Jenna Ortega

• 1. Introduction

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  Jenna Ortega was nine years old when her mother bought her a monologue book and posted a video of her performing online. A casting director saw the video and signed her to an agency. That single upload set off a career that would one day earn her a nickname she never chose: Gen Z's scream queen. How does a child with no industry connections get there? What happens to a Disney Channel lead who is told that is all she can do? And what does it feel like to become famous for characters who unsettle an audience, while still thinking of yourself as a girl from the desert?

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• 2. Desert Roots

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  Jenna Marie Ortega was born on the 27th of September 2002 in Rancho Mirage, California. She is the fourth of six children. Her father, Edward, is a former sheriff who works at a California district attorney's office. Her mother, Natalie, is an emergency room nurse. He is of Mexican descent, and she is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.

  The family history runs through several places. A maternal great-grandmother was an undocumented immigrant from Sinaloa, Mexico. A maternal grandfather moved from Puerto Rico to the Bronx, New York, before settling in the Western United States. Ortega grew up in La Quinta, California, and has called her childhood self "loud and extroverted".

  At the age of six, she watched Dakota Fanning in the 2004 thriller Man on Fire. She could not work out how a young child could frighten her so badly, so she studied the film several times. Her ambition became to be "the Puerto Rican version of" Fanning. Acting also gave a "very existential" and anxious child an escape from the pressure she put on herself.

  Her mother needed convincing. For three years Ortega begged, and her mother offered distractions such as soccer and schoolwork. Soccer very nearly persuaded her to quit chasing acting.

  The auditions meant driving to Los Angeles as often as five days a week, a round trip that could take six hours. Parts were scarce for Latinas, and she felt she "didn't look a certain way". The rejection bruised her self-esteem, and she even considered dyeing her hair blonde to book more work.

  For the first year she had no connections, so she auditioned only for television commercials. She landed roles in 12 national campaigns, including three for McDonald's. She also kept up school, attending Amelia Earhart Elementary School and John Glenn Middle School, and acted in Los Angeles for a few days each week. She stopped attending public school during eighth grade to work on Disney productions. She has described those early teenage years as "full of tension and fear" of making mistakes. After booking Stuck in the Middle, she took an apartment in Los Angeles and went home to La Quinta only on weekends.

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• 3. Child Actor Years

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  Ortega made her acting debut in 2012 in the sitcom Rob. She followed it with a guest appearance on CSI: NY, in an episode called "Unspoken". In 2013 she made her film debut in Iron Man 3, uncredited, as the vice president's daughter. The same year she joined the supporting cast of the horror film Insidious: Chapter 2.

  From 2014 to 2019 she held a recurring role in the CW series Jane the Virgin. She played a younger version of Jane Villanueva, whom Gina Rodriguez portrays as an adult. Declan Gallagher of Entertainment Weekly wrote that she avoided "the trappings of a typical child actor".

  Other work from those years was uneven. She starred in the direct-to-video comedy The Little Rascals Save the Day in 2014 and the Netflix sitcom Richie Rich in 2015. In the 2015 film After Words she played Anna Chapa, the daughter of a male escort. The Los Angeles Times called her "adorable", while The Arizona Republic found her "horribly cloying".

  From 2016 to 2018 she led the Disney Channel sitcom Stuck in the Middle as Harley Diaz. Harley is an aspiring inventor and the middle child of seven siblings. Ortega borrowed from her own family and her relationships with her siblings. She felt that starring on the show was close to reality television.

  Common Sense Media said she "commands this role, pleading her case as a long-suffering middle kid while finding the humor in the many calamities that befall her efforts to shine". She earned three Imagen Award nominations for Best Young Actor - Television, and she won in 2018.

  She also did voice work for Disney. She voiced Princess Isabel in Elena and the Secret of Avalor in 2016, and then in the series Elena of Avalor, which ran until 2020, two years after Stuck in the Middle ended.

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• 4. Leaving Disney Behind

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  When Stuck in the Middle wrapped in 2018, Ortega wanted to try more mature projects. She found that people assumed Disney roles were "all you can do, or all you were meant for". She considered quitting acting several times. She felt she "was too old for the young roles and too young for the older roles". High school was starting, and she would have to "prove herself" to casting directors who did not know her.

  Then came a casting in 2018 as Ellie Alves in the second season of the Netflix thriller You. She enjoyed the experience enough to keep going. The season arrived in late 2019 to positive reviews, and Robyn Bahr of The Hollywood Reporter called her "a standout performer". She was expected back for the third and fourth seasons but could not return because of scheduling conflicts.

