Ricky tells her he doesn't want her to feel like she is being kept under glass, so she leaves. The drama club finds out that if they sing The Rose Song in the show, they will be disqualified from the Menkies, so they end up dropping the song. At the end of the episode, Nini makes a new instagram account to share her music and calls herself Nina.

#### Most Likely To

Nini talks to Ricky about how the music account and the name change is not about him. She shows him her new account, but he secretly deletes a comment from her page. At Slices, Nini and Ricky get into a huge fight and Ricky storms out. That night Ricky meets up with Nini in her treehouse and Nini tells Ricky the reason why she decided to come back and how her music has made her feel. Ricky reveals that he deleted a comment and he apologizes. They mutually decide to break up and Ricky gives Nini back the dog tag necklace that she gave to him at the end of season 1.

#### Spring Break

Over Spring Break, Nini and Ashlyn come up with a song together for the drama club to sing to show North High that they're still in the competition.

#### The Transformation

Nini comes up with a girls vs boys idea to see who will come up with the best way to show the beast's transformation. While at Ashlyn's house with the girls, Nini finds out about the chocolates that Gina thought Ricky gave her on Valentine's Day and she asked why didn't she ever hear about this. At the school she says that today's theme is "secrets".

#### Showtime

On opening night, Nini gives everyone an opening night card and helps motivate all of her friends in the show by giving them advise and supporting them. She plays a fork during the Be Our Guest number.

#### Second Chances

Nini gives Ricky a opening night card and he gives her one and they share a moment, Just For a Moment, before leaving. Nini sees Gina crying and she tries to comfort her. She reveals that the only reason that she was upset about the chocolates was not about Ricky, but was about the fact that she thought her and Gina were close enough to share things with each other. Gina tells her that she does and she learned that she could trust her when Nini stole her stuff and gave it back to her. Gina gives her Jamie Porter's phone number so she can start making music professionally.

### Season Three

#### Happy Campers

While Working on songwriting with Gina's brother, Jamie, Nini decides to not go to Camp Shallow Lake with the rest of the crew and instead decides to go on a family trip to California with her moms to visit where she was born. She visits Miss Jenn at her house to drop her off some summer items for her vacation cruise with Mike Bowen. While there she talks to Miss Jenn about how she is supposed to be writing a song a day, but she is having trouble doing so. She discusses with Miss Jenn if she is making the right decisions. At the end of the episode she leaves Salt Lake City to go to California.

#### Into the Unknown

While in California, Nini is still having trouble writing a song as is reintroduced to her birth donor, Marvin, with her mothers. She learns more about her moms and learns about a band they used to be in back in the day. They sang a song called You Never Know, which gives Nini an idea for a song of her own. At the end of the episode, Marvin reveals that he though meeting Nini would've thrown her off, and Nini says, "I'm not thrown." A line that she said in the very first episode before auditioning for Gabriella at East High. She then begins to sing You Never Know while reminiscing about her journey and her friends.

#### Let It Go

Nini goes to Camp Shallow Lake to surprise her best friends with opening night cards as always, and reminisce about going to camp there. Before the show, she sees Miss Jenn and talks about how she has been enjoying California and that her moms are also enjoying it. She reveals that she has to decide if she wants to go back to Salt Lake City for senior year, or move to California. Miss Jenn tells her that she isn't letting anyone down with either decision she chooses. She cheers on Kourtney Greene as she performs Let It Go. She goes to The Honeycomb to set up surprises for her friends and she runs into Kourtney and says her goodbyes. After watching Ricky Bowen perform Kristoff Lullaby, she leaves Miss Jenn a letter revealing that she has decided to move to California, but she will always be a Wildcat. At the end of the summer, Ricky thinks Nini did not give him an opening night card, but Jet reveals that she did. Inside of his opening night card was the lottery ticket that he needed to finish his list of things that he wanted to complete by the time he was 18.

