She's a fashion tour de force, an Emmy winner, a Disney Channel darling turned capital-M Movie Star—and Zendaya is just getting started. In honor of The Challengers—the first feature film where the actress is billed in the leading role—Marie Claire is dedicating a week of content to all things Zendaya.
Noon was in mourning. His good friend Tessa had passed away, and the memories were flooding in. Like any good friend would, Noon took to Instagram to share the news with his 31,000 followers: “I’ll forever cherish the moments we spent together as we played,” he penned. The comments section quickly filled with hundreds of condolences. Tessa was, in human years, approximately 60.
Let’s take a step back from this rather grim anecdote (which, I promise, is as somber as this investigation will get). Noon Coleman (Miniature Schnauzer) and Tessa Holland (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) are the dogs of Zendaya and Tom Holland, respectively. At the time of Noon’s aforementioned post, neither Zendaya nor Tom, two particularly private A-list actors, had publicly disclosed Tessa’s passing. (The only other source to confirm the news was Tom’s father, via his online blog. Yes, I tried to gain access, but it’s behind a paywall.)
So that left me—starring in my own one-woman Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Chronically Online spinoff—spiraling. You’d have to be watching closely and in the right places to know about Tessa’s death as quickly as @nooncolemann did. Unless @nooncolemann is not, as I'd believed, a fan account. Unless...@nooncolemann is run by Zendaya herself.
And yet: Zendaya hinted in a 2018 Marie Claire interview that she leaves Noon's social media to the fans. "Someone has made an account for my dog [on X]," she said, "and I swear, it sounds like something that...If Noon could talk, that's what he'd say."
Over the years, there have been several popular X accounts made for Noon—but only one on Instagram. The Instagram page at the center of this investigation has posted consistently, and exuberantly, for six years. "I am the beloved son of the great Zendaya Maree," its bio reads. "I like long naps w/ treats as a reward. Getting on my uncle Darnell’s last nerve is what I’m best at."
Zendaya embodies a rare cultural sweet spot at the cross-section of Hollywood untouchable and Girl Next Door, but her Instagram presence skews more toward the former: glam shots and movie stills, photo shoots and fashion collabs. By comparison, @nooncolemann posts elaborate collages, Happy New Year cards, and never misses a birthday (his own included ). He poses with cocktails, parties with Jacob Elordi, and pokes fun at his mom when she “cheats” on him.
But it’s impossible to cross-reference all of Noon’s posts; many are screenshots of Instagram stories, which could’ve been posted by Zendaya or her close circle and only last for 24 hours. This makes it near-impossible to know how much of @nooncolemann's account is original content, or if the person behind it is just doing what any true superfan does.
Why this obsession with unmasking the human behind Noon? I’ve long argued that if you really want to know how someone lives, start with their pet’s social media. While someone’s personal account may hint at their tax bracket, these trusty #PetsOfInstagram pull the curtain all the way back. After all, if that pic you took of your precious little Tinkerbell is Social Media Gold, who are you to suppress her sparkle in order to obscure your state-of-the-art wine fridge in the background? Second homes, luxury cars, authentic Eames chairs, a rich aunt’s handbag collection: these are the things you can uncover when you come across a Petstagram goldmine.
Celebrities, of course, can be Googled, which takes away some of their monetary mystique. They can be caught by paparazzi; reported to DeuxMoi; betrayed by a “close source” in the tabloids. Considering everything out of their control, the benign regularities of their home lives are what they protect. But the dogs? That’s where the veil falls. Celebrities and their pets, they are just like us!
I continued my deep dive into @nooncolemnan’s identity where all pop culture investigations begin: Reddit. With a screenshot of Noon’s Instagram pasted to my clipboard, I called to the people of r/Zendaya for answers.
I hit “post,” closed down the app, and gazed off into the distance. I reopened it moments later to find the following:
As it turns out, Reddit isn’t as lawless and unfiltered as its reputation suggests! Back to the drawing board. I found another subreddit, r/ZENDAYAWORSHIPPING, which had fewer followers—but also fewer rules.
