If you thought Camila Mendes came out of nowhere…well you’d be right. Although the Brasiliera by way of Plantation, Florida was pursuing higher education at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she was pretty much like every other aspiring artist in New York, at least until she graduated. In just her first year as a post-grad, she burst onto the television scene in her very first job, inhabiting the role of Veronica Lodge on the CW’s reimagining of the Archie comic serial Riverdale. The show has been an overnight success and Mendes and overnight sensation.