Jenna Z. Alvarez

Jenna Z. Alvarez, or just Jenna Z. if you’re in the know, is a total dynamo—Filipino-American, repping San Diego, and basically born to perform. She started dancing at, like, kindergarten age—six years old and already getting serious with ballet shoes and jazz hands. By the time most kids were still learning their times tables, Jenna was nailing ballet, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, tap, hip-hop—yeah, all of it. She’s got that classic dancer grind, but acting snagged her heart too, so she made her way to The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute out in West Hollywood. You know, where some of the greatest actors cut their teeth. Her big leap into TV? Pretty wild. She got picked as one of the fresh faces in Disney’s rebooted "Club Mickey Mouse," basically joining that iconic Mouseketeer crew—huge deal if you grew up on Disney. Then she went and landed a spot on Showtime’s "Kidding" with actual Jim Carrey, playing Havana, this lively, offbeat teen with a seriously fun vibe, for two whole seasons. Not bad for a first gig, right? But she wasn’t stopping there. Jenna showed up as Liberty, the feisty dance team captain, in Disney’s "Shook," which got the Emmy nod and everything. That one starred Sofia Wylie and had the Duplass brothers producing, so, kind of a big deal. And, just to flex a little more, she popped up on Nickelodeon’s "Danger Force" and HBO Max’s "Generation." Basically, Jenna’s on her way up, and everyone’s starting to notice.