Jenna Ortega’s Ethnicity and Family Roots

Father’s side

Edward Ortega is Mexican American.^[2] He worked as a sheriff and later moved to a district attorney’s office in California, as his daughter told Elle in 2023.^[3]

The family kept up Mexican traditions at home. In her POPSUGAR essay Ortega remembered a piñata at every birthday and tamales at Christmas.^[2]

Edward’s father, Tony Ortega, was born in Indio in the Coachella Valley in 1948, the son of Jose Maria and Josephine Ortega. He served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1970, worked as a tile setter and raised his three children on a five-acre ranch. He died in Indio in January 2022, and his obituary in The Desert Sun names Jenna among his grandchildren.^[5]

Mother’s side

Natalie Ortega works as an emergency room nurse. When her daughter started acting, she drove her from the desert to auditions in Los Angeles several times a week, a round trip of up to six hours.^[3]

The Mexican side of her family goes back to Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico, where Jenna’s great-grandmother grew up on a small ranch.^[1]

Jenna’s grandfather on this side was born in Puerto Rico. He moved with his family to the Bronx in New York and later settled in the West, near Natalie’s home in the Southern California desert.^[1][6] He died before Jenna was born. She told The Cut in 2025 that her drive to perform may come from him.^[6]