  The next projects were a mixed bag. In September 2020, Netflix released the horror film The Babysitter: Killer Queen, in which she played Phoebe, the love interest of Judah Lewis's character. Critics were negative. She also voiced a travel vlogger named Brooklynn in the animated series Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous. In 2021 she made her writing debut with It's All Love: Reflections for Your Heart & Soul, a book of quotes and statements about faith and love.

  In March 2021 Netflix released the comedy Yes Day, in which she played a stubborn teenager who wants more independence. Reviews were mixed. IndieWire called her "very capable", and the Associated Press called her "an impressively poised young actor".

  The turning point was The Fallout. She played a high school student navigating emotional trauma after a school shooting. To prepare, she looked at photographs and watched videos and interviews about school shootings. She also took part in the March for Our Lives movement, which led demonstrations supporting gun control legislation in the United States.

  The film premiered at South by Southwest on the 17th of March 2021 and reached HBO Max on the 27th of January 2022. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called her performance "grounded and deeply moving". The Hollywood Reporter praised a "beautifully nuanced turn" that understood both the "nothing-to-look-at-here façade" and "the chinks in the armor".

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• 5. Scream Queen

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  Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett cast Ortega as Tara Carpenter in the fifth Scream film, released in 2022. They wanted someone who could handle both horror and comedy, and they also liked the sound of her scream. She said: "I don't even think there are words in the English language to correctly express how happy, excited, and nervous I am for this journey".

  She was nervous about joining a famous franchise. She wanted to honor its legacy without copying it. The shoot taught her how much cast chemistry matters to a production. The film became the 28th-highest-grossing release of 2022, and she won the MTV Movie Award for Most Frightened Performance. The A.V. Club praised the "incredible" resilience and resolve she showed.

  Her 2022 horror run went on. In the Foo Fighters-led comedy-horror Studio 666, reviewers felt she was underused. Then she starred in the slasher film X, written and directed by Ti West. West called her "fearless in her commitment". She had signed on because of a script she described as "the most outrageous thing I've ever read" and the chance to work with him. X became her best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes, and The Australian dubbed her and co-star Mia Goth "scene-stealers".

  The comedy-horror American Carnage was her last film release of 2022. The A.V. Club said she was continuing "her streak as the new it-girl of horror", and IGN praised her "no-shits-given shell".

  She returned as Tara in Scream VI in March 2023. The film grossed over $169 million against a budget of $33-35 million. Deadline Hollywood credited her star power for part of that success. Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised her "surly spunk".

  In November 2023 she left the franchise. Her co-star Melissa Barrera had been fired over pro-Palestinian comments about the Gaza war. Ortega said that, with the cast and crew changing, another film did not seem the "right move". Earlier reports had blamed scheduling conflicts with the second season of Wednesday and an unsuccessful request for seven-figure pay.

  Ortega credits her "instinctive" scream and her "really ugly crying face" for how horror audiences responded to her. She finds horror "very therapeutic". Yet in 2023 she said she was wary of becoming too associated with violent films. She felt "very conflicted" about her tastes because there is "a part of me that always feels like the girl in the Coachella Valley".

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• 6. Becoming Wednesday

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  Ortega auditioned for Wednesday Addams on a Zoom call with director Tim Burton, reading a four-page monologue. She was cast in May 2021. The casting team felt her version of the character carried the empathy the part needed. She called the role a "new chapter", though she first hesitated. She wanted to focus on films and feared another television series would stop her booking the parts she wanted.

  The preparation was intense. She described it as "the most physical transformation I've ever done". She cut her hair, dyed it black, and changed her mannerisms, speech, and facial expressions. She learned to play the cello and to speak German. She also read the original Addams Family comic and watched the 1960s television adaptation.

  The first season was, in her words, her "most overwhelming job". She felt constantly confused and stressed about where the series and the character were heading. She believed the early writing made no sense for Wednesday's personality. She said she had never "had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday". On some scenes she changed her lines without telling the crew.

  The series became one of the most-watched shows on Netflix, with over a billion viewing hours within a month. CNN described her as "relentlessly strange, a portrait in unblinking intensity and oddly endearing all at once". She received nominations for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. That made her the category's second-youngest nominee. Journalists credit the show with her international recognition, yet she has spoken of her discomfort with being known for a set she found creatively unpleasant. In March 2023 she also hosted an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live.

  For the second season she became a producer, calling it a "natural progression". She said the title made her feel "more empowered to speak my mind". She discussed scripts, oversaw prosthetics, joined auditions and chemistry reads, and took part in writing, design, and casting. She called it "a great education". RogerEbert.com found her performance "expertly calibrated between menacing and inquisitive". The Guardian said her "charisma could power a thousand hearses". She earned her second Golden Globe nomination and a second Actor Award nomination.

