Naya Marie Rivera's big breakthrough or claim to fame came upon her landing the role of snarky cheerleader Santana Lopez on Fox's Glee. Primarily starting out as a secondary character who occasionally provided the snark-filled, epic throwdown lines of the show, things started to change for the better towards the end of the first season (she got her first solo performing Madonna's Like A Virgin, and singing The Boy is Mine duet with Amber Riley) and by the next season she had been made a series regular. She has since then had a huge, highly praised, well-received story arc of being a closeted lesbian struggling to come into terms with who she really is.

Before she became the sassy, sometimes kind, mostly misunderstood character that we all have come to know and slowly felt for, Santana  was popular. A Cheerio, second in command to their Captain and head-cheerleader Diana Agron's Quin Fabray alongside her best friend Heather Morris' Brittany.

Naya Rivera readily took on the role which required for her to look the part of being one of the popular, perfect, pretty girls of the school. A role whiere she was always expected  to look fit. And as she had always been skinny herself, it was no problem.

Naya Rivera has always been lean. But these days the 27 year old Naya Rivera seems to just be skin and bones. Sometime between the fourth season of the show up to now the actress has seemed to shrunk.

Some speculations upon the methods behind the Glee star's Naya Rivera weightloss have been thrown about by critics, citing possible eating disorders, some going as far to even calling her anorexic, while others call it a bout of depression.

The Glee star insists that it's all natural. Her exercise routine consists of cycling two times a week, she takes spin classes to shape her obliques and to mantain and tone up her arms. Diet wise she doesn't eat too heavy stuff, though she is a "big coffee drinker" for solids she prefers dishes that are clean, light. "She's a "big fan of fish" she'll have a tuna salad, and little snacks made up of hummus, guacamole and crackers.