Ellie Alves

Ellie is a fourteen-year-old aspiring filmmaker in Los Angeles, sharper and more self-sufficient than most adults around her. Left largely on her own while her older sister works, she hustles for movie money, trades quick-witted banter at the corner store, and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the new guy behind the counter. She wants to be taken seriously.

Ortega plays precocity without cuteness — Ellie's cynicism reads as armor, not quirk, and her film-nerd enthusiasm feels genuinely lived-in rather than written to impress. The character works because the show trusts a teenager to be the smartest, most clear-eyed person in a room full of adults lying to themselves and each other.