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• 7. Risky Roles

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  The crime thriller Finestkind premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023. Ortega played Mabel, a drug dealer's daughter seeking her own path. Reviews were bad, and many journalists said she had been miscast.

  She started 2024 with Miller's Girl, opposite Martin Freeman. Her character, Cairo Sweet, is a high school student whose writing catches her teacher's attention, leading to a complicated relationship. Ortega called Cairo "the most complex character that I've ever played" and expected the risky material to provoke uncomfortable discussions. Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com found her "magnetic enough" to hold attention. Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press called the film "a pointless, awkward turn" in her career.

  Winter Spring Summer or Fall premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Director Tiffany Paulsen said Ortega was the casting team's first choice for Remi Aguilar, a driven genius who falls for a rebellious musician. Ortega also starred in the video for Sabrina Carpenter's song "Taste".

  The year's biggest release was Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton's sequel to the 1988 original. Ortega played Astrid Deetz, the cynical teenage daughter of Lydia Deetz. The film opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival and grossed $451 million worldwide. Boxoffice Pro and TheWrap credited her with drawing younger viewers, especially from Generation Z. Rolling Stone called her an "unimpeachable" choice with a "world-class deadpan stare". The Independent felt she "can't help but seem a little bland and strait-laced" beside Michael Keaton.

  In the 2025 dark comedy Death of a Unicorn, she and Paul Rudd play a father and daughter who accidentally kill a unicorn. Reviews were mixed. Peter Travers of ABC News said she gives the film "a beating heart", and IGN praised a "wonderfully lived-in performance".

  Hurry Up Tomorrow, directed by Trey Edward Shults, paired her with Abel Tesfaye and Barry Keoghan. She played Anima, a troubled young woman who pulls Tesfaye's character into an existential odyssey. Critics panned the film. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commended her "intense" energy, while Charles Bramesco of IndieWire found her performance "imitative and hollow".

  In 2026 she starred opposite Natalie Portman in The Gallerist. Ahead are Klara and the Sun, directed by Taika Waititi, and J. J. Abrams's The Great Beyond, where she has creative control over her character's appearance. She is also attached to co-star in and produce Single Female, a remake of the 1992 thriller Single White Female, opposite Taylor Russell.

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• 8. Image and Causes

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  Burton compared Ortega's acting to silent film, saying she conveys emotion through her eyes without words. Megan Park, who directed her in The Fallout, said she knows "when to give her all and when to hold back". Ortega avoids over-preparing, because in real life "you never know what you're going to say next or what your next facial expression is going to be". She told Entertainment Tonight in 2021 that she did not want to be "pigeonholed as an actor". She says she looks for projects with a "forever effect", citing The Fallout.

  The Hollywood Foreign Press Association called her the "scream queen for the 21st century". The Hollywood Reporter named her one of "Hollywood's Top 30 Stars Under Age 18" in 2018, the "Next Big Thing" in 2022, and "The Gen Z Obsession" in 2024. In 2023 she appeared on its Power 100 list. In 2024 Forbes included her in its 30 Under 30. Vanity Fair described a "black-hole persona" but found her "much warmer and more cheerful than you'd expect".

  Her style changed with her roles. Her stylist, Enrique Melendez, first dressed her in RED Valentino and Thom Browne, avoiding the "feminine and flirty and frilly" look of other Disney actresses. After You she turned to heavier makeup and darker clothing. During the Wednesday press tour, Vogue and WWD noted her Miista boots. The New York Observer and Harper's Bazaar credited her with popularizing "Wednesdaycore". She cites Siouxsie Sioux as an inspiration.

  Brands followed. In 2020 she became an ambassador for Neutrogena. In 2023 she joined Adidas and Dior, and in 2025 she was named a global beauty ambassador for Dior. She also appeared in a Doritos advertisement during Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024.

  Her activism began young. In 2016 she organized a fan meet-and-greet to raise money for a young girl with cancer. At the 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards she wore a jacket reading "I Do Care and U Should Too", a response to the jacket First Lady Melania Trump wore while visiting immigrant children. It read "I Really Don't Care, Do U?". In 2023 she signed an Artists4Ceasefire letter urging a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. In 2026 she denounced United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

  She would rather keep her romantic life private, believing it distracts from her work, and calls celebrity "absolutely ridiculous". She has described social media as a "comparing game" and "very manipulative". In 2025 she said she has anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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