Zac Efron has always considered his childhood to be normal in a middle class family. His father, David Efron, is an engineer at a power plant, and his mother, Starla Baskett, is a former secretary who worked at the same power plant and has a younger brother, Dylan.

Here are some of  Zac Efron’s childhood photos:

He has said that he would “flip out” if he got a ‘B’ and not an ‘A’ in school, and that he was a “class clown.” Efron’s father encouraged him to begin acting when Zac Efron was eleven; he subsequently appeared in theater productions at his high school, worked in a theater called the Melodrama, began taking singing lessons, performed in plays such as Gypsy, Peter Pan, Little Shop of Horrors, The Music Man and Mame, appearing at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Zac Efron was recommended to an agent in Los Angeles by his drama teacher, Robyn Metchik (the mother of actors Aaron Michael Metchik and Asher Metchik). Zac Efron has two dogs, Australian shepherds named Dreamer and Puppy, and a Siamese cat, named Simon.

Despite now being the sexiest guy Disney has ever permitted on its payroll, Zac Efron reckons he wasn’t cool in his high school days.

The 21-year-old actor insisted to Family Circle that he was nothing like his popular-guy character in High School Musical growing up.

“I was average,” he said.

“I had a lot of friends but I was not in that ultra cool circle. I was a bit of a class clown. I guess to get through the tedium of the quadratic formula, I thought everyone was fair game.

“Between self-discovery and the social hierarchy, high school can be the most confusing time of your life.”

More Efron’s baby photos…