The actress Isabela Merced forged her love of entertainment via the age-old American pastime of visiting the local video rental store. As a kid, Merced’s Fridays were filled with the smell of plastic DVD casings, the feeling of a nubby carpet underfoot, and being exhilarated by the prospect of taking home a $1 movie of her choosing. “I gravitated towards ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and Shirley Temple’s filmography,” the Peruvian American actress says on a recent afternoon over the phone, sitting on her couch, surrounded by her three dogs in her Los Angeles home. “Seeing younger women that were child actors, I thought, ‘I could do this too.’”
Seeing younger women that were child actors, I thought, ‘I could do this too.’
After a decade on the stage—including a role on Broadway’s “Evita” at age ten—and countless film and TV projects (like playing the beloved Nickelodeon character Dora in “Dora and the Lost City of Gold”), Merced has created a career in entertainment that’s all her own. This year alone, it was announced that the actress would be joining Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the hit Max series “The Last of Us”. And the “Transformers: The Last Knight” alum is taking to the silver screen again for the newest addition to the “Alien” film franchise, “Alien: Romulus,” premiering August 16th, (in fact, she’d made plans for dinner with her new castmates from “Alien” right before sitting down for this interview.) On top of an upcoming lead role in “Turtles All The Way Down,” which will be streaming on Max May 2nd, the 22-year-old’s career is shifting away from lighthearted family favorites that amplify her charming and expressive acting chops, and more toward serious roles that touch on the complexities of the human experience. Whether mental health issues or a zombie apocalypse, this doe-eyed force’s performances mark a new chapter for her career—one that coincides with her own personal growth.
Merced wears Hervé Léger dress; LUCASHEVA shoes.
In the film adaptation of John Green’s 2017 novel, “Turtles All The Way Down,” Merced stars as Aza, a teen whose life has been impacted by the tragic death of her father and a subsequent severe OCD diagnosis. After finding out her former campmate’s billionaire father has gone missing, she and her best friend Daisy, played by the hilarious and charismatic Cree Cicchino, embark on a search-and-rescue mission in hopes of getting a million-dollar reward. It turns out, the actress learned the most from embodying her “Turtles All The Way Down” character, Aza. “In the process, I learned that, even if it is with the intent to better yourself, thinking about yourself so much can be dismissive towards the people in your life,” she says. “And the importance of cultivating relationships with the people you love.”
In the process, I learned that, even if it is with the intent to better yourself, thinking about yourself so much can be dismissive towards the people in your life.
Merced wears Vassia Kostara knit sweater and shorts; Wolford tights; Saint Laurent earrings.
Merced wears Vassia Kostara knit sweater and shorts; Wolford tights; Saint Laurent earrings.
To hear Merced tell it, her career started on a humble level. Growing up between Cleveland, Ohio, and Peru, the self-described loud, imaginative middle child and only daughter of Katherine and Patrick Moner built a divergent path for herself. “My parents were always helping people,” she says. From her mother’s role as a paramedic to her father’s time as a firefighter—a profession her eldest brother, Jared, also pursued—she was raised in a household rooted in compassion and grit. “I come from a community of people who put their heads down and did the work they had to do.”
It only took one more role in a local production of “Les Misérables” (she played Cosette) and Merced was hooked on acting. As fate would have it, the yellow brick road of Merced’s career began when she was nine years old with an audition for a community theater production of The “Wizard of Oz.” (“I auditioned to play Dorothy. I ended up getting a Munchkin,” she says.) Nevertheless, her journey to Hollywood—like Dorothy’s quest for Emerald City—was set in motion. With her mother’s blessing, Merced headed to New York. “My mom gave me a month to audition. And if I didn’t book anything, then we were going back home and never trying it again,” she recalls. “On the last day, I booked a Claritin commercial. That ended up funding most of my career.” Since then, Merced’s filmography has grown tremendously, from her lead role as CJ Martin in the Nickelodeon series “100 Things to Do Before High School,” to Isabel Reyes in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (2018), and Anya Corazón in the newly inducted cult-classic “Madam Web” (2024).
Merced wears Hervé Léger dress; LUCASHEVA shoes.
Now, as her figurative library of work expands into more serious territory, “Turtles All The Way Down” confirms that Merced is tapping into a new range of emotions that literally and metaphorically speak to the depths of existence. Although Merced emphasizes that this is not “the OCD movie”—a film that romanticizes and generalizes rather complex and deeply personal emotional struggles—Aza’s mental health issues hum in the background of every scene. The actress’s experience playing the character impacted her own personal views on mental illness. She hopes that the film will provide a window into the way mental health issues can affect people and their relationships, especially within the Latine community. “Latine families will do anything but be transparent and talk about the issue,” she says. “The younger generations in my family are waking up to the atrocities that have happened in our family throughout the years. And we try to have an open dialogue with our parents and open their eyes to terms and experiences they might have not known were happening to them.” It’s by no means a quick process, and even as time passes, Merced acknowledges her cousins have received some pushback from elders in these conversations.
Her own experiences of explaining her struggle with anxiety to her mother were no different, and it took Merced’s portrayal as Aza for her family to understand her strife. “My mom is self-proclaimed to have never had anxiety, which I find fascinating because you assume everyone looks at the world the same way as you,” she says. “When she watched the screening of this movie she was sobbing. She looked at me and said ‘I understand now.’”
Merced wears Acne Studios dress and shoes.
Merced’s skillset was forged by experience and the opportunity to learn from the prolific actors she was surrounded by on set. When it comes to weighty roles, Merced has utilized humor to carry herself through the days—a skill she learned from her “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” costar, Josh Brolin. “He did a good job of teaching me how to not let this work consume you in every space, and come with opposite energy as the current scene,” she says. “It allows you to preserve your energy.” It’s an essential part of her process and has only become more prominent in her practice as she navigates the intense waves of the film industry.
“I’m here in this industry and busier than ever. If anything, just being a woman in this industry has been the most challenging thing,” she says. “I walk into these sets and sometimes they call me ‘little lady’ or ‘missy’ or ‘little girl’ or they explain things to me I already know. It’s a weird thing that’s been instilled in society to treat younger people differently. Why not have borderline basic respect?”
If anything, just being a woman in this industry has been the most challenging thing.
Merced wears Acne Studios dress and shoes.
Legacy Latine actors like Benicio Del Toro, Santiago Cabrera, Ricky Martin and Eva Longoria are just a few of the stars Merced has worked alongside. She rarely finds herself getting starstruck, except for one—George Lopez. “I loved ‘The George Lopez Show,’ but I also loved his work in ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua,’” she says, describing the time she met the comedian at actress Eva Longoria’s home in Los Angeles. “He commits to the bit and is just a genuinely funny guy. He can’t help it.” It’s a fact that uncovers the comedic and communal foundations of Merced’s essence, which paired with her self-determination, has expanded her dreams beyond that of Hollywood, “I wouldn’t mind moving to Peru,” she adds. “My dream includes seven dogs and four horses.”
As she draws out a map of her future in Peru, she remains steadfast in the present. “When you make plans, the universe tends to laugh in your face,” she says with a laugh. “But there’s nothing wrong with continuing to make them because maybe the universe will let it happen.” Whether it was the universe or her keen sense of self-determination that guided her this past decade, her acceptance of the unknown has allotted her the ability to embrace each part of the journey—from every photoshoot, interview, and quality dinner with castmates—as it comes.
Merced wears Hervé Léger dress; LUCASHEVA shoes.
Styled by Chloe and Chenelle Delgadillo; makeup by Allan Avendaño; hair by Ricky Fraser; movement direction by Yuliana Maldonado.