Before Jenna Ortega became Wednesday Addams and took over the internet as the goth queen, she was already a working actor—basically her whole life. She didn’t have some “other” job before acting. In fact, she started right out of the gate as a kid in Hollywood.
Early life: Starting young in the limelight
Jenna was born in Rancho Mirage, California, on September 27, 2002. By nine, she was already landing roles—her first TV gigs showed up in 2012 on the sitcom ‘Rob’ and an episode of ‘CSI: NY’. That’s how early her acting journey began. Not long after, she had a tiny part in ‘Iron Man 3’ as the vice president’s daughter. Her scenes got cut, but still, what nine-year-old gets to say their first movie set was a Marvel blockbuster?Her real break was Disney Channel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle’. She played Harley Diaz, the clever middle kid in a big family, and suddenly, she became a familiar face in households everywhere. Around the same time, she popped up on ‘Jane the Virgin’ as Young Jane and in ‘Richie Rich’. All those parts gave her a solid foundation—she was working constantly, learning the ropes, and growing up on camera.
From a child star to the goth queen
Once she outgrew the child star label, Jenna pivoted into edgier stuff. She dove into horror with movies like ‘The Babysitter: Killer Queen’, ‘X’, and the ‘Scream’ franchise, where she played Tara Carpenter. The media started calling her Gen Z’s scream queen, and she really did live up to the hype. She even snagged an MTV Movie Award for Best Frightened Performance in ‘Scream’. However, she didn’t just stick to horror—she got critical praise for dramatic roles too, like ‘The Fallout’, where she played a high school shooting survivor.Then ‘Wednesday’ happened. In 2022, Jenna scored the lead in Tim Burton’s hit series, and she didn’t just play Wednesday Addams—she made the character her own. She turned that sharp sarcasm and goth vibe into something totally new. She went all in, too—cut her hair, dyed it black, picked up the cello, even studied how to move like Wednesday. The show took off, smashed streaming records, and suddenly Jenna’s name was everywhere. Golden Globes, Emmys—she landed big nominations. Overnight, she went from “up-and-coming” to global superstar.
Beyond acting: Expanding the horizon
These days, acting’s still her main gig, but Jenna’s not stopping just there. At just 23, she has already stepped into producing, earning credits as an executive producer on ‘Wednesday’s second season and working on new projects. She has even talked about her interest in writing and directing her own stuff. As per The Hollywood Reporter, she’s already working on a script for 10 years, and she had big plans for it. For someone who started in the business before losing her baby teeth, it kind of makes sense she’d want to tell her own stories now.
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