Mckenna Grace

Mckenna Grace (born June 25, 2006) is an American child actress. She began acting professionally at the age of six, with her earliest roles including Jasmine Bernstein in the Disney XD sitcom Crash & Bernstein (2012–2014) and Faith Newman in the soap opera The Young and the Restless (2013–2015). She is best known for her roles as Penny Kirkman in the series Designated Survivor, Rose Harbenberger in the comedy series Fuller House (2016–2020), Mary Adler in the Marc Webb drama film Gifted (2017), young Theodora Crain in the Netflix supernatural horror series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), Paige in the television series Young Sheldon (2017), Christmas Flint in the movie Troop Zero (2018), and Esther Keyes in season 4 (2021) of the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale for which she received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In 2018 and 2019, The Hollywood Reporter named her one of the top 30 stars under age 18.

Early life
Grace was born in Grapevine, Texas, on June 25, 2006. She has 1/8th Mexican ancestry.

Career
In 2013, Grace made her acting debut, playing Sydney in the television pilot Joe, Joe & Jane. Later she recurred on the Disney XD series Crash & Bernstein. She had a recurring role, as Faith Newman, on The Young and the Restless between 2013 and 2015. In 2015, she had a recurring role on the CBS series CSI: Cyber. Grace played the role of Daisy in the science fiction thriller Independence Day: Resurgence; the film, directed by Roland Emmerich, was released on June 24, 2016. Other early film roles include the drama film Mr. Church (2016), and the comedy film How to Be a Latin Lover (2017).

In 2017, Grace played a lead role in the Marc Webb drama film Gifted, starring alongside Chris Evans. She gained recognition for her performance in the role, being nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer.

Grace's career has mostly consisted of portraying the "young version" of older characters. She learned to ice skate to portray the younger version of Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya, describing it as the "most challenging role" she'd ever undertaken. Grace also played the significant role of Juliet in the horror film Amityville: The Awakening along with Bella Thorne; Franck Khalfoun directed the film.

Grace starred as Emma Grossman in the 2018 horror drama film The Bad Seed.

Grace starred as Judy Warren, daughter of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, in the 2019 horror film Annabelle Comes Home. Also that year, she appeared in the Marvel Studios film Captain Marvel as a younger version of the titular character.

Grace appeared as the younger version of Sabrina Spellman on the second season of Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

In 2021, Grace played the role of Esther Keyes in the fourth season of the televised serial of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

Personal life
Grace is a vegetarian and has directed her affection for animals towards work with Farm Sanctuary and PETA, including appearing in a campaign reminding people not to leave their dogs in hot cars.