Jenna Ortega is an American actress who gained recognition in portraying Wednesday Addams and her ancestor, Goody Addams in Tim Burton's 2022 horror comedy Netflix series, Wednesday and Astrid Deetz in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Biography[]
Ortega was born on September 27, 2002, in Palm Desert, California, United States, the fourth of six children. Her father Edward Ortega, a former sheriff who works at the California district attorney's office, is of Mexican descent; and her mother Natalie Ortega, an emergency room nurse, is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. Ortega's maternal great-grandmother was an illegal immigrant from Sinaloa, Mexico, and her maternal grandfather was from Puerto Rico. Ortega grew up in La Quinta, California. She wanted to act from the age of six; for three years, she begged her mother to let her pursue a career. Her mother attempted to distract her with activities such as soccer and school. Ortega almost quit pursuing acting to participate in the former. Her mother later bought her a monologue book and posted a video of a nine-year-old Ortega performing one. A casting director noticed the video and signed Ortega to an agency.
Ortega's mother began driving her to Los Angeles up to five days a week to attend auditions—a trip that sometimes took six hours. She struggled to secure parts as few roles existed for Latinas and she did not have "the look" sought by casting directors. Ortega stated rejections motivated her to change their viewpoint. She limited her auditions to commercials for her first year as she had no connections in the filmmaking industry; she secured parts in 12 national campaigns, including three McDonald's commercials. During the week, Ortega acted in Los Angeles for a few days and returned home to attend school. She enrolled in public school, attending Amelia Earhart Elementary School and John Glenn Middle School. She dropped out during eighth grade to act in Disney projects and got an apartment in Los Angeles after landing her role in Stuck in the Middle (2016–2018). During this time, Ortega worked in Los Angeles throughout the week and went home on the weekends.
After she began her career as a child actress, she made her film debut with a minor role in the superhero film Iron Man 3 as the vice president's daughter. That same year, Ortega appeared as Annie in the horror film Insidious: Chapter 2 as part of the supporting cast. Then she received recognition for her role as young Jane Villanueva in The CW comedy-drama series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019). From 2016 to 2018, she had a leading role as Harley Diaz in the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle, for which she won an Imagen Award. She played Ellie Alves in the second season of the thriller series You in 2019 and starred as Katie Torres in the family film Yes Day (2021), both for Netflix.
Ortega received critical praise for her performance as Vada Cavell in the teen drama film The Fallout (2021). She went on to star in the slasher films Scream as Tara Carpenter and X as Lorraine Day (both 2022), and reprises her role of Tara in Scream VI (2023), which established her as a scream queen. In 2022, she began starring as Wednesday Addams in the Netflix horror comedy series Wednesday, for which she received nominations at the Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
She also stars as Astrid Deetz in Tim Burton's fantasy film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), a sequel to Beetlejuice (1988). Ortega has also joined the cast of Klara and the Sun as Klara with Amy Adams, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is directed by Taika Waititi, and Death of a Unicorn, a dark comedy co-starring Paul Rudd produced and distributed by A24.
Gallery[]
Roles[]
Trivia[]
- Ortega followed a vegan diet, before becoming a pescatarian, when filming Wednesday.
- Ortega is the Executive Producer in Wednesday Season 2.
- Ortega is one of The Hollywood Reporter's Top 10 new A-list movie stars of Hollywood.
- Ortega recently is learning Spanish.