But Odessa A’zion loves L.A. — and L.A. loves her back.
The Hollywood progeny has turned acting prodigy, appearing in two high-profile hits back-to-back: Rachel Sennott’s HBO series “I Love LA” and Josh Safdie’s 1950s-set drama film “Marty Supreme.” In the former, she plays an influencer on the rise who seeks to gain fame as a trendsetter in Los Angeles; in the latter, A’zion portrays the doting partner in crime to Timothée Chalamet’s titular grifter.
In both, she explodes off the screen with a portrayal of sexy chaos in one and sexy fraudster in the other.
Reached on Wednesday morning after winning a nod for Best Supporting Actress at the Actor Awards (previously the SAG Awards) for “Marty Supreme” — her first major acting nomination — A’zion, 25, blurted out, “Girl, I don’t even know!
“My roommate knocked on my door and was like, ‘Your team is calling, you’ve gotta get on the phone,’” she told TheWrap. “My exes’ moms are texting me.”
In a calmer moment during an interview in December, A’zion — who takes her stage name from her middle name Zion but is the daughter of Pamela Adlon — reflected on her latest streak.
“It exceeded any expectations, and I had high expectations because I f–king love Josh and Ronnie (Bronstein),” A’zion said of working with the audacious and unwaveringly deranged script for “Marty Supreme,” which opened wide over Christmas and is on track to become A24’s highest-grossing film ever at $75 million worldwide.
“They’re just such incredible writers and creators and filmmakers, and I knew that, whatever they made, it was going to be insane,” she said. “But I didn’t know it was going to be this next-level crazy.”
With both projects in the zeitgeist, A’zion has become the subject of both awards and social media attention, gaining buzz and acclaim for her late-2025 double bill.
Exes’ moms aren’t the only ones talking about the up-and-coming actress. A top talent agent told TheWrap that, after this one-two punch, A’zion’s career trajectory can be summed up in three letters: H-O-T.
“She’s on those lists,” the agent said.
Becoming supreme
Odessa A’zion plays half of one of 2025’s most stressful relationships in “Marty Supreme,” opposite Chalamet as Rachel Mizler, Marty Mauser’s lifelong “situationship” in 1950s New York.
Safdie’s latest film, co-written with Bronstein, follows Marty’s dogged pursuit of becoming a table-tennis legend, stopping at nothing to meet his ambitions. Though their goals may differ, Rachel proves similarly relentless in her own quest.
“Marty is so determined and wants no one to hold him back, and he’s set on his goal,” A’zion told TheWrap. “And Rachel, her goal is that freedom that she feels she’ll get by being with Marty. She knows that they’re meant to be, and she wants to help him get to where he needs to be to accept (the couple).”
The role came as a total surprise for the actress. A’zion first heard about “Marty Supreme” when she received a phone call from casting director Jennifer Venditti, who remembered her from an old audition for “Euphoria.” “This is why I think it’s so important to go to every audition,” she said. “You never know who’s going to remember you from something.”
Like many a Safdie/Bronstein picture, “Marty Supreme” throws audiences into a blender of terrible choices and high-stress situations. Marty Mauser’s madcap hunt for table tennis glory features many subplots and life-altering excursions, with Rachel being only one piece of the manic pie.
As intense as “Marty Supreme” is for the viewer, A’zion said it’s even more taxing for the actors. She pointed to one explosive moment in the third act as particularly nerve-racking.
“There’s a shootout going on, but I’m sitting still in a car with this giant weighted belly on, pregnant, and it’s freezing cold and I have to act like it’s not cold, and all of a sudden I’m hyperventilating because I got shot,” she said. “Scenes like that are hard, but the anxiety helps, you know? It keeps your heart racing, and that’s so important with this movie.”
Thankfully, Chalamet proved a more supportive partner than Marty. When she had to navigate a whirlwind of emotions in front of a full crew in a hospital scene, she said Chalamet held her hand the entire time. “Timothée was so great in that scene. He was like, ‘You got it. Just ignore everyone around you and do it.’”
A strong partnership between these actors