Part of Child Stars, All Grown Up featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jodie Foster, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Drew Barrymore.
Rise to Fame
Wednesday Addams was supposed to be a bit part for a ten-year-old. Instead, it defined a decade. She debuted in Mermaids (1990) opposite Cher, but The Addams Family (1991) is where the deadpan, pigtailed glare locked in. She played the role in two films that combined for over $300 million, then aged out of it and did something most child stars don't: pivoted to credible adult work. By the late 1990s she was in The Ice Storm, Buffalo '66, and Sleepy Hollow, building a reputation as the indie darling who'd survived the machine.
In the Spotlight
Yellowjackets is what brought her back. She plays Misty Quigley, an obsessive, faintly terrifying true-crime fan, and the show earned her an Emmy nomination. When Netflix's Wednesday launched in 2022, she didn't reprise the role she made famous, she played the villain instead. It was a smart way to pass the torch to Jenna Ortega while staying in the room. In March 2025, she got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which puts her in the category of people the industry has finally decided to stop taking for granted.
Side Notes
She got her first stage role by goading another kid until he punched her, then reported it and got him removed from the cast. That kind of tactical shrewdness showed up early. Her father, before becoming a lawyer, ran primal scream therapy sessions at home, and she could hear the screaming through the vents as a child. She's called him 'a failed cult leader.' She has said the film industry rescued her from it. Underground hip-hop duo Felt, a collaboration between Atmosphere and MURS, named an entire album after her.