Heavy/ABC Xochitl Gomez graduated high school.
Season 32 “Dancing with the Stars” champion Xochitl Gomez had a big reason to celebrate ahead of the DWTS tour beginning. The 17-year-old Marvel star, who won the Mirrorball trophy with Val Chmerkovskiy, just graduated high school.
Here’s what you need to know:
Xochitl Gomez Was Completely Surprised by the DWTS Graduation Celebration
On January 9, Gomez posted shared a glimpse of her graduation celebration in an Instagram Story. In a reel shared on January 10 on her Instagram page, the “Dancing with the Stars” champion revealed lots of fun details.
In the Instagram Reel, Gomez noted at one point she was still working on her senior essay. Later in the video, she shared footage of the cast and crew working on surprising her.
They had a “Secret Graduation Party,” and Gomez explained, “While someone distracted me, the cast and crew got together to surprise me for graduating while on tour!!” Gomez added, “Seriously thank you to Nicole & Mandy for such a sweet gesture :).”
The video showed many of the “Dancing with the Stars” professional dancers heading to the party location. Jenna Johnson, Gleb Savchenko, Ezra Sosa could be spotted, in addition to Chmerkovskiy, Pasha Pashkov, Rylee Arnold, Brandon Armstrong, and others.
There were pink and white helium-filled balloons decorating the area, and show choreographer Mandy Moore told everybody where they needed to be.
Everybody stood in a line waiting for Gomez to come through the door, and the “Dancing with the Stars” champion was completely surprised. The standard “Pomp and Circumstance” graduation walk song played and everybody threw confetti at Gomez as she walked into the room.
Chmerkovskiy was waiting for Gomez, and she laughed as she saw him. He wore a fake graduation cap and shook her hand as he presented her with a fake high school diploma. Chmerkovskiy had Gomez take the cap and toss it in the air, and everybody cheered for her.
DWTS Fans Gushed Over Gomez’s Achievement
Various tidbits of Gomez’s graduation celebration were shared on cast members’ Instagram Stories. One shot Gomez shared herself was posted in the “Dancing with the Stars” subreddit and fans loved it.
The photo showed Gomez wearing the graduation cap and holding her “Official (Unofficial) Diploma.” She wrote, “Thank you!! For this awesome graduation party. That diploma tho!”
“Congrats Xochitl! Recent DWTS win and now a graduation – what a great time she’s having,” a Redditor wrote.
Another Redditor added, “The little surprise welcome they threw her was so cute. Congratulations Xochitl!”
The video Gomez posted on Instagram was almost 10 minutes long and contained a lot of fun behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsals. “Dancing with the Stars” fans got quite the kick out of it.
“Working on a senior essay while on tour iconic,” quipped one follower.
“They’re so real for organising that surprise party,” noted another.
Someone else’s comment read, “The fact that you manage to keep up with school, while being on tour dancing, and still having time to edit a vlog for us… A REAL QUEEN 🫶🏼👑.”
“This deserves Emmy consideration for best doc,” joked a different follower.
A separate commenter gushed, “A HS GRADUATE, DWTS WINNER, ACTRESS AND NOW EDITOR AND VLOGGER ICONICCCCC.”