Who Truly Is Jenna Ortega

JenNa Ortega was stunning on the red carpet at The 2026 Actor Awards. She had one nomination at the event for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her work in Wednesday, of which she is the titular character. This has been the role that has really cemented her in the public consciousness but she has done a raft of horror films from X to two Scream movies, as well as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which falls into the same gothic domain as Wednesday. She has an aesthetic that’s for sure.

Part of the success of the show is just how strong her character is, of which she has a big hand in crafting. Showrunner Alfred Gough pointed out that “Jenna gave notes on the scripts. She’s now a producer. She’s very involved, and she has a 360-degree view of things that, frankly, you don’t find with most actors. I think she’ll have a long career.”

 

This is her baby as much as it is Tim Burton’s.

The question is: can she transcend her typecasting as this generation’s scream queen as her public persona runs away from her?

 

“I think that’s part of my struggle with that side of this job, because you feel incredibly misunderstood,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s almost to a point where it feels like your name doesn’t belong to you. I almost don’t even resonate with it anymore. I hate assumptions, and a big part of this job is that people are going to make assumptions about you.”

“I miss the days of mystery. I miss when you didn’t know how much a movie cost and when you didn’t know everything about actors. So when people have a misunderstanding, it’s like, why is it their business?”