Isabela Moner

Isabela Moner was born in Cleveland, Ohio.[3][4] She is the daughter of Katherine, who was born in Lima, Peru, and Patrick Moner, who was born in Louisiana.[3][5] Moner has stated that Spanish was her first language, and she struggled with English when she first started grade school,[5] adding that she considers herself more Peruvian than American.[6] At age 15, Moner was accepted into college.[7]

Moner has said that she wanted to be an actress from a very young age, inspired by movies featuring Shirley Temple and Judy Garland and starting in local community theatre at age 6.[8] Moner made her Broadway debut at the age of 10 in a production of Evita,[9] in which she sang in Spanish with Ricky Martin.[5] She released an album produced by Broadway Records in September 2015 entitled Stopping Time.[10]

Moner first starring performance was as CJ Martin, the lead role on the Nickelodeon television series 100 Things to Do Before High School,[5][9][11] from 2014 to 2016. The same year, she began providing the voice of Kate, one of the main characters in the Dora the Explorer spinoff, Dora and Friends: Into the City!, a role she performed from 2014 to 2017.[12] In 2015 she appeared as Lori Collins in the Nickelodeon Original Movie Splitting Adam.[13] Moner was cast as Sadie, one of the leading roles, in the 2016 Nickelodeon Original Movie Legends of the Hidden Temple.[14][15] In May 2016, Moner was cast in the film Transformers: The Last Knight, which was released in June 2017.[16][17] She voiced Heather in the animated film The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, which was theatrically released on August 11, 2017.[18]

Moner had a major role in the 2018 film Sicario: Day of the Soldado, playing the daughter of a drug cartel head.[19][20] The same year she played Lizzy, the adopted daughter of the characters played by Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne, in the comedy film Instant Family.[21] In 2019, Moner starred as the title character in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, a live action film adaptation of the animated series Dora the Explorer.[22][23] In January 2019 she was cast in the Christmas romantic comedy ensemble film Let It Snow.[24] She will next star opposite Jason Momoa in the film Sweet Girl for Netflix.[25]

On October 14, 2019 Moner announced to her fans via a post on her Instagram account,[26] that she had decided to change her stage name to Isabela Merced, in memory of her late grandmother whom she never met.[27] Moner later explained that she had not legally changed her name and said that it was "just a stage name but it's got a deeper meaning".[28] Her first single, "Papi", was released on October 25, 2019, followed by her first music video released on November 6, 2019.[29] On May 22, 2020, Moner released her debut EP, the better half of me.[30]

• Official website
• Isabela Merced on IMDb