The cast of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 3 sitting on top of picnic tables that are stacked on top of a trailer bed. There are about five stacked picnic tables and the cast is sitting and standing all around. From left to right on the top row: Meg Donnelly, blonde, sitting casually in a white top and red, white, and blue striped shorts with white and red sneakers; Saylor Bell, long auburn straight hair, wearing jeans, a black tank top, and a colorful short sleeved cardigan; Matt Cornett, brunette, standing in green cargo shorts, brown work boots, and a blue tank top that says “Camp Shallow Lake” on it’ Frankie Rodriguez sitting in white ¾ length pants and a red and white patterned button up shirt. He has glasses on and has short brown hair; Julia Lester standing with on leg up on a ledge. She has long, curly red hair and is wearing a denim jumpsuit. She has on lots of bangle bracelets and has heart-patterned socks on with black and white Adidas; Adrian Lyles sitting and wearing a denim jacket, green pants, and black sneakers. He has short, black curly hair. On the bottom row: Joshua Basset laying down with his torso propped up on the wheel of the tractor. He is wearing a blue polo shirt, gray jean shorts, and like blue Converse-style shoes. He has curly, brown hair; Dara Reneé standing in a jean skirt and green leopard print shirt. She has voluminous red hair and is wearing silver hoop earrings and sparkly red boots; Sofia Wylie standing against a picnic table in lavender shorts and a crochet knit striped tank top. She has braided hair in a ponytail that ends is loose curls.

Meet the Characters of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 3!

By Sarah Sterling

Season three of the award-winning Disney+ Original series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is just a week away! Some of our favorite Wildcats are heading to Camp Shallow Lake for summer camp and there will be plenty of fresh faces to meet as the campers prepare an over-the-top production of Frozen, all while participating in a behind-the-scenes docu-series on the making of their show.

Fan favorites like Ricky Bowen (Joshua Bassett), Gina Porter (Sofia Wylie), E.J. Caswell (Matt Cornett), and Kourtney Green (Dara Reneé) will return this season, with Nini Salazar-Roberts (Olivia Rodrigo) returning as a recurring character, and Big Red (Larry Saperstein), and Seb Matthew-Smith (Joe Serafini) appearing as guest stars. Let’s get to know the handful of new players before you stream the series on Wednesday, July 27!

Matt Cornett (left) and Meg Donnelly (right) in front of a red show curtain. Cornett is standing with his hands behind his back and is wearing a light blue tank top that has a Camp Shallow Lake logo on it in brown. Donnelly is gesturing toward Cornett with a big smile on her face. She has a clipboard in her right hand, as if she is organizing something for their performance. She is wearing high-waisted jeans and a purple and yellow floral print top.

Val (played by Meg Donnelly)
ZOMBIES star Meg Donnelly makes her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series debut as camp counselor-in-training, Val. Val has been a camper at Camp Shallow Lake for a long time, but she’s older now, in college, and ready to tackle the job of choreographing the group’s production of Frozen. Val is already friends with one of our East High pals, E.J. Caswell. Val and E.J. have known each other since they were little kids and grew up going to Camp Shallow Lake together every summer.

A headshot image of Jason Earles. He has short brown hair styles into a point at his forehead. He has some stubble and bright blue eyes. He is wearing a bright blue, almost cyan, dress shirt and a checkered blue and yellow tie.

Dewey Wood (played by Jason Earles)
Fans of Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana will be thrilled to see Jason Earles in this season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series as Dewey Wood, Camp Shallow Lake’s strict camp director. The exact opposite of laid-back, goofy Jackson Stewart, Dewey Wood is the no-nonsense backbone of the camp and is known to be a “killjoy.”

Co-star Corbin Bleu says that working with Earles created meta layers in the show. Bleu plays himself and Earles plays a fictional character, but pointedly brings up that Earles has been coaching the series cast since season one. “I find it very hard to explain the show sometimes. When I’m trying to explain what’s happening this season, I tell people just watch it. Watch it. It’ll make sense,” says Bleu of this Inception-like plotline.

Corbin Bleu stands confidently with his arms outstretched and a huge smile on his face. His black hair is short and faded. He has on black pants, a black shirt, and a black leather jacket. He seems to be standing in a camp recreation center, with one camper blurry, but visible behind him.

Corbin Bleu (as himself)
He’s back! But this time not as Chad Danforth, the musical-averse jock who majored in vacation. Bleu returns to the High School Musical franchise this season as… himself! Bleu surprises the kids at Camp Shallow Lake when he arrives to announce they will be the first camp in the world to put on a production of Frozen. Bleu will serve as a mentor to the Wildcats this season and, while his character may be a little jaded by the entertainment industry, we have hope that the campers will help him remember his roots and reignite his passion for performing.

