8 Things to Know About Riverdale's Veronica Lodge, aka Camila Mendes

Camila blessed the earth with her presence on June 29, 1994.

The 23-year-old was born in Charlottesville, VA, but spent most her childhood in Florida.

The star speaks Portuguese and English. Her parents are Brazilian, and she lived in the South American country for a year when she was 10. She speaks English with her father and Portuguese with her mother.

The actress graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Her first professional audition was to play J Lo's daughter in Shades of Blue. She lost the role to Sarah Jeffery.

In an interview with Coveteur, Camila said she knew in her gut that playing Veronica Lodge was meant for her. "I definitely relate to Veronica, one, her sense of humor and, two, in her circumstances," she said. "I think I've experienced certain aspects of her life firsthand. I know what it's like to be the new girl because she is the new girl in town and I grew up moving around a lot in my childhood. It was a very unstable life, I never really got to identify with one place, so I was constantly trying to re-identify myself."

Her part on the CW's hit show is her first major role since starting in show business. It's even more special to her because she isn't playing a Latinx stereotype. "Veronica came in and it was the perfect balance," she told Coveteur. "She was Latina! They wanted her to be ethnic, but that wasn't the point of her character. She wasn't a stereotype. She was just an American Latina. And that is how I identify, I don't need to play up anything. I am this character. Everything just kinda fell into place with her."

Lili Reinhart and Camila are super close just like Betty and Veronica are on Riverdale. "Once the walls came down and our inner goofballs began to reveal themselves, we were unstoppable," Camila told J-14. "Now it's almost like we speak our own language."