“Phase 1 of my master plan is complete,” joked Inde Navarrette (Tucson, Arizona, 25 years old) on August 10 in an interview with the independent magazine Schön! The actress was referring to her meteoric rise thanks to her leading role in the highly successful Obsession, her film debut in the horror movie that has grossed over 426 million dollars from a budget of less than one. Her unsettling physical and psychological portrayal of Nikki has won over both audiences and critics alike, earning her best actress awards at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Astra Midseason Movie Awards. “I’ve had many meetings since Obsession came out,” the actress told Variety in late July. Just one movie and a few months of fame have been enough for everyone to want Inde Navarrette in their projects, even confirming her big leap from independent cinema to the most mainstream franchise of the moment: “As Rogue… Inde Navarrete,” announced Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, during the presentation on August 14 of the new cast of the reboot of X-Men at the massive D23 2026.
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Her appearance on stage at the Anaheim Convention Center (California) was met with cheers and applause, although some fans of the mutant saga have shared their disappointment online after weeks of rumors that the role of Rogue would go to Cailee Spaeny. The next day, several fans waited for her outside her hotel to get autographs and someone asked her how it felt. “About what?” she replied calmly. “About Rogue!” said the fan. “Oh, it’s an incredible feeling, it’s a great honor,” the smiling actress responded, seeming to care little about the debate that might arise around her characters.
The naturalness that Navarrette exudes despite her growing popularity is one of the reasons why, in general, she fares well in articles, interviews, and social media comments. “What would an ideal day/night off set be like for you?” the Schön! journalist asked her. “Going to the bar in my neighborhood with my friends and playing a couple of pool games. Neighborhood spots are the best because you can watch people,” she said. Before Obsession, the actress had about 220,000 followers on Instagram, where she now has over 4.7 million. “The other day, a girl told me my online profile was very random and when I went to apologize, she immediately said: ‘No! Don’t change it, I love it!’. I think we should all be who we are on social media. The right people will understand,” she defended in another part of the interview.
On her Instagram account — where she has set her professional profile not as an actress or artist, but as a “food store” — there is a link to her Threads profile, even more casual; and on her Threads profile, there is a link to her Twitch channel. Before becoming Hollywood’s new obsession, she spent part of her free time walking dogs and in her gamer facet, sharing live streams while playing Call of Duty, Fortnite, or The Last of Us. According to what she told Variety, she decided to delete the evidence, but fans were faster and now there are examples of streams circulating on YouTube or TikTok. “I got scared. I was starting a new stage in my life and thought: ‘What if people see I was a streamer and now don’t take me seriously? It wasn’t true, but I panicked and deleted many videos. It’s very funny because now they’re everywhere, I have no idea how people found them and re-uploaded them, but I’m happy because I see they keep them with a lot of affection. My fear was absurd,” she admitted to the film-specialized media.
@inde_navarrette Link in Bio 👀 #obsessionmovie #thelastofus #fypシ
♬ original sound – Inde Navarrette
Of Australian mother and Mexican father, Navarrette is the second of five siblings. Her childhood was marked by constant family moves — by age 15 she had attended 11 different schools — due to her father’s military career, who was a marine. She started high school at Mount Whitney High School in Visalia, California, and later moved to Los Angeles to finish her studies and try to make her way as an actress. She was 18 when she debuted in the comedy series Denton’s Death Date in 2019 and, a year later, joined the fourth season of the Netflix hit 13 Reasons Why with a supporting role.
Her other most relevant role before Obsession was Sarah Cushing in Superman & Lois. She appeared in 47 of the 53 episodes aired between 2021 and 2024, but her character was cut in the last season due to budget cuts. “Honestly, I thought a lot about that time and, although I was sad not to be part of the main cast, it came at the perfect moment. It allowed me to participate in Trap House [an action movie released in 2025] with Capstone, the production company that financed Obsession. They said: ‘If Inde gets involved in this project, we’d love to see her in the other one too,” she confessed to Cosmopolitan last June about this fruitful twist of fate.
The actress’s real name is Danielle Fabiola Navarrette, but her mother gave her the nickname Inde because she was very independent as a child — “My mother wanted to do my hair and help me with everything, and I just said: ‘No, mommy, I want to do it myself’” — and in the end, she adopted it as her stage name. “People think it’s because of Indy 500 [the Indianapolis car race] or Indiana Jones, and sometimes I just say: ‘Yes!’,” she admitted in another interview. That independent spirit is another reason why major studios are now vying for the actress, seeking to bring freshness to their projects and attract a younger audience. In X-Men, scheduled for release on May 5, 2028, she will share the screen with other young rising stars like Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) and Kit Connor (Heartstopper). Before that, true to her origins as a master of tension, in 2027 she will star in Invertigo, a thriller by German Matthias Hoene — also produced by Capstone — about a group of teenagers trapped on a roller coaster hundreds of meters high.
But her latest release was not a movie or a series, but the music video for Sombr’s song My Body Isn’t Ready, in which she acts alongside the singer. Sombr is part of the same independent music scene where Navarrette’s supposed boyfriend, Nick Aiello (26 years old), moves. The actress and the musician have not publicly spoken about their relationship, but on August 16 they were photographed walking hand in hand in Los Angeles. “Even if you’re dating someone else, never stop dedicating time to yourself,” Navarrette advised in The Cut in early June.
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Almost seven months before the next Oscars ceremony, which will be held on March 14, 2027, Variety has already started making predictions about possible nominees. In the best actress category, they currently have five candidates. Julianne Moore — already a winner of the statuette in 2015 for Still Alice — leads the ranking for her role in The Debut and Navarrette is in fourth place with her film debut. The internet has already launched a campaign in favor of the Tucson native winning the statuette. “I’m a very sensitive person, so I try to protect my peace of mind. I don’t want to get too excited about something that might or might not happen. So I prefer to take it day by day and get excited about what each day brings me,” she said in Complex when asked in June about the possibility of being nominated. “What fills me with pride is that I love Nikki very much and I love that other people love her too. To be honest, that’s enough for me,” she responded to GoldDerby on the same question.
Navarrette has managed to make everyone adore a disturbing, violent, and completely deranged character. She has gone from being fired from a TV series due to lack of budget to being signed by the most lucrative and highest-grossing film studio worldwide. “I want to prove that Obsession was not just a fluke success. This is something I love and want to keep doing, but of course, that will take time. I want people to take that time to trust that I have that ability,” she said in an interview with Nylon published on July 1. “I also want to fail spectacularly in public and do something people don’t like, but maybe I do,” she added “laughing,” according to the publication. Audiences, critics, and half the internet are eager to know phase 2 of her master plan.
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