Saylor Bell as Maddox in a still from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 3. Maddox is standing alone on an outdoor stage under a sign that reads “Camp Shallow Lake.” She is smiling out at the audience and casually holding her blue acoustic guitar, which is hanging around her shoulders. She is wearing a gray and pink camouflage pattern hoodie, navy blue jogger pants, and slip-on shoes with rainbow socks. She looks as if she just finished a performance.

Maddox (played by Saylor Bell)
Maddox is the chipper and enthusiastic “techie” behind the scenes of Camp Shallow Lake’s performance of Frozen. She is a camp regular and feels very at-home and in control at Camp Shallow Lake. Saylor Bell describes Maddox as “this high-energy, ready to go, ready to have everything put on track kind of kid… which kind of falls apart, slowly, as time goes on.” We can’t wait to see how Maddox handles the hurdles thrown her way when the Wildcats arrive for the summer. 

A headshot image of Adrian Lyles (Jet). Lyles is standing against a wooden wall with his arms crossed in front of him. He isn’t smiling and has a serious expression on his face. He has short, dark, curly hair and is wearing a bleach-spotted denim jacket over a black Hawaiian shirt with palm trees and beach shacks on it.

Jet (played by Adrian Lyles)
Jet is known as the mystery kid of Camp Shallow Lake. No one knows a lot about him because he keeps to himself and is reluctant to participate in camp activities—sometimes even downright annoyed by the idea.

“He must have been dragged here kicking and screaming because, mostly in the beginning, he cannot stand it,” says Adrian Lyles, who plays Jet. “He gets looser and sort of starts to enjoy himself rather than forcing this situation to be a bad thing.”

Jojo Siwa as Madison in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. She is sitting on a wooden swing that has colorful lights wrapped around the side ropes. She is wearing a gold, bedazzled pantsuit, a pink ruffled dress shirt underneath, with hot pink bowtie and cummerbund. Jojo’s long blonde hair is style in loose curls and she is smiling at someone off-camera and grabbing the sides of the swing with both hands.

Madison (played by JoJo Siwa)
Superstar JoJo Siwa joins the cast this season as Madison, a Camp Shallow Lake alum. Details about Siwa’s character and what she does this season are still shrouded in mystery. We hope she gets to show off her incredible singing and dancing skills, maybe joining Bleu in ment­­oring the campers as they rehearse their production of Frozen. No matter what she does, we can’t wait to see Siwa shine!

Jesse Tyler Ferguson sits outside in a lounge chair with his legs crossed. He is looking over an empty fire pit at Olivia Rodrigo who is facing away from the camera. Rodrigo is wearing a denim dress and white sneakers and her long brown hair is half up. Ferguson is wearing light blue jeans, a blue plaid shirt, and a casual black jacket. He has one hand in the air as he talks to Rodrigo. The setting feels like a private home and doesn’t seem to be at Camp Shallow Lake. There is a half full glass of amber liquid in front of Ferguson and there is lots of foliage behind him.

Marvin (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson)
You’ll recognize Tony® Award-winning actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson from ABC’s Modern Family, where he played Mitchell Pruitt for over 10 years. Ferguson joins the third season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series as Marvin, a family-friend of Nini’s. In the season three trailer, Nini explains to Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) that she feels like “something big” is coming—could Marvin be there to help Nini navigate her next step?

A group of campers during a “Color War” scene from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. There are multiple rows of campers sitting on yellow beams and they are all wearing yellow. In the front row, from left to right, you see Adrian Lyles, Saylor Bell, Frankie Rodriguez, and Dara Reneé. They are cheering, clapping, and singing. Campers behind them are holding signs that say “Hello Yellow,” “Yellow is #1”, and “Yellow All the Way”. Meg Donnelly is on the right side of the image in a denim jumpsuit and holding a mic.

Alex (played by Aria Brooks) and Emmy (played by Liamani Segura), and Channing (played by Ben Stillwell)
Rounding out our cast of new characters is Alex (played by Aria Brooks), an eighth grader who is auditioning for the musical at Camp Shallow Lake for the first time. Alex’s best friend is Emmy (played by Liamani Segura) who is also eager to audition for the summer musical. Finally, Channing (played by Ben Stillwell) is the cameraman for the behind-the-scenes docuseries being produced at Camp Shallow Lake alongside the production of Frozen.

We can’t wait to see what shenanigans our old pals and new campers get up to this season in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, streaming July 27 on Disney+! ­­­It’s not too late to catch up on the first two seasons of this show, both available to stream now on Disney+.