Jenna Ortega: What Is Her Age And Net Worth?
Jenna Ortega is a 20-year-old actress who is famous for playing Wednesday on Netflix. She has a $4 million net worth.
Though Jenna Ortega has been acting since a young age, her most recent credit as Wednesday Addams launched Ortega from a rising star to the Hollywood elite.
The week of its release on Netflix, Wednesday had 341.2 million people tune in to watch the first episode of the Tim Burton Addams Family revamp, making it the most-watched Netflix English television series of all time for the platform and completely smashing the previous record held by Stranger Things. It is a massive hit for the platform.
Though Jenna Ortega had already been a steady actress since the age of 9, playing the lead role in one of Netflix’s most successful shows shot Ortega from a fairly successful child star to a critically acclaimed actress of international fame.
Prior to the occult-like success of Wednesday, Jenna Ortega had been working as a child actress after being cast in her first role at the age of 9. And while she has been cast in several prominent parts in popular shows like The CW’s Jane the Virgin and The Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle, it wasn’t until 2022 that Jenna Ortega became a household name.
Now, the actress is in full demand, with a confirmed Season 2 of Wednesday in the works, as well as several additional projects in production.
Whenever a star rises to fame, it’s only natural that people become curious to learn more about the new face they suddenly see on screens everywhere. This is everything we know about Jenna Ortega, from her age and career to her net worth and family life.
JENNA ORTEGA WAS BORN IN 2002 AND IS FROM COACHELLA CALIFORNIA
Jenna Ortega turned 20 years old on her birthday, September 27, 2022, almost two months before the release of Wednesday in November of that year, where she played a 16-year-old high schooler. Ortega was born and raised in Coachella Valley, California, which is known for its annual Music and Arts Festival.
Unlike many kids, Ortega didn’t grow up with a normal childhood. Ortega expressed an interest in acting at the age of 6, and her fiercely supportive mother made sure her daughter’s dreams came true.
Ortega’s mother, Natalie Ortega, posted a video of her daughter reciting a monologue on Facebook, which earned Ortega her first agent. Soon after, Jenna Ortega booked her first television role at the age of 9 as an unnamed girl on the CBS comedy Rob.
JENNA ORTEGA COMES FROM A LARGE FAMILY
Jenna Ortega is the middle child out of six children. Born in 2002, Jenna Ortega is the fourth oldest child to her parents, Natalie and Edward A. Ortega. She has one older brother and two older sisters (Isaac, Mariah, and Mia), and two younger siblings who are twins (Aaliyah and Markus).
Jenna Ortega has discussed how she doesn’t mind being the middle age between her siblings, and, in fact, she kind of enjoys it. The actress has described how being the middle child means that both her younger and older siblings feel comfortable confiding in her and that because she was often lost in the middle between the younger and the older kids, she was able to get away with shenanigans more often.
Natalie Ortega, Jenna Ortega’s mom, is incredibly proud and supportive of her daughter, though Jenna Ortega has said that neither of her parents expresses any interest in the film industry.
While Natalie, an emergency room nurse, might not care which of Jenna’s celebrity heroes her daughter most recently met on the red carpet, she will often post how proud she is of her daughter on her social media.
JENNA ORTEGA BEGAN HER CAREER WITH IRON MAN 3 AND JANE THE VIRGIN
Like most actors, Jenna Ortega started her career with small roles. Since Jenna Ortega began acting at a young age, she was often cast in background or supporting children parts, like in Iron Man 3, where she played the Vice President’s daughter.
Over time, as she built up her portfolio, Ortega began getting cast in larger parts and eventually in some roles with names attached to the credit. Her first major recurring role was in the crime dramedy Rake, where Jenna Ortega played Zoe Leon for seven episodes at the age of 12. After that, Ortega was cast as young Jane in The CW comedy Jane the Virgin, in which she appeared in 30 episodes from 2014 to 2019.
In 2016, Jenna Ortega became a Disney Channel star when she was cast as Harley Diaz in Stuck in the Middle at the age of 14. Ortega was nominated for an Imagen Award for Best Young Actor for the first season of Stuck in the Middle. It was her first nomination for any award, though she didn’t win that year.
In 2018, she was nominated again for the same award based on her performance in the same show, and this time she won.
HER BREAKOUT FILM WAS ABOUT A SCHOOL SHOOTING BEFORE THE ACTRESS FOUND HER VOICE IN HORROR AND COMEDY
In 2021, Jenna Ortega appeared in her breakout role at the age of 19 in the film The Fallout. In the film, Ortega played the lead character of Vada Cavell, a high school teenager who must deal with the emotional trauma that comes after experiencing a mass shooting.
Ortega was praised for her portrayal of Vada, with critics and Hollywood trade magazines alike claiming that this was the film that pushed Ortega from an amateur actress to a Hollywood star.
Soon after her breakout role, Ortega found her voice for filming horror. Having already appeared in a comedy horror film a few years earlier (The Babysitter: Killer Queen, which Jenna Ortega shot at the age of 18), Ortega was soon cast in several more horror films. She played Tara Carpenter in 2022’s Scream, in which she got to work with legendary filmmakers Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette.
The same year, Ortega also appeared in the rock and roll band Foo-Fighter’s horror-comedy film, Studio 666, the horror-comedy American Carnage, as well as the horror film X, directed by Ti West.
While Studio 666 wasn’t considered a critical success, audiences found the film to be fun—at least for those who like gory comedies. X, on the other hand, was Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences also greatly enjoying the film.
2022 was a big year for this up-and-coming actress. Not only did Jenna Otega break out of her teens, turning age 20 that September, but she also broke into Hollywood fame and became a household name. 2022 saw the release of four horror films starring Ortega, as well as the Netflix Original Series Wednesday, in which she played the titular character.
Wednesday was highly praised by critics and audiences alike, becoming one of the most popular television shows of 2022. Ortega has talked about how the role of Wednesday was one of the most challenging for her and how she was in a constant state of confusion and stress while filming the series.
To play the part, Ortega had to develop new mannerisms, including holding back on blinking to give her character an eerie, otherworldly energy.
Ortega was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for her portrayal of Wednesday Addams.
SHE HAS A NET WORTH OF $4 MILLION
It is estimated that Jenna Ortega currently has a net worth of about $4 million. This is an estimate based on her full career, including past and soon-to-be-released projects.
It is estimated that for Wednesday alone, Ortega makes about $60,000 per episode and that she could make even more than that (possibly up to $200,000 per episode) for later seasons of the spooky and kooky Addams Family show.
