Fittingly, not long after her starring role in “Hairspray,” Nikki Blonsky became a licensed cosmetologist. According to Newsday, she obtained her certification in 2011, and began working in a salon shortly thereafter. At the time, Superstar Hairstylists, the Great Neck, NY store which employed her, said of Blonsky on their Facebook page, “We had an exciting fabulous day with her. We hope she enjoyed it too.”
Around the same time, per People, the then-22-year-old worked a job selling shoes at the Steven Dann boutique. She had not yet given up on acting then, but in the decade since, it seems as though she has chosen to fall off the celebrity radar and live a life of peace and privacy in her native Long Island. In fact, Blonsky continues to work in her home city. As she explained to Famadillo, “Living on Long Island I do get some privacy and it’s nice. I can sometimes go unrecognized but then there are days where I’m just going to the corner store and then I get DMs from fans asking if I was just there because someone recognized me.”
However, she still maintains some consistent interaction with fans, mostly through her TikTok, which has accumulated more than 55,000 followers. In June 2020, she came out as lesbian via TikTok, much to fans’ delight. One person commented, “As President of the Nikki Blonsky Fan Club I am so proud of you and so happy to see the character development,” while another wrote, “Imagine being an absolute icon back in 2007 and being EVEN MORE so in 2020.”
