Camila Mendes

Camila Carraro Mendes (; ; born June 29, 1994) is an American actress and producer. She made her acting debut portraying Veronica Lodge on The CW teen drama series Riverdale (2017–2023), for which she won a Teen Choice Award in 2017.

Mendes transitioned her career to film, taking on supporting roles in The New Romantic (2018), The Perfect Date (2019), and Palm Springs (2020). She has since played leading roles in the black comedy film Do Revenge (2022), and the romantic comedies Upgraded (2024), Música (2024), and the sword-and-sorcery film Masters of the Universe (2026).

Early life Mendes was born on June 29, 1994, in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Brazilian parents. Her father is a business executive and her mother is a flight attendant. She has an older sister . Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, then back to Virginia, and then to Orlando, Florida. Due to her father's job and later her parents' divorce, Mendes moved 16 times across the Southern United States growing up, At the age of 10, she lived in Brazil for a year. In May 2016, Mendes graduated from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Career

Mendes's first acting job was a commercial for IKEA. In 2016, Mendes was cast as "silver-tongued high school sophomore" Veronica Lodge in The CW's teen drama series Riverdale (2017–2023), a subversive take on the Archie Comics. For her performance, she won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Scene Stealer in 2017. In the same month, Mendes joined the cast of the romantic comedy The Perfect Date. The film was released on Netflix on April 12, 2019. In 2019, the film Coyote Lake premiered, in which Mendes is the lead. In 2020, she appeared in the critically acclaimed sci-fi/comedy Palm Springs, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released that July on Hulu. She subsequently headlined the Netflix thriller film Dangerous Lies, released that same year.

In 2022, she co-starred opposite Maya Hawke in the teen black comedy Do Revenge for Netflix, earning critical acclaim. Mendes played Drea, a popular student at an elite high school trying to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend. Adrian Horton of The Guardian praised her performance writing, "In particular, Mendes's six years on Riverdale have refined her performance of a popular bitch with secret vulnerability to a fine, relishable point." In February 2024, Mendes starred as Ana Santos, an ambitious art world intern in the Amazon Prime romantic comedy film Upgraded. The film also starred Archie Renaux, Lena Olin, and Marisa Tomei. The film earned positive reviews with Courtney Howard of Variety describing this film as a "clever and charming romantic comedy" adding "Mendes and Renaux make for a lovely on-screen duo, teasing out lighthearted tenderness within the witty banter." That same year, she starred in another Amazon romantic comedy, Música, which premiered at the SXSW Festival. Rafael Motamyer of IndieWire praised the film for its "subversion of the musical comedy", adding the film is "charming" while also praising the chemistry of the two leads.

In June 2024, Mendes co-founded the production company Honor Role with Rachel Matthews.

In July 2024, Mendes was cast in the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer. In August 2024, it was announced that she had been cast as Teela in the live-action film reboot of Masters of the Universe, co-starring with Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man, leading her to drop out of the former due to scheduling conflicts.

In February 2026, it was announced that Honor Role hired Meredith Ditlow (from Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine) to run film and television for Honor Role.

Personal life When auditioning for characters of Latin American background, she has been told, "You don't look Latina enough." Mendes is Brazilian American and identifies as Latin American. She speaks Portuguese.

Mendes was roofied and sexually assaulted when she was a freshman at NYU, which inspired her to get a tattoo that says "to build a home" in cursive lettering above her rib, representing her commitment to build stability and safety for herself.

Mendes dated photographer and director Ian Wallace from 2013 to 2017. Mendes had begun dating Riverdale co-star Charles Melton by October 2018; they broke up by December 2019. In July 2023, she revealed that she has been dating actor and internet personality Rudy Mancuso for a year whom she met while working on Música. They became engaged on October 24, 2025.

Filmography +Key Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film Year Title Role Notes 2018 The New Romantic Morgan Cruise 2019 The Perfect Date Shelby Pace Coyote Lake Ester 2020 Palm Springs Tala Ann Wilder Dangerous Lies Katie Franklin 2022 Do Revenge Drea Torres 2024 Upgraded Ana Santos Also executive producer Música Isabella Griffin in Summer Producer 2025 Idiotka Nicol Garcia Also producer 2026 Masters of the Universe Teela TBA DED Flora Post-production; also producer Viva La Madness Post-production

Television Year Title Role Notes 2017–2023 Riverdale Veronica Lodge Main role; 137 episodes 2020 Day by Day Grace Voice; episode: "Fallin' Rain" The Simpsons Tessa Rose Voice; episode: "The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds" Dear Class of 2020Herself Television special Celebrity Substitute Web series 2021–2022 Fairfax Melody Voice; recurring role

Music videos Year Title Artist(s) Role 2018 "Give a Little" Maggie Rogers Dancer "Side Effects" The Chainsmokers featuring Emily Warren Riley 2026 "Do Me Right" Mr. Fantasy Herself

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result 2017 Teen Choice Awards Choice Scene Stealer Riverdale 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards Best Kiss (with KJ Apa) People's Choice Awards Female TV Star of 2018 Teen Choice Awards Choice TV Actress Drama Choice TV Ship (with KJ Apa) 2019 Teen Choice Awards Choice TV Actress Drama 2026Critics' Choice Super AwardsBest Actress in a Superhero MovieMasters of the Universe