Since starring in the title role of one of the best CW shows, Jane the Virgin, Gina Rodriguez has become one of the most versatile, recognizable, and inspirational talents of her generation. The Latinx Golden Globe winner really can do it all, as one could tell by checking out some of the best Gina Rodriguez movies and TV shows available on streaming, for digital rental, or as a purchase on physical media. The following is a list of our own recommendations on the subject, unsurprisingly starting with the TV series that made her a household name.
Jane The Virgin (2014-2019)
A young, devoutly religious woman (Gina Rodriguez) who has chosen not to have sex until after she marries is thrown for a loop when she discovers that she is pregnant, after her doctor artificially inseminates her by accident.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez TV shows: For five hilarious and heartfelt seasons and 100 chapters on The CW, Gina Rodriguez led the Jane the Virgin cast as the title character - the career-making role that earned her a Golden Globe win and two subsequent nominations, as well as nearly unanimous acclaim from critics and audiences for her irresistibly charming performance.
Stream Jane The Virgin on Netflix.
Rent/buy Jane The Virgin digitally on Amazon.
Buy Jane The Virgin on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Star (2017)
In order to guide a pregnant woman (Gina Rodriguez) and her husband (Zachary Levi) to safety before she gives birth to a child with a messianic destiny, a brave donkey (former The Walking Dead cast member Steven Yeun) enlists the help of various other animals to complete his mission.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: While she was still playing the title role of Jane the Virgin, Gina Rodriguez was cast as the Virgin Mary in The Star - a funny, star-studded, animated retelling of the very first Christmas (the birth of Jesus Christ) told mostly from the point of view of the non-humans involved.
Rent/buy The Star digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Star on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Filly Brown (2012)
A young, aspiring rap artist (Gina Rodriguez) receives the chance to make a career out of her honest, poetic rhymes and help her financially desperate family, only to second guess her next step when the record producer who discovered her seems more interested in selling her body than her talent.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: One of Gina Rodriguez’s first leading roles and strongest performances was as the title character of Filly Brown - a powerful parable about the high cost of fame that features a star-studded cast of other great Latino actors and some killer hip-hop tracks.
Stream Filly Brown on Starz.
Buy Filly Brown on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
The safety concerns of the Chief Electrical Engineer (Mark Wahlberg) at one of the world’s largest oil rigs unfortunately become reality when a flaw in the system has horrifying results, costing many lives and leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: Gina Rodriguez gives another powerful performance as Andrea Fleytas, a real-life surviving crew member of the titular oil rig, in Deepwater Horizon - director Peter Berg’s immersive dramatization of the tragic events that caused the BP Oil Spill in April 2010.
Rent/buy Deepwater Horizon digitally on Amazon.
Buy Deepwater Horizon on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Annihilation (2018)
Upon the surprise, unexplainable return of her presumed dead husband (Oscar Isaac), a biologist (Academy Award winner Natalie Portman) tries to find answers by volunteering for an expedition into the last place he was known to be: a shimmering environmental disaster zone that only raises more, increasingly concerning, questions.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: Deepwater Horizon proved to be the beginning of an impressive run of action movies starring Gina Rodriguez, which she continued by playing an outgoing and resilient paramedic in Annihilation - one of the most magnificently surreal, conceptually brilliant, and one of the best horror movies in recent memory, which writer and director Alex Garland loosely based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel.
Stream Annihilation on Paramount+.
Rent/buy Annihilation digitally on Amazon.
Buy Annihilation on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Miss Bala (2019)
An innocent woman (Gina Rodriguez) is forced to take on the ruthless drug cartel, corrupt police officers, and suspicious DEA agents who are on her trail in order to rescue a friend who was kidnapped from a nightclub in Mexico.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: A year after Annihilation, Gina Rodriguez was cast as lead of her own action thriller, titled Miss Bala - a gritty English-language adaptation of the 2011 Spanish crime drama of the same name from writer Gareth Dunnet Alococer (scribe of the upcoming Blue Beetle movie) and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.
Rent/buy Miss Bala digitally on Amazon.