## Relationships

### Friends

#### Ricky Bowen (Childhood Friend /ex-boyfriend)

Ricky gave her her nickname when they were in kindergarten because he couldn't pronounce his 'a's. They dated before the series began and went on a pause before she went to summer camp and started dating E.J. Caswell. They officially broke up in the first episode. Ricky then tries to get Nini back by joining the drama club where he gets the part of Troy. They start dating again in Act Two.

In Season 2 Nini leaves Ricky to go to the Youth Actor's Conservatory and they have a long distance relationship. She ends up going back to East High and she makes it seem like she is going back to be with Ricky. Ricky then convinces Miss Jenn to get her a part in the show which upsets her at first but when her role is removed from the show she is upset. Nini also write a song for her character which seemed like it was about how she viewed Ricky. They end up having a fight over the song and other issues and breaking up in Most Likely To.

See also Nini and Ricky

#### Kourtney Greene (Best Friend)

Kourtney starts off as Nini's Designated Sassy Black Friend but as the show goes on Kourtney starts to get a life outside of Nini. Though most of their friendship is still Kourtney supporting Nini like when she invited the Dean of the Youth Actors Conservatory to their production of HSM and Nini never thanked her. In Season 2 Nini starts to become a more supportive friend supporting Kourtney through supporting her during auditions for Beauty and the Beast, as well as her boy troubles.

See also Nini and Kourtney

#### Big Red (Possible Childhood Friend)

While Big Red and Nini aren't shown to be close in the series they are both Ricky's childhood friends so it is likely that they used to hang out together.

#### Ashlyn Caswell (Friend)

Ashlyn and Nini first hang out when Nini sees her writing the song Wondering and they sing it together. Ashlyn later goes to talk to Nini about her breakup with EJ after he sent her to. In Season 2 they write You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet together. Nini also reassures her when she is nervous about playing Belle.

See also Nini and Ashlyn

#### E.J. Caswell (Ex-Boyfriend/Friend)

They started dating at summer camp before the series began where EJ fed the lead actress a bad egg so that Nini could go on instead. EJ gets worried that Ricky was texting Nini and trying to get her back to he got Gina to steal her phone. They end up breaking up when Nini finds out about everything he did and she feels that he thinks she needs to be saved. In Season 2 they don't talk to each other much expect for after EJ gets rejected from Duke and she tries to comfort him.

See also E.J. and Nini

#### Seb Matthew-Smith (Friend)

They aren't that close throughout most of the series but she and the other girls tried to calm his worries about his relationship with Carlos Rodriguez.

#### Gina Porter (Friend)

Nini first met Gina at auditions for *High School Musical* in The Auditions. They both tried out for the lead role Gabriella Montez. Nini ended up getting the role while Gina got the role of Taylor McKessie and Gabriella Montez's understudy. Gina got mad that Nini got the lead role instead of her. In The Read-Through, when Nini wasn't looking Gina stole Nini's phone from her backpack and put it in Nini's boyfriend at the time E.J. Caswell's backpack because he wanted to look through her messages from Ricky Bowen. In The Wonderstudies, Gina teaches Nini the new choreography she came up with for "Stick to the Status Quo" which Nini can't do. Nini thinks Gina was the one that stole her phone so, she steals a bunch of her stuff from the Dressing Room. Nini shows her boyfriend at the time E.J. Caswell all the stuff that she stole from Gina that she put in her backpack at the school's Library. E.J. Caswell tells Nini that this doesn't sound like her and that she should return Gina's stuff that she stole. Nini ends up returning Gina's stuff when she sees Gina in the dressing room. In Second Chances, Nini comforts Gina when she see her upset in the dressing room and asks her what is wrong. Gina tells Nini that E.J. Caswell cancelled their date for good last minute. Gina asks Nini if she thought about taking her song writing to the next level. Gina ends up giving Nini her older brother Jamie Porter who is a famous Music Producer's phone number so she can take her song writing to the next level.

