McKenna Grace is undeniably 2025’s breakout powerhouse, solidifying her status as a top-tier rising star with a slate of massive projects. While she’s already a staple of the horror genre (Annabelle to The Haunting of Hill House), this year sees her expanding her empire significantly, leading the highly anticipated adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You and joining the iconic Hunger Games universe as Maysilee Donner in the upcoming prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping and the upcoming Scream 7. But for Grace, no role is more personal or “surreal” than her leap into the world of Fazbear Entertainment. A self-proclaimed “biggest Five Nights at Freddy’s nerd,” her journey from fan-theorist to franchise star is a true full-circle moment for the FNAF community.
Grace admits her desire to be in a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie was simple: she’s a hardcore fan. She read the books, watched fan theories, made her own and even recreated the pizzeria in Minecraft as a kid. So when she finally received the password‑protected pages for her character in the sequel, she was sitting in a nail salon and burst into tears reading them. “I cried in the nail salon over Five Nights at Freddy’s,” she laughed.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, is now available exclusively on digital platforms to buy or rent, follows the return of Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) who attempt to move on, even though the legend of Freddy’s has morphed into a campy local folklore, inspiring the town’s first-ever “Fazfest.” Despite their efforts to protect Mike’s sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), from the truth, her obsession with her “animatronic friends” leads her back to the original 1982 flagship location where a long-forgotten horror—the Marionette—has awakened, fueled by the spirit of Charlotte Emily, begins to command a new generation of “Toy” animatronics to terrorize the town.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
In the film, Grace plays Lisa, the host of the paranormal documentary series Spectral Scoopers. Stepping onto Freddy’s set felt like walking into a world she’d been building in her imagination for years, says Grace. She describes wandering the pizzeria, turning corners to suddenly find massive animatronics like Withered Foxy silently looming in the dark. Often alone on set for a week while shooting later sequences, she spent hours exploring tunnels and psyching herself out.
One of the most intense parts of filming was her possession scene. The actress confirmed the unsettling crawling we see is, in fact, all her. She recalls flying down hallways, jump‑scaring her co‑stars, and doing so much crawling that her leggings were “torn to shreds,” even through multiple layers of tights. At one point she was asked to keep her legs completely stiff and drag herself forward only with her arms, which she compares to Montgomery Gator from the games.
Horror isn’t just work for Grace, it’s home. Growing up on Stephen King books and genre films with her dad, she bonded over horror movies and metal music. She loved Tim Burton, Halloween, gothic romance, and even classics like Nosferatu, all while maintaining a notably “girly” aesthetic in her day‑to‑day life. The contrast only makes her affection for the spooky side stronger.
Even off set, she can’t leave Five Nights at Freddy’s behind. Just the night before the interview, she was playing a FNAF game on Roblox at 2 a.m., scaring herself and her best friend so much they had to stay on the phone to fall asleep.
Grace’s involvement in the FNAF universe has created a “horror multiverse” collision. She is set to star in the upcoming Scream 7 alongside legacy cast icons like Neve Campbell and Matthew Lilliard, who also stars in Five Nights at Freddy’s.
The actress reveals she was “ecstatic” to join the franchise, “because I’ve been such a fan of the Scream franchise for so long. I watched the last few in theatres. I have always been a huge fan of the first few films.”
Photo by Jonny Marlow.
For Grace, working with Lillard is a dream she’s been chasing since her days on the convention circuit. “I’ve known Matt Lillard for a long time from going to Comic Cons and geeking out over him,” she revealed. “My convention agent would always be like, ‘Hey, I put your table next to Matt Lillard’s,’ and I’m like, ‘No, you did not!’ I could just sit next to Matt all weekend.”
This fan-girl energy famously extended to her choice of accessories. Grace carries a “set bag” featuring the faces of Lillard and Skeet Ulrich (the original Scream duo) to every job. While filming, she had a hilariously awkward encounter with Ulrich.
“I didn’t have any scenes with Skeet but he was on set at the same time as me. So I remember one day I was like, rifling through my bag, looking for something—the bag that has his and Matt’s faces on it, it’s my set bag, like I’m not gonna break tradition of bringing it with me to set just because they’re there—I just didn’t expect to see them. So the director brings Skeet over to me and is like, hey, like, McKenna is a big fan. Like, why don’t you guys meet? Let’s all take a picture and I’m like ‘I love what you’re doing right now’, but also, like trying to hide my bag with your face on it.”
As Grace moves from the dark corridors of Freddy Fazbear’s to the meta-slasher streets of Woodsboro, she is cementing herself as more than just a “Scream Queen”—she is the definitive voice of a fan-driven generation. With her ability to transition seamlessly from gritty horror to prestige drama, her trajectory suggests she is truly a rising star, with fans already obsessed with her Hunger Games casting.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is now available exclusively on digital platforms to buy or rent and on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD February 17, 2026.
Feature image by Jonny Marlow.