Buy Miss Bala on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Carmen Sandiego (2019-2021)
A woman trained in the art of thievery since childhood (Gina Rodriguez) travels the world with her loyal gang to retrieve items stolen by the criminal organization she escaped, while on the run from the staunch employees of a detective agency.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez TV shows: In the same year Miss Bala was released, Gina Rodriguez was cast as the lead of her own animated adventure series, Carmen Sandiego - one of the best animated shows on Netflix, which was adapted from the hit series of video games that first came out in the mid-1980s.
Stream Carmen Sandiego on Netflix.
Someone Great (2019)
After a devastating, bewildering breakup from her longtime boyfriend (Lakeith Stanfield), an aspiring music journalist (Gina Rodriguez) embarks on one last big outing with her two closest friends (Brittany Snow and DeWanda Wise) in New York City, before she heads to San Francisco for her dream job.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: Another notable (but a bit less family-friendly) Netflix original that saw Gina Rodriguez in the lead role was Someone Great - a fun romantic comedy that is really about friendship, and actually inspired Taylor Swift to write the song “Death By a Thousand Cuts” from her album, Lover.
Stream Someone Great on Netflix.
Kajillionaire (2020)
A woman’s (Evan Rachel Wood) close-knit relationship with her con artist parents (Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger) comes to a head as they begin to plan the biggest heist of their lives, and invite a young stranger (Gina Rodriguez) to help them.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: Following Carmen Sandiego, Gina Rodriguez would be cast in another, far more adult title about traveling thieves called Kajillionaire - an inventive dramedy about choosing between what your family wants and what you really want for yourself, from acclaimed writer and director Miranda July.
Stream Kajillionaire on HBO Max.
Buy Kajillionaire digitally on Amazon.
Buy Kajillionaire on DVD on Amazon.
Scoob! (2020)
Four young friends with a knack for solving mysteries, and their talking canine, take on their most difficult and important case yet, the results of which could determine the fate of the world.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez movies: Also following Carmen Sandiego, Gina Rodriguez would be cast as another iconic, adventurous, animated hero (namely Velma Dinkley) in Scoob! - a new, 3-D animated take on the young members of Mystery Inc. and Scooby-Doo, that also sees Rodriguez reunite with Deepwater Horizon’s Mark Wahlberg as Blue Falcon.
Stream Scoob! on HBO Max.
Rent/buy Scoob! digitally on Amazon.
Buy Scoob! on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Big Mouth (2018-2021)
A group of teenagers struggle to navigate first crushes, academic prosperity, bullies, and plenty more nightmares of a somewhat exaggerated nature that tend to come with growing up.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez TV shows: Before Carmen Sandiego, Gina Rodriguez would be cast on another animated Netflix TV show in the recurring role of a girl (coincidentally) named Gina Alvarez, who becomes an object of envy for her female classmates and desire for her male classmates due to her “early developments” on Big Mouth - a thoroughly hilarious and often thought-provoking exploration of the perils of adolescence.
Diary Of A Future President (2020-2021)
A Cuban-American girl (Tess Romero) struggles to navigate middle school, big changes to her family, and more, that will end up preparing her for her destiny as the leader of the free world.
Why it’s one of the best Gina Rodriguez TV shows: Following her casting on Big Mouth, Gina Rodriguez starred on, executive produced, and directed a few episodes of another show about the perils of adolescence, with an intriguing twist, called Diary of a Future President - a Disney+ original series and one of the best modern Latinx TV shows, on which Rodriguez plays the central character’s presidential future self and imaginary muse.
Stream Diary Of A Future President on Disney+.
Unfortunately, Diary of a Future President was cancelled by Disney+ after two seasons, but Gina Rodriguez has plenty more in the pipeline to keep her busy. Her upcoming 2022 movies to look out for are the Amazon original rom-com, I Want You Back, and the Netflix original rom-com, Players. She will also lend her voice to an animated series for Netflix called Lost Ollie and a Spotify-exclusive podcast inspired by DC Comics called Batman Unburied as Barbara Gordon (Batgirl).