See also Nini and Gina

#### Carlos Rodriguez (Friend)

Carlos and Nini aren't especially close but she did help with the decorations at his quinceañero.

#### Natalie Bagley (Friend)

She was the only one to give Natalie an opening night card despite the fact that she was only playing a tree.

#### Emily Pratt (Former Roommate/ Friend)

Nini first met Emily at a Theater Camp the summer before her Junior year of High School. In Thanksgiving, Nini facetimes Emily who mentions that she goes to a Performing Arts School called Youth Actors Conservatory. Nini looks up Emily's school online and applies there. In Act Two, Nini gets accepted into Youth Actors Conservatory. In Typecasting, Nini moves to Denver and transfer over to Youth Actors Conservatory. On Nini's first day at YAC she finds out her roommate is Emily from Summer Camp.

### Love Interests

Ricky Bowen (exBoyfriend/ Childhood Friend)

E.J. Caswell (Ex-Boyfriend/ Friend)

## Appearances

### Season 1

* The Auditions **(Appears)**
* The Read-Through **(Appears)**
* The Wonderstudies **(Appears)**
* Blocking **(Appears)**
* Homecoming **(Appears)**
* What Team? **(Appears)**
* Thanksgiving **(Appears)**
* The Tech Rehearsal **(Appears)**
* Opening Night **(Appears)**
* Act Two **(Appears)**

### Season 2

* New Year's Eve **(Appears)**
* Typecasting **(Appears)**
* Valentine’s Day **(Appears)**
* The Storm **(Appears)**
* The Quinceañero **(Appears)**
* Yes, And... **(Appears)**
* The Field Trip **(Appears)**
* Most Likely To **(Appears)**
* Spring Break **(Appears)**
* The Transformation **(Appears)**
* Showtime **(Appears)**
* Second Chances **(Appears)**

### Season 3

* Happy Campers **(Appears)**
* Into the Unknown **(Appears)**
* The Woman in the Woods (absent)
* No Drama (mentioned)
* The Real Campers of Shallow Lake (absent)
* Color War (mentioned)
* Camp Prom (pictured only)
* Let It Go **(Appears)**

### Season 4

* Trust the Process (mentioned)
* Night of Nights (mentioned)

## Songs

### Season 1

* I Think I Kinda You Know/Nini Version
* Start of Something New/Nini Version
* I Think I Kinda You Know/Duet
* What I've Been Looking For
* All I Want
* Bop to the Top/ Nini and Kourtney Version
* Born to be Brave
* Truth, Justice and Songs in Our Key
* Out of the Old
* Just for a Moment

### Season 2

* Something in the Air
* High School Musical 2 Medley
* YAC Alma Mater
* Even When/The Best Part
* Granted
* The Rose Song
* You Ain’t Seen Nothing
* Be Our Guest
* Second Chance

## Filmography

 Season 2 | Spring of 2020
A fork

## Trivia

* Whenever Nini gets nervous, she talks in a British accent.
* She is the first main character in a Disney series that has two parents of the same-sex.
* She can play the Ukulele and Piano.
* She was Ricky Bowen's first crush.
* The only episode where she is shown crying is Most Likely To.
* She originally was going to played The Rose in *Beauty and the Beast* in Season 2 until Lily told the Drama Club they would get disqualified from the Menkies if they played "The Rose Song" Nini wrote because its not a part of the original text.
* She played a Fork twice in both productions of *Beauty and the Beast* at East High School.
* The first time she doesn't appear in an episode is in The Woman in the Woods, and then she did not appear again until Let It Go, which would not only be her final appearance in season 3, but of the series overall.
* During the entirety of season 4, she attends her senior year at an unknown school in California.
* While she does somewhat appear in the final season, they're rather through mention.
* She is portrayed by Olivia Rodrigo. The Singer known for singing "good 4 u" and "drivers license" and her new single, “vampire”.

## References

1. ↑ High School Musical boss explains Olivia Rodrigo's reduced role (digitalspy.com)
2. ↑ Showtime