Isabela Merced
Who was Isabela Merced?
American actress and singer (born 2001)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Isabela Merced (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Isabela Yolanda Moner was born on July 10, 2001, in Cleveland, Ohio, to a Peruvian father and an American mother. In 2019, she started using the professional name Isabela Merced, choosing her maternal grandmother's surname to better connect with her heritage. She was educated through the Ohio Virtual Academy, studying online to fit her early start in the entertainment industry. From a young age, she showed a strong talent for performance, starting in theater before moving to TV and film.
Before Fame
Growing up in Cleveland, Isabela was passionate about performing arts from a young age, appearing in stage productions, including a Broadway run of Evita when she was notably young. Her family supported her ambitions, and enrolling in the Ohio Virtual Academy gave her the flexibility to go to auditions and take professional opportunities without being tied to a traditional school schedule. Her Peruvian heritage was important in shaping her identity as a performer, and she became bilingual, which would later be central to several of her major roles.
Key Achievements
- Starred as the title character in Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), earning widespread recognition as a leading actress in a major studio adventure film.
- Led the Nickelodeon series 100 Things to Do Before High School from 2014 to 2016, establishing her profile as a television actress.
- Appeared in major Hollywood productions including Transformers: The Last Knight, Instant Family, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado, all before the age of 18.
- Played Hawkgirl in the DCU relaunch film Superman (2025), marking her entry into a major superhero franchise.
- Joined the cast of the acclaimed HBO series The Last of Us for its second season in 2025, further expanding her profile in prestige television.
Did You Know?
- 01.She appeared on Broadway in the musical Evita, performing the role of Young Eva, before she turned 12 years old.
- 02.She legally changed her professional surname from Moner to Merced in 2019, adopting her maternal grandmother's name to honor her Peruvian and American roots.
- 03.She is fluent in both English and Spanish, which contributed to her casting as the lead in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, where she performed in both languages.
- 04.She provided the voice of Izabella in Transformers: The Last Knight, and also appeared on screen in the same film, making her one of the few performers to both act and voice a character in the franchise.
- 05.In 2025, she joined the cast of the HBO series The Last of Us for its second season while simultaneously portraying Hawkgirl in the DC Universe film Superman.