Camila Mendes

Actor Camila Mendes made an impact as a performer almost as soon as her career began, bursting onto the scene with her first onscreen role as Veronica Lodge on the CW's dark adaptation of the Archie comic book series "Riverdale" (CW, 2017-). A native of Miami, Florida, Mendes' Brazilian heritage lent her the skill of speaking fluent Portuguese. Her first role would come when she was in just third grade, playing a cranberry in a school play about Thanksgiving. Mendes took her job very seriously, and the audience's delighted reactions to her epic emotions as the small fruit stuck her with the acting bug. When it came time to apply for college, Mendes attended New York University's Tisch School for the Arts. She was still attending classes when she landed the audition for the role of Veronica. Mendes had never read any of the long-running comics from the Archie series, all of which revolve around a group of teenagers attending Riverdale High School, but the script's uniquely modern and edgy take on the historically lighthearted comic was interesting to Mendes-and its depiction of the wealthy but conflicted Veronica particularly spoke to her. After winning the role, Mendes studied the original comic intently, determined to gather background knowledge on the history of the character.