Rebelde (English: Rebel) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Pedro Damián for Televisa, broadcast by Canal de las Estrellas (now known simply as Las Estrellas). It is a remake of the Argentine telenovela, Rebelde Way, adapted for the Mexican youth audience, leading to differences in characters' backgrounds. Rebelde originally aired from Monday, 4 October 2004, to Friday, 2 June 2006. It was replaced with Código Postal.
Rebelde is set in the Elite Way School, a prestigious private boarding school on the outskirts of Mexico City, with a major plot line revolving around six adolescent students – Mía Colucci Cáceres (Anahí), Roberta Pardo Rey (Dulce María), Miguel Arango Cervera (Alfonso Herrera), Diego Bustamante (Christopher von Uckermann), Guadalupe "Lupita" Fernández (Maite Perroni) and Giovanni Méndez López (Christian Chávez) – forming a band. Additional subplots involve the school's faculty and the students' parents. One trademark of the telenovela is the random use of English words and phrases, often used by fresa characters.
Another notable aspect is that the actors playing the band members are themselves in an actual group named RBD and perform most of the music used on the telenovela, including the opening theme song, "Rebelde". The group achieved international success from 2004 until their separation in 2009 and sold over 15 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling Latin music acts of all time.
Univision aired Rebelde weekdays afternoon at 3pm/2c from 21 March 2005, to 15 December 2006, replacing Corazones al límite. The last episode was broadcast on Friday, 15 December 2006, with Las dos caras de Ana replacing it on Monday, 18 December 2006.
In 2021, Netflix announced a reboot of the show, set for release the following year. The series, also titled Rebelde, was released on January 5, 2022, and is set 16 years after the end of the soap opera.
