Isabela Merced

Isabela Yolanda Moner (born July 10, 2001), known professionally as Isabela Merced since 2019, is an American actress and singer. She played the lead role of CJ Martin on the Nickelodeon television series 100 Things to Do Before High School (2014–2016) and voiced Kate in Nickelodeon's animated spinoff series Dora and Friends: Into the City! (2014–2017). In film, she has played Izabella in Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Lizzy in Instant Family (2018), Isabel in Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), the titular character in Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), and Rachel Cooper in the Netflix film Sweet Girl (2021). Early life and education Merced was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the daughter of Katherine, who was born in Lima, Peru, and Patrick Moner, who was born in Louisiana. Merced has stated that Spanish was her first language, and she struggled with English when she first started grade school, adding that she considers herself more Peruvian than American. At age 15, she was accepted into college. Merced began acting after her family's Cleveland home was destroyed by a fire. Merced was a Judy Garland fan, so her parents, wanting to distract her from the loss, asked her if she wanted to audition for a local production of The Wizard of Oz. She agreed and was cast as a Munchkin. A local theatre director urged the family to relocate to New York City, which they did, to help her pursue a career on Broadway. Career Merced has said that she wanted to be an actress from a very young age, inspired by movies featuring Shirley Temple and Judy Garland and starting in local community theatre at age six. Merced made her Broadway debut at age ten in a production of Evita, in which she sang in Spanish with Ricky Martin. She released an album produced by Broadway Records in September 2015, entitled Stopping Time.