JENNA
ORTEGA

Jenna Ortega began acting as a child and has moved between family television, horror films and dark comedy. Born on 27 September 2002 in California, the American actor is known for performances that can balance a guarded exterior with quick, precise reactions. Her roles have taken her from the younger version of a television protagonist to characters at the center of mysteries.

In Jane the Virgin, Ortega played the younger Jane. She later starred as Harley Diaz in Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle, a family comedy seen through the perspective of a child in a large household. Those roles gave her experience with different kinds of television storytelling while she was still early in her career.

Ortega plays Tara Carpenter in Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023), joining a horror series built around the threat of Ghostface. She also appears as Lorraine in X (2022). The films use different approaches to horror, giving her roles in both a long-running franchise and a separate, period-set story.

In Wednesday, Ortega plays Wednesday Addams as she investigates mysteries at Nevermore Academy. Her performance uses stillness and dry humor to make the character’s unusual outlook central to the series. She received a 2023 Emmy nomination for lead actress in a comedy series for the role.

Ortega worked with Tim Burton again in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). Netflix also credits her as an executive producer on the second season of Wednesday, extending her involvement beyond the performance. Her work continues to move between on-screen roles and a growing contribution to the stories around them.