McKenna Grace's 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

The best Mckenna Grace movies and TV shows feature the young star playing both young versions of popular characters in TV shows and her eventual rise as a star in her own right on TV and in movies. Grace got her start acting in 2012 when she was only six. She had early appearances in Crash & Bernstein and The Goodwin Games before she got her biggest break as Faith Newman in the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless.

She then got some big movie roles as a child star in Gifted, I, Tonya, and The Bad Seed. She also had a lot of experience playing younger versions of characters in flashbacks, playing the young Emma Swan in Once Upon a Time, young Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, and young Madison Lake in Malignant. However, Grace finally enjoyed her breakout in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and on TV in The Handmaid’s Tale.

10 Fuller House (2016-2020)

Rose Harbenberger

Mckenna Grace joined the cast of the legacy sequel series Fuller House, following D.J. Tanner (Candace Cameron Bure) and Stephanie Tayloe (Jodie Sweetin) from Full House as they are adults and have kids of their own. The series picks up after D.J.’s husband dies and Stephanie leaves her life in London to return and help her raise her kids. The elder Full House cast members all return, with John Stamos, Bob Saget, and Dave Coulier back.

Grace is in the series as a character named Rose Harbenberger. She is C.J. Harbenberger’s (Steve’s fiancé) daughter on the show and she is the best friend to Max Fuller, D.J.’s second son. If anything, she is comparable to Kimmy (who is also on the show) as the friend who comes over to visit the kids and is almost like an extended member of the family.

9 The Young And The Restless (2013-2015)

Faith Newman

Mckenna Grace’s first major role in her career came in the long-running daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. She played the character of Faith Newman. From 2009 to 2011, babies played the character, the daughter of Nick and Sharon Newman. In 2011, Alyvia Alyn Lind took on the role, but Grace replaced her in 2013. The reason for the change was that Lind had taken on other roles and couldn’t commit to the soap opera.

It was this role that helped Grace get the attention she needed to pick up her role in The Vampire Diaries.

Grace was seven when she took on the role, and she played Faith Newman for two years. However, in 2015, Lind was able to return to the role and she stepped back in with Grace leaving the series. Lind remains in the role to this day, now in her late teenage years on the show. It was this role that helped Grace get the attention she needed to pick up her role in The Vampire Diaries.

8 Captain Marvel (2019)

Young Carol Danvers

In 2019, Mckenna Grace joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it wasn't in a role that would last. She starred as a young Carol Danvers in the movie Captain Marvel in flashback scenes. There were several films and TV shows where Grace played young versions of characters in flashbacks, including playing a young Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, a young Sabrina Spellman in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and a young Caroline Forbes in The Vampire Diaries.

In Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers was a young girl who grew up to be a military pilot and ended up in an accident where she was transported to another planet and trained with the new powers infused in her. Brie Larson played Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, and in the flashback scenes, Mckenna Grace took on the role as her at the age of 13.

7 Designated Survivor (2016-2019)

Penny Kirkman

In 2016, Mckenna Grace got to play a recurring character in a network show that aired at the same time that Fuller House was airing on Netflix. However, this was a very different show, as it was a network drama called Designated Survivor. The series had a terrorist attack that killed the President of the United States and everyone in his line of succession. However, one person was not there when it happened and became the new President.

Kiefer Sutherland plays Thomas Kirkman, the designated survivor who becomes President and has to find a way to lead the country despite his inexperience. MckennaGrace plays Penny Kirkman, the new President’s daughter. She is listed as a recurring character, but she is important to the series as she presents Thomas's personal life and family and helps ground him during his struggles to lead the nation.

6 A Friend Of The Family (2022)

Jan Broberg

In 2022, Mckenna Grace starred in the miniseries A Friend of the Family, a true-crime drama streaming on Peacock. The series is based on the true story of Robert Berchtold, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted Jan Broberg twice in the 1970s. Since the miniseries takes place over different time periods, two people pay Jan, with Mckenna Grace as the older Jan and Hendrix Yancey as the much younger version of the girl.

