Ugly Betty and Superstore star America Ferrera plays Pittsburgh nurse and single mom Jenny Campbell in Dumb Money (in limited theaters Sept. 22; in wide release Sept. 29), based on the crazy true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop into the world’s hottest company. As a stock tip became a movement, everyone got rich—until the billionaires fought back, and both sides found their worlds turned upside down. Here are some fun facts about the 39-year-old native Angeleno, Emmy winner and mother of two.

 As Gloria in Barbie last summer, Ferrera delivered the rousing “It is literally impossible to be a woman” monologue, that some say was the emotional high point of the film.

 Ferrera caught the acting bug young. At 10, she played the Artful Dodger in a school production of Oliver!

 She met her husband, director Ryan Piers Williams, when he cast her in his student film while they attended the University of Southern California.

 She made her feature film debut in 2002 in Real Women Have Curves, which was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.

 Ferrera was the first Latina—and the youngest woman, at 23—to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

 She made her film directorial debut with the adaptation of the YA book, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.

 Her 2018 memoir is titled American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures.

 She is an investor in a primarily female group that was awarded a Los Angeles-based franchise in the National Women’s Soccer League, which became Angel City FC in 2022.