High School Musical is a 2006 American musical television film produced by and aired on Disney Channel as part of the network's slate of original television films. The first installment of the High School Musical series, the film was directed by choreographer and filmmaker Kenny Ortega from a screenplay by Peter Barsocchini. It stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Alyson Reed, Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman. High School Musical follows student Troy Bolton (Efron), the captain of his school basketball team, and Gabriella Montez (Hudgens), an academically gifted transfer student, who together audition for the lead roles in their school musical, causing division among the school's cliques.

Development for the film began after Barsocchini approached the network in 2004 with a script idea for a musical film. Disney executives also wanted to replicate the success of the musical television film The Cheetah Girls (2003), as well as the standalone musical episodes of their television series Even Stevens (2000–2003) and That's So Raven (2003–2007). Principal photography for High School Musical primarily took place in Utah, with filming locations including East High School, Murray High School, and Salt Lake City. Additional filming took place in Los Angeles. The film has been described by Barsocchini and numerous critics as a modern adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.

High School Musical premiered on Disney Channel on January 20, 2006. It became the most commercially successful Disney Channel television film. In the U.S., High School Musical generated 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast, breaking the then-record for the highest premiere for the network. Internationally, the film also saw considerable success; as of 2019, over 225 million unique viewers were calculated as watched High School Musical. The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its cast and music but criticism for its sentimentality; it was more positively received by audiences. The film's soundtrack was commercially and critically successful, reaching atop the U.S. Billboard 200, with its lead single, "Breaking Free", reaching number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Two sequels, High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year, were released in August 2007 and October 2008 respectively.