Xochitl Gomez

Xochitl Gomez spent years auditioning for voice-over roles without booking one. Her first finally arrives on November 6, when she joins Bill Hader and America Ferrera in The Cat in the Hat, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s first full-length feature. For Gomez, who started acting at five, it is another first in a career that has already included Marvel, a Dancing with the Stars trophy and, this year, her first leading role in a feature film.

That lead came in April with Felipe Vargas’ horror thriller Hive for Tubi. Gomez plays Sasha, an anxious teenager whose babysitting job in a gated suburb takes a terrifying turn. She had signed on to the original short roughly three years earlier and returned when Vargas expanded the story into a feature. One reason was the character herself. “This is a Latina character that is at the forefront,” she told ¡HOLA!

Raised in Los Angeles by parents of Mexican descent, Gomez grew up acting in the same industry she is now beginning to question more openly. She has pointed to the gap between Latino moviegoers and the roles available to Latino actors, noting that Latinos account for roughly 30 percent of U.S. movie-ticket buyers but receive only a fraction of leading and supporting parts.

© Axelle/Bauer-Griffin

In 2026, she put her name behind that argument. After the film adaptation of Deep Cuts cast a white actress in a role written as Latina, Gomez helped organize an open letter that gathered more than 150 signatures. It was a public stand from a young actress who is still competing for many of those same opportunities herself.

Her place in Hollywood had already changed dramatically with America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which brought Gomez into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then, at 17, she showed audiences another side of herself when she won Dancing with the Stars, competing through a sprained ankle. September brought another milestone, with Gomez recognized among Hollywood’s rising young talent of 2026 at a Gala presented by Elle magazine.

© Michael Buckner

Now The Cat in the Hat takes her somewhere new again. Her first voice role adds animation to a résumé that already spans superhero films, horror and television. And that sense of discovery is not limited to her work.

Gomez is also making a life beyond Hollywood, splitting her time with Spain and treating the experience as her own version of studying abroad. It is a chance to experience more of the world while figuring out what she wants from this next chapter. She is choosing new roles, speaking up about the ones she believes Latinas should be playing and deciding for herself what comes next.