Background and career
Lauren Zoe Hernandez (born June 9, 2000) is an American actress and former artistic gymnast. She was a member of the 2016 U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team dubbed the "Final Five" that won the team gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Individually she is the 2016 Olympic balance beam silver medalist. Outside of gymnastics, Hernandez has appeared on season 23 of Dancing with the Stars in 2016, where she won the competition along with partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy. Hernandez hosted the first season of American Ninja Warrior Junior as the on-course reporter and starred as Valeria in the Nickelodeon animated miniseries Middle School Moguls. She is the author of two books, I Got This: To Gold and Beyond, a New York Times Bestseller, and She's Got This, a children's book. Hernandez made her Broadway debut in the hit musical & Juliet in 2026.
Hernandez was born on June 9, 2000, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is the daughter of Wanda and Anthony Hernandez. Her grandparents moved from Puerto Rico to New York . She has a sister, Jelysa, and a brother, Marcus. She took ballet lessons when she was four, but she asked her parents to switch to gymnastics when she was five. She was homeschooled through the Abeka Academy distance-learning program.
At the 2012 National Qualifier held at the Karolyi Ranch, Hernandez won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Veronica Hults and Maggie Nichols, and her scores qualified her for domestic elite competitions. Later that week at the American Classic, she finished eighth in the junior all-around. She then competed at the U.S. Classic, where she placed 11th in the junior division. Through the Classic, she qualified for the U.S. Championships in St. Louis, where she placed 21st after two days of competition. Hernandez won the silver medal in the all-around at the 2013 WOGA Classic. In June, she competed at the American Classic in Huntsville, Texas. There, she placed first on floor exercise, second in the all-around behind Ariana Agrapides, and third on balance beam and vault. Following a national training camp, in July 2013, she was added to the U.S. junior national team. She then went to Chicago for the U.S. Classic, where she placed sixth all-around and won the floor exercise title. At the National Championships in August, she won the silver medal in the junior all-around competition with a total score of 116.650, behind Bailie Key. She also placed second on uneven bars and floor exercise, and tied for third on beam with Alexis Vasquez. Hernandez was selected to represent the U.S. at the Junior Japan International in Yokohama in September 2013. She scored 56.750 to win the bronze medal in the all-around. She also took third on vault, fourth on floor exercise, and sixth on balance beam. In November, she competed at the International Junior Mexican Cup in Acapulco alongside Bailie Key, Veronica Hults, and Emily Gaskins, and they won the team gold medal. Individually, Hernandez won the silver medal in the all-around behind Key.
In early 2014, Hernandez fractured her wrist when she slipped off the beam in a training session. Later that year, she dislocated her kneecap and tore her patellar tendon. She resumed training in the fall and attended the final U.S. training camp of the year in November. Hernandez was named to the U.S. team for the 2015 City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, where she was crowned junior all-around champion with a score of 57.650, ahead of teammates Norah Flatley and Jazmyn Foberg. In the junior-division event finals, she earned additional gold medals on the uneven bars and the floor exercise. At the U.S. Classic in July, she won the junior all-around title with a score of 58.450, as well as winning vault and uneven bars. She placed third on the balance beam and floor exercise. At the U.S. Championships, she had a score of 57.900 on the first day of competition and 59.550 on the second day, winning the junior all-around title over defending champion Foberg. She also won the title on the uneven bars, a silver medal on the floor exercise, and bronze medals on the balance beam and vault. She was then selected to compete at the 2015 International Junior Japan Meet in Yokohama, where she won the all-around, floor exercise, and vault and won silver medals on balance beam and uneven bars.
Hernandez became age-eligible for senior level competition in 2016 and made her senior debut at the City of Jesolo Trophy, where the U.S. team won the gold medal. Hernandez won the bronze medal in the all-around with a score of 58.550, behind two U.S. teammates, fellow first-year senior Ragan Smith and Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic all-around champion. She also earned a silver medal on the vault behind MyKayla Skinner and a gold medal on the balance beam, ahead of Smith and 2012 Olympian Aly Raisman. In April, Hernandez competed at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Everett, Washington along with Raisman, Smith, three-time world all-around champion Simone Biles, and 2015 World Championships team member Brenna Dowell. She contributed an all-around score of 59.800 toward the American team's first-place finish and placed third individually behind Biles and Raisman, but did not earn the all-around bronze medal because of a rule limiting medals to two gymnasts per country (Japan's Nagi Kajita took bronze instead). Hernandez also qualified for the balance beam final, but USA Gymnastics announced that she and Biles would not compete in event finals in order to rest them before the Olympics. In June, Hernandez competed at the U.S. Classic on the uneven bars only, scoring 15.400 and placing fourth. Later that month, she competed on all four events at the U.S. Championships. At the end of night one, she was tied for second place in the all-around with Raisman, behind Biles, with a score of 60.450. She finished the two-day competition in third all-around, behind Biles and Raisman. She placed third on uneven bars and balance beam and tied for third on floor exercise with MyKayla Skinner. At the Olympic trials in early July, Hernandez placed second in the all-around, behind Biles. She was named to the Olympic team alongside Biles, Douglas, Raisman, and Madison Kocian. Hernandez had previously committed to the University of Florida to compete on the Florida Gators gymnastics team in the NCAA. However, she decided to forgo NCAA eligibility and become a professional athlete on August 3, 2016, in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.
On August 7, Hernandez competed in the qualification round at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She scored 15.200 on the vault, 15.366 on the balance beam, and 14.800 on the floor exercise, qualifying for the balance beam event final in second place. She posted the fourth highest score on floor, but she did not advance to the final due to the two-per-country rule, with teammates Biles and Raisman getting higher scores. Hernandez did not compete on uneven bars. The United States team finished first in team qualifications, securing a spot in team finals nearly 10 points ahead of the second-place team. Hernandez and the rest of the United States team, known as the Final Five, won gold in the team final. The Americans won every event, scoring a total of 184.897, more than eight points higher than second-place team Russia (176.688) and third-place team China (176.003). Hernandez was the first competitor on vault and floor exercise for the United States team. She contributed to the overall score with 15.100 on vault, 15.233 on beam, and 14.833 on floor exercise. Hernandez won a silver medal in the balance beam event final with a score of 15.333. She placed ahead of teammate Simone Biles, who placed third with a score of 14.733, and behind Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands, who won gold with a score of 15.466.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