Showrunner Nick Antosca made the miniseries after reading the book Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story and watching the Abducted in Plain Sight episode that also detailed her kidnappings. The miniseries went to the sources to get the most honest retelling of the events possible, including inviting Jan to give her advice. Critics praised the miniseries, giving it a 92% positive Rotten Tomatoes score, and praised Jake Lacy’s performance as the evil Robert Berchtold.

5 Young Sheldon (2018-2023)

Paige Swanson

In 2018, Mckenna Grace started playing the recurring role of Paige Swanson on Young Sheldon. The series follows Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory when he was a child and was accepted into higher grades thanks to his genius-level intellect. Paige was another 10-year-old genius and was mostly a rival to Sheldon Cooper, although they were also friends when not competing for attention.

Unlike Sheldon, Paige ended up rebelling, dropped out of college, and started to party more, becoming friends with Missy Cooper.

Grace made her debut on Young Sheldon in the second season and immediately proves to be smarter than he is at that time, which makes them quick rivals. However, as she kept appearing on the show through the sixth season, they developed more of a respectful relationship. Unlike Sheldon, Paige ended up rebelling, dropped out of college, and started to party more, becoming friends with Missy Cooper.

4 Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Judy Warren

Mckenna Grace starred in a lot of horror movies as a child actor. The best of these came in 2019 when she took on a role in the sequel Annabelle Comes Home. This was a film in the Conjuring Universe and was the third in the Annabelle series. It is a sequel to both the first movie and its prequel. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are back as Lorraine and Ed Warren, while Mckenna Grace stars as their daughter, Judy.

The movie sees the Warrens hire a woman named Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) to babysit their daughter Judy while they are out on investigations. However, Judy makes the dangerous mistake of releasing the spirit of Annabelle “Bee” Mullins. Despite being young, Judy is the one who knows the dangers and how to defeat and constrain Annabelle and is a key part of saving the day before her mom gets home.

3 Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Phoebe Spengler

Mckenna Grace’s biggest role to date came in the Ghostbusters franchise. She stars as Phoebe Spengler in both Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. She is Egon Spengler’s granddaughter and she ends up as one of the new Ghostbusters, as she has inherited her dad’s brilliant mind and is able to help create the containment devices and come up with plans to help capture the ghosts.

She is a highlight in both movies...

She joins Finn Wolfhard (her brother Trevor), Carrie Coon (her mom Callie), and Paul Rudd (her old teacher Gary) as the new team. She is a highlight in both movies, and while she has a more important role in Frozen Empire, the first movie is much better, both critically and commercially, and it helped relaunch the Ghostbusters franchise for a new generation with Grace as one of its new faces.

2 The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)

Theodora "Theo" Crain (Young)

In 2018, Mckenna Grace starred in the Netflix horror series The Haunting of Hill House by showrunner Mike Flanagan. The series flips between two time frames. The first shows a husband and wife (Henry Thomas and Carla Gugino) as they move into an old home with their three kids and soon realize too late that it is haunted. The second takes place years later, with all the kids scarred from the experience and their mother dead.

The story then has the adult kids return to the house to finish what was started years before. Mckenna Grace plays the child version of Theodora “Theo” Crain, the middle child who grows up to become a child psychologist (played by Kate Siegal as an adult). The series has a 93% Certified Fresh rating on Roten Tomatoes and it won the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Series.

1 The Handmaid's Tale (2021-2022)

Esther Keyes

Mckenna Grace has a role in one of the best critically acclaimed television series in Hulu history. She is part of the cast of The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood. The series tells the story of a dystopian America where a Second American Civil War created a world with a totalitarian society that strips women of all their rights and forces them into roles as only child bearers.

Mckenna Grace received a Primetime Emmy nomination for her performance.

Elisabeth Moss stars as June Osborne, the main character who rises to fight back against this new world order. Mckenna Grace joined the show in its fourth season as a farmer and the teenage (14-year-old) wife of an older Commander Keyes. He allows other commanders to sexually assault her, but she responds by poisoning him and leaving him senile, so she takes control of their household. Mckenna Grace received a Primetime Emmy nomination for her performance.

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