Glee actress's career in pictures

Actress Naya Rivera, who died during a boat trip with her young son on a lake in California, was one of the stars of the hit teen TV series Glee.

Rivera, 33, began her career as a four-year-old in the Royal Family sitcom on CBS.

But she became best-known for playing Glee's cold-hearted Santana Lopez in all six seasons of the musical comedy, which ran from 2009 to 2015 on the Fox network.

Rivera (third right) appeared alongside co-stars including (left-right) Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley, Heather Morris and Dianna Agron.

The show soon gained a huge fanbase. Viewers followed the lives of the members of McKinley High School's glee club and their memorable musical performances.

Rivera's character dated and later married her best friend Brittany, played by Morris. She joined fellow Glee actors Kevin McHale, Morris and Josh Sussman at 2010's Emmy Awards nominees' party (pictured).

Rivera, third right, joined her co-stars at the Golden Globes in 2011, where Glee won best comedy or musical TV series for the second year in a row. The show won a number of other Globes and Emmy Awards, and featured guest spots by Britney Spears, Gwyneth Paltrow and Neil Patrick Harris.

Rivera and Riley performed Glee's 300th musical performance in 2011.

Glee made global celebrities of its cast. Rivera is pictured at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where they were nominated for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series.

The same year, she won two trophies at the Alma (American Latino Media Arts) Awards - for favourite female music artist and favourite TV comedy actress.

In 2014, Rivera starred in the horror film At the Devil's Door and married fellow actor Ryan Dorsey, the father of their son Josey. The couple divorced in 2018.

In 2016, Rivera published a book titled Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up, which urged young women to pursue their dreams and to refuse to let mistakes define them.

Rivera and Josey Hollis Dorsey were pictured at the 2019 premiere of The Lego Movie 2.

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