Mckenna Grace (born June 25, 2006 in Grapevine, Texas) is an American child/teen actress and musician.
She's probably best known for her roles as Mary Adler in Gifted and Phoebe Spengler in Ghostbusters: Afterlife as well as for playing the young versions of several big-name roles. She's also played memorable roles in series such as Young Sheldon (as Sheldon's rival Paige) and The Handmaid's Tale (for which she became the first child star to be nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series). Despite her young age, she's already amassed a surprisingly strong resume since she began acting at age 6, having worked with Marc Webb, Steven Spielberg, Craig Gillespie and Roland Emmerich.
In 2021, she released her debut single, "Haunted House", putting out multiple further singles throughout 2022 before releasing her debut EP, Bittersweet 16, in March 2023.
She has a Twitter and an Instagram.
Filmography:
- Crash & Bernstein (2012-14) as Jasmine Bernstein
- The Young and the Restless (2013-15) as Faith Newman
- Gravity Falls (2014) as Additional Voices (voice)
- The Bridge (2014) as Girl
- Clarence (2014) as Tinia (voice)
- CSI (2014) as Young Abby Fisher
- K.C. Undercover (2015) as Quinn
- The Vampire Diaries (2015) as Young Caroline Forbes
- CSI: Cyber (2015) as Michelle Mundo
- Frankenstein (2015) as Molly
- Dog with a Blog (2015) as Jules
- Pickle and Peanut (2015) as Cindy, Sugarbee (voice)
- Once Upon a Time (2015, 2017) as Young Emma Swan
- Teachers (2016) as Avery
- Mr Church (2016) as Isabel 'Izzy' Brooks
- The Lion Guard (2016-17) as Kambuni (voice)
- The Angry Birds Movie (2016) as Ella Bird (voice)
- Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) as Daisy Blackwell
- Elena of Avalor (2016, 2018) as Bella (voice)
- Designated Survivor (2016-19) as Penny Kirkman
- Bizaardvark (2016) as Didi
- Fuller House (2016-18, 2020) as Rose Harbenberger
- Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017-present) as Bitsy Beagleberg (voice)
- Gifted (2017) as Mary Adler
- Amityville: The Awakening (2017) as Juliet Walker
- How to Be a Latin Lover (2017) as Arden
- I, Tonya (2017) as Young Tonya Harding
- Ready Player One (2018) as Elementary Kid
- The Bad Seed (2018) as Emma Grossman
- The Bad Seed Returns (2022) as Emma Grossman (also co-wrote and co-produced)
- Troop Zero (2019) as Christmas Flint
- Young Sheldon (2018, 2020-present) as Paige Swanson
- The Haunting of Hill House (2018) (2018) as Young Theo Cain
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018) as Young Sabrina Spellman
- Captain Marvel (2019) as Young Carol Danvers
- Annabelle Comes Home (2019) as Judy Warren
- Home Movie: The Princess Bride (2020) as The Grandson
- SCOOB! (2020) as Young Daphne Blake (voice)
- The Handmaid's Tale (2021) as Esther Keyes
- Spirit Untamed (2021) as Abigail Stone (voice)
- Malignant (2021) as Young Maddy
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) as Phoebe Spengler
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
- A Friend Of The Family (2022) as Jan Broberg
Discography:
- Bittersweet 16 (2023)
She provides examples of:
- Dye Hard: Regularly changes hair colour/style for her roles and makes a point of announcing this via "transition posts" on her social media accounts. However, she went with a wig for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
- Playing Against Type:
- As the cold-blooded, psychopathic Creepy Child Emma Grossman in the Lifetime adaptation of The Bad Seed.
- Downplayed in Spirit Untamed, where she plays a more ditzy comic relief, contrasting the Child Prodigies that she usually is known for playing.
- Promoted Fangirl: Was a fan of Ghostbusters as a child, before becoming one herself.
- Time-Shifted Actor:
- As her resume indicates above, she tends to be cast as the younger self of a work's major character. She's played the younger version of Margot Robbie in I, Tonya, Brie Larson in Captain Marvel (2019), Jennifer Morrison in Once Upon a Time, Kiernan Shipka in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Kate Siegel in The Haunting of Hill House (2018), Annabelle Wallis in Malignant, and Amanda Seyfried in SCOOB!.
- In A Friend of the Family, she gained her own "younger self" with Hendrix Yancey as a younger version of her character.