Jenna Ortega

Jenna Marie Ortega (born September 27, 2002) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress, receiving recognition for her role as young Jane 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 in the family film Yes Day (2021), both for Netflix. Ortega received critical praise for her performance in the teen drama film The Fallout (2021). She went on to star in the slasher films Scream and X (both 2022), and 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. Early life Jenna Marie Ortega was born on September 27, 2002, in Palm Desert, California, United States, the fourth of six children. Her father, a former sheriff who works at the California district attorney's office, is of Mexican descent; and her mother, 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. Ortega recalled feeling guilty about pursuing a career: "well if this doesn't work out, I'm screwed ... I just put my entire family through this because that's a lot of money and time that we did not have." 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 and "get rid of that description".