Jessica Darrow

Biography

Jess Darrow (born January 7, 1995) is an American actor and singer best known for voicing the character Luisa Madrigal in Disney's Encanto and for playing Mikki Easton in Fifteen-Love.

Early life

Darrow was born in Miami, Florida. They are of Cuban descent. As a teenager, they watched Disney films and listened to songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Darrow attended and graduated from Rutgers University.

Career

Darrow's first film role was Sarah in the 2019 film Feast of the Seven Fishes, directed by Robert Tinnell. They rose to fame in 2021 acting in the Disney animated feature film Encanto as the voice of Luisa Madrigal. They sang one of the film's most popular songs, "Surface Pressure", which was certified platinum by the RIAA and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 2022. Darrow voiced Mimi in Grand Theft Auto Online's 2021 update "Los Santos Tuners."

Personal life

Darrow is nonbinary. They have used they/them and elle/le/e pronouns since December 2025. In an interview for Deadline Hollywood, Darrow voiced their support of the LGBT community in the wake of the Parental Rights in Education Act passage in Miami, where they were born, "Here I am being queer and gorgeous, and I'm on the red carpet, and I'm very happy to represent fellow gorgeous queer people."