Who is Jenna Ortega? The actress who plays ‘Wednesday’ in the Netflix hit series
The young actress stars as Wednesday Addams of the Addams family with Tim Burton heading the series, one of Netflix’s biggest English-language debuts.
‘Wednesday’, the series based on the teenage character of Gomez and Morticia’s dark daughter in The Addams Family, was number one in viewing hours on the platform in the English-language series category. A major part of that success is due to Jenna Ortega, the actress who brings the young girl to the small screen.
Following in the footsteps of Christina Ricci, Ortega had a high bar to overcome in portraying Wednesday. But the Californian has blown everyone away with her work in the series alongside Ricci, this time as a teacher. Ortega has quickly been thrown into the limelight and she already has more than twenty million followers on her Instagram account including amassing an extra ten million in the last ten days.
Ortega heads the series at only 20 years old but ‘Wednesday’ is not the first big production she is involved in. She has also starred in the fifth part of the Scream movie saga, as well as minor roles in Iron Man 3 and Insidious: Chapter 2. She started acting at eight years old before moving to the Disney Channel.
What is ‘Wednesday’ actually about?
The series, available since November 23 on Netflix, is a coming-of-age story about Wednesday’s years as a student at the Never Again Academy. Though not part of the main or recurring cast a number of other Addams family characters including Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia.
Some events include Wednesday’s attempts to master her budding psychic ability, stop a monstrous murder spree that has the town terrified and solve the paranormal mystery her parents were involved in 25 years ago. All while managing her new (and very complicated) relationships in Never Again.
Wednesday Dance trending on TikTok
One of the iconic scenes in the series comes at the school dance - no more spoilers - where Wednesday takes to the floor and dances in her inimitable style. A version of the dance is currently one of the viral dance trends smashing it on TikTok.
The actors after the show admitted it was one of their favourite scenes.
The song used for the dance is a speeded up version of Lady Gaga’s Bloody Mary.