Aileen Kim (11) | STAFF REPORTER
Have you watched ‘Wednesday’ on Netflix yet? If you haven’t, you should definitely watch it or at least put it on your watch list because it’s worth the watch. The main character Wednesday in the show is portrayed by Jenna Ortega. You might recognize her from a lot of films. Maybe you recognize her from the 2016 Disney show ‘Stuck in the Middle’ as Harley Diaz, or from the Netflix show ‘You’ playing Ellie Alves, or from a bunch of horror movies that came out especially recently.
There’s no doubt that Jenna Ortega has worked so hard to be one of the most ‘talked about’ young actors today. Here’s a brief career review of Jenna Ortega to the point where now we see her as Wednesday.
Ortega made her film debut in 2013 (when she was only 9 years old) with a minor role in the superhero movie ‘Iron Man 3’ as the vice president’s daughter. Following this, Ortega starred in the second film of the horror movie ‘Insidious’ as Annie. These were the first two films of her career and they were both very successful at the box office.
In 2014, Ortega was cast in the role of Zoe Leon on the series ‘Rake’. Another show she was in you may recognize from 2014(-2019) is the Netflix romantic-drama series ‘Jane the Virgin’ as she played the recurring role of the younger version of Jane.
From 2016 to 2018, Ortega starred in the Disney Channel sitcom ‘Stuck in the Middle’ as Harley Diaz. The show was well-received and Ortega even received an award for her performance in this show. This show helped her to gain more publicity as it did very well.
After ‘Stuck in the Middle’, she left Disney and started to transition into more mainstream shows. On December 26, 2019, the well-recognized Netflix show ‘You’’s second season was released, and Ortega was cast as one of the main characters Ellie Alves. As well in the same year, she was cast as Phoebe in the Netflix horror film ‘The Babysitter: Killer Queen’ (the second movie of The Babysitter horror movie series), and this movie was released in 2020.
In March 2021, the movie ‘The Fallout’ was released and Ortega played the role of the main character Vada. Many critics applauded Ortega’s acting, saying it was her ‘breakout’ film role.
Ortega was then cast in a lot of horror films such as the most anticipated horror movie ‘Scream 6’ which will be released on March 10, 2023, ‘Finestkind’ alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, and Toby Wallace which will be released in 2023, ‘X’ from filmmaker Ti West and entertainment company A24 – which was released this year in March, and most recently we see her as Wednesday Addams from the new Netflix show ‘Wednesday’. Ortega called her role as Wednesday a ‘new chapter’ in her career, and being cast as one of Tim Burton’s iconic characters was very exciting for her. ‘Wednesday‘ has been received positively by critics and audiences alike.
It is truly impressive how much she has evolved in the film industry over the years. I wish her nothing but the best for her upcoming films and other future projects.
