To call Jenna Ortega one of horror's greatest scream queens is an understatement on several fronts, though it is true. For one, she may very well go down as the greatest scream queen of all time, even over Jamie Lee Curtis. Two, she's so much more than her sterling work in that one particularly scary genre.
But for every Scream, X, Wednesday, Scream VI, The Fallout, or You, there's a project featuring Ortega (sometimes only to a slight extent) that audiences have forgotten. The following movies and television series show off Ortega's range, even when her age was in just the single digits
10 CSI: NY (2012)
Outside a brief appearance in Rob Schneider's sitcom Rob (a series that, at eight episodes total, lasted longer than one might expect), Ortega's debut performance was as Aimee Moore in CSI: NY Season 9 Episode 4: "Unspoken." The episode features Ortega's character as an accidental shooting victim, killed with the very gun also used in a political rally shooting.
An indirect spin-off from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NY follows a new group of investigators, swapping out William Petersen for Gary Sinise. The series ran for nine seasons and 197 episodes.
9 Iron Man 3 (2013)
Shane Black's Iron Man 3 is quite possibly the MCU's most divisive film, and it frankly earns that title. As a follow-up to the Universe's first big event, The Avengers, it's a total letdown, with a dearth of memorable action sequences and a villain twist that insults the audience (even if it is objectively pretty funny, and would later get validated somewhat with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).
But it still features Ortega in her first major movie, even if her part as the Vice President's Daughter is relegated to a single scene. Either way, Ortega's already in the MCU somewhere, though it wouldn't be surprising if she were to be cast as someone else down the line.
8 Days of Our Lives (2013)
Ortega made a single-episode appearance on the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives, playing a character named Hayley. It's not a big part, but available clips still display a range that's more impressive than the majority of her adult co-stars on the show.
First airing in 1965, Days of Our Lives ran on NBC for a gargantuan 57 years before switching over to Peacock. It currently stands as just over 14,600 episodes, with Ortega's having been episode 12,149.
7 Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Ortega had a one-scene cameo at the very end of Insidious: Chapter 2, a sequel that managed to be an even bigger financial success than its box-office smash predecessor. While the second Insidious film isn't exactly James Wan's best movie, it's a suitable follow-up to and expansion of the original film's established lore.
Picking up where Insidious left off, the sequel follows the Lambert family as they deal with the aftereffects of their battle with a demon. This is particularly true of Patrick Wilson's Josh, whose plot line is the primary focus of 2023's Insidious: The Red Door. It would be nice if Ortega had a larger role in the big-name horror film, but seven years later she'd revisit the genre (save for some stuff on TV) with Netflix's The Babysitter: Killer Queen.
6 The Little Rascals Save the Day (2014)
The Little Rascals Save the Day follows the titular group of good-natured kiddos as they try and win a talent show. Why? Because grandma's bakery needs saving. Ortega plays Mary Ann who, like Spanky, Alfalfa, and Buckwheat, is a member of the original lineup. The actor has a substantial role in the film, and to date is the only one of the Rascals to have blown up.
Oddly enough, Save the Day was only the second modern Little Rascals movie. The first film was a minor box office success directed by Penelope Spheeris of Wayne's World fame. Yet, considering the fact it was released 20 years prior, none of the reboot Rascals reprised their roles. And, thankfully, neither did a certain windmill-hating political figure who makes a cameo as a jerky rich kid's father.
5 Jane the Virgin (2014-2019)
CBS Television Distribution
Led by Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin was a 5-season fan favorite for The CW, and the cast list even intermittently featured Ortega as a younger version of the titular character. The Scream star had flashback scenes in 29 of the show's 100 total episodes. Like the woman she'd go on to grow into, the 10-year-old version of the character is a daydreamer with a strong proclivity for the romance genre. Ortega's take on the character is one of four younger "Janes" shown at various points in the show's run, and the most-often seen by a country mile.
Rodriguez (and by extension Ortega) portrays the titular Jane Villanueva, a deeply religious woman whose gynecologist accidentally artificially inseminates her. Things take a turn for the even more complicated when she discovers the identity of the father: Rafael, former teenage crush and current boss. The show follows her as she goes from a virgin mother to, eventually, simply a mother, but it takes a long road to find a love who will show the same to her and her child in equal measure.
4 Rake (2014)
Fox's Rake may have been led by Little Miss Sunshine star Greg Kinnear, but it still didn't make enough of a splash to warrant more than one season. An adaptation of an Australian series of the same name, Kinnear stars as Keegan Deane, a criminal defense lawyer who also serves as the "rake" of the title. For the unfamiliar, the term was more or less light slang for a womanizer.
Ortega starred in seven of Rake's 13 total episodes (all of which were released in 2014). She played Zoe Leon, the daughter of David Ortiz's character, Deane's best friend, and admittedly her character wasn't given much to do. Speaking of Ortiz, the Fast & Furious and Silver Linings Playbook star wasn't the only recognizable face to star in the short-lived adaptation. For instance, there was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's Miranda Otto, Stranger Things' David Harbour, and Preacher's Ian Colletti, all of whom were series regulars.
3 After Words (2015)
Both one of Ortega's most under seen films and one of the best displays of her talent, After Words gives the young star the intimidating task of often sharing the screen with the great Marcia Gay Harden. And the 13-year-old knocks the heavy narrative out of the park, even if that heaviness can often turn to heavy-handedness and weigh the film down.
Harden stars as Jane, a recently-terminated librarian who begins to severely struggle with mental health issues. She decides to seek a fresh, utterly new start and flies to Costa Rica. There, she becomes entangled in the life of a younger man, a tour guide named Juan (played by Óscar Jaenada, who also starred in 2010's underrated The Losers). Ortega plays Juan's daughter, Anna, a child who, like her father, inspires Jane to once-again see what it is about life that's worth living, even in the face of a career's end. The film was shot on location, and the locale is the second-best thing about the movie outside the trio of lead performances.
2 Studio 666 (2022)
Briarcliff Entertainment
In other words "The Foo Fighters Movie," Studio 666 features the beloved lineup (including, of course, the beautiful soul that is Dave Grohl and the late Taylor Hawkins) recording a brand-new album in a haunted mansion. That is...if they can survive the night.
Ortega plays Skye Willow, drummer for heavy metal band Dream Widow and opening scene murder victim. In other words, of her three straightforward 2022 horror movies, Studio 666 was the least impressive display of Ortega's talent. Yet it does have an ambiance that works for it, and some Ortega in a horror film is better than none at all. Toss in the fact it's an opportunity to say goodbye to Hawkins and Studio 666 is worthy of a rental for any Foo Fighter fans who've somehow yet to see it.
1 American Carnage (2022)
American Carnage's timely narrative follows a group of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. Or, more specifically, their U.S.-born children, whose universal incarceration has now been ordered by the governor. However, their arrest records are offered a lifeline on one condition: They have to "volunteer" to assist the elderly.
The film is an indictment of just about everything that has occurred to the immigrant community in the past few years, from the regressive and hostile domestic views to the outright cruel actions of agencies such as ICE. That said, the few critics who saw it felt it was essentially a poor version of Jordan Peele's Get Out. The film's tone is jumbled, many of the performances (with one obvious exception) are unmodulated, and its ultimate point of "Right Wing outrage has bad results" isn't exactly a novel concept.
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