There was no immediate activity, but at least no Reddit bots were scolding me in my inbox. While I waited, I took to Instagram to DM Noon directly—from both my personal and professional accounts. (I am nothing if not a social media editor).
Sanity already thrown to the wind, I also DM’d Cesar Milan, dog whisperer to the stars, who had been hired by Zendaya in 2017 to “shed light on why Noon growls at babies and other dogs.” I figured he might have some friendly insight into Noon’s identity. (He left me on read.)
While I waited, I read approximately 20 “celebrity pet” stories; typed many variations of “Who runs Noon Coleman’s Instagram account?” into many online platforms; and visited websites I’m embarrassed to say I trusted—all in pursuit of an answer. I was clicking on URLs that didn’t end in [dot] com. I was asking my 25-year-old brother if he had “friends who code.” I was on page five of Google! You’d be amazed by the number of “I’m not a robot” verifications I cleared in order to access websites run mostly by AI.
Once I hit the end of my “select the images that contain bridges” rope, I returned to r/ZENDAYAWORSHIPPING, hoping for updates.
One response! I was flattered, jittery. I felt alive. After a few days of back-and-forth, I had some answers, but no proof. Outside of my own call-to-action, there wasn’t much speculation about Noon’s account elsewhere. While celebrity dogs have a decidedly passionate following, they don’t, I discovered, conduct their operations on Reddit. It made sense, I thought. Dogs are more of the Facebook page kind of crowd.
Hard pivoting from Reddit, I saw that Noon had one credit on IMDb; a nomination for “Favorite Celebrity Pet” at the 2023 Kids’ Choice Awards. He didn’t end up winning (boo!), but it wasn’t for a lack of campaigning. @nooncolemann had celebrated the nod on his Instagram, to which he received nearly 7,000 likes and 88 comments. That’s another thing about Noon: He’s going to promote the hell out of himself, and his mom, whenever he can.
When tickets for Challengers, Zendaya’s latest film, became available for purchase in early April, Noon urged his fans to secure tickets for “mommy’s new movie”—link in bio included. Noon even joined his mom for the Los Angeles leg of the press tour, posing on a director's chair for a photo Zendaya shared to her Instagram Story. The shot was uploaded to Noon’s grid eight minutes later.
He’s not just repurposing content, either. Noon makes memes (and memes, and memes)—and good ones! Noon has voice. Noon has attitude. And Noon has fans.
They miss him when he’s gone: “hiii what's up Noon? I feel better after seeing you”
They hype him up when he makes content: “LMAO your memes ate!!!”
And, of course, they send their love to his mom: “Hiiii Noon!! Everything is great!! I missed you!! Tell your mom I said to post too!!!! ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹”
Noon’s content is organic, unfiltered, and casual to the point of reading as exclusive. Does Zendaya ever do her own shopping? If it’s at MUJI, she will! How about flying commercial? Uh huh—and Noon comes along for the ride (he flies private, too). Zendaya hates leaving him behind, but he has Grandma and Uncle Darnell to keep him company when she’s gone. When Zendaya is off the Hollywood clock, it’s always Noon. And he’s got all the receipts.
Two weeks of sleuthing, DMing, and falling down rabbit holes had passed, and I still didn’t know who owned the keys to @nooncolemann.
Did it even matter? I’ve yet to uncover a dirty underbelly beneath the Pet Fan Account ecosystem. No dog-on-dog violence, no marking of territories. Unlike human celebrity fan accounts, dogs have certain inevitable, sinister-behavior-proof limitations. (If Noon slid into your DMs claiming that he was in a pinch, it’d take quite the suspension of disbelief to let him swindle you out of your money.)
Ultimately, Noon is a recordkeeper and archivist of Zendaya’s hair-down, hang-loose moments, maintaining a harmless catalog of the megawatt star—all from his shady perch.
If @nooncolemann isn't run by Zendaya's family, it's run by someone who cared just as much. And whether friend or fan, the person behind @nooncolemann clearly possess the greatest quality of any dog, real or virtual: a steadfast loyalty to their owner.
