Fans have watched her on screen as a child star, and now, Mckenna Grace is all grown up!
The Texas native got her start in 2012 with a role in the show Crash & Bernstein. A year later, she made her film debut in Goodbye World. Over the years, she’s become known for playing the younger versions of some major stars.
“I’ll get tagged in TikTok memes, like, showing me next to all of the characters that I’ve played. It’s really funny,” the actress told Variety in November 2021. “I don’t know how that ended up happening. But I’m really glad that it did, because I definitely got to learn from all of the actresses that I played younger versions of.”
When Chilling Adventures of Sabrina premiered in October 2018, Mckenna was tapped to play Li’l Sabrina, the younger version of Kiernan Shipka‘s character Sabrina Spellman.
“When Kiernan heard we were doing Li’l Sabrina, she texted me a picture of her with Mckenna and said, ‘You have to get Mckenna. She’s like me as a little girl and we’re dead ringers,'” CAOS showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told TheWrap in November 2018. “And then we reached out [to Mckenna] and said, ‘Do you want to be Li’l Sabrina for the Christmas special?’ And she said yeah. And it was as easy as that! It came from Kiernan though.”
Throughout her childhood, Mckenna also appeared in movies like Gifted, I, Tonya, Ready Player One and Captain Marvel, among others. Now that she’s a teen with some major credits already under her belt, it seems like she’s able to nab any role she wants. In 2021, she played Phoebe Spengler in the highly anticipated Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
“Now that I’m getting older, I definitely think about [childhood], but I’d never wish that I had anything else,” Mckenna also told Variety. “I didn’t have a conventional, normal childhood, but it wasn’t by any means a bad growing-up process. I enjoy this. This is my life, and I love it.”
While chatting with Teen Vogue in November 2021, Mckenna reiterated the fact that she has no qualms about growing up in the spotlight. The Handmaid’s Tale star even revealed that her parents even check in to see if she’s ever “unhappy.”
“I’m like, ‘Guys, this is what I love doing,'” she gushed, noting that she always begged her mom to become an actor. “I plan on doing this until the day I die, and if I cannot continue in acting, then I would love to continue somewhere else in the creative industry, like directing, producing, writing, or SFX. All the parts are so interesting. It wouldn’t be possible without one person.”
Scroll through our gallery for everything you need to know about Mckenna.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.
