4 Minutes
It almost ended before it really began. Long before Jenna Ortega became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand young stars, she was seriously considering walking away from acting altogether.
In a candid conversation on Kid Cudi’s Big Bro podcast, Ortega revealed that the stretch after her Disney Channel run on Stuck in the Middle was far more uncertain than fans might expect. From 2016 to 2018, she was a familiar face on children’s television, but stepping out of that world brought a different kind of pressure. The safety net was gone. The industry suddenly felt bigger, colder, and full of people she still had to win over.
As Ortega explained, she had never seriously imagined another career path, at least not at the time. Acting was what she knew. Still, as she entered high school and closed the chapter on her child-star years, the idea of quitting started to feel surprisingly reasonable. In her words, it seemed like the right moment to stop if she was ever going to do it. She and her team had even discussed the possibility for months.
Then came You.
Landing the role of Ellie Alves in Season 2 of Netflix’s hit thriller changed the equation. Ortega said that once she stepped onto that set, everything shifted. She loved the experience, felt energized by the work, and realized she wasn’t ready to let acting go. Sometimes one project is enough to snap things back into focus, and for Ortega, You was that project.
Her character, Ellie, entered the series at a pivotal moment. In Season 2, Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg relocates from New York to Los Angeles, trying to outrun the wreckage of his violent past. Ellie, his sharp and observant young neighbor, adds another layer of tension to Joe’s already unstable new life. Ortega’s performance stood out, bringing intelligence and edge to a show built on manipulation, secrecy, and menace.
Looking back now, that role feels like a hinge point in her career. Not because it made her famous overnight, but because it helped redirect her path at exactly the right time. The actress who once thought it might be “a good run” soon became one of the defining screen presences of her generation.
Since then, Ortega has built a filmography that stretches well beyond her Disney beginnings. She has become a modern horror favorite through the Scream franchise, taken on high-profile projects such as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Death of a Unicorn, and cemented her place in pop culture with the lead role in Netflix’s Wednesday. She also previously shared the screen with Kid Cudi in Ti West’s 2022 slasher X, another title that helped sharpen her image as a bold, versatile performer.
Her momentum is not slowing down either. Ortega’s next project, The Gallerist, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and adds another notable title to her expanding résumé. With Natalie Portman also attached, the film is already drawing attention from movie fans tracking the next phase of Ortega’s career.
It’s the kind of story Hollywood loves, but this one lands because it feels real: a young actor standing at the edge of burnout, unsure whether the fight is worth it, only to find the one role that makes staying feel inevitable. If You gave Jenna Ortega her turning point, everything that followed has been proof that she made the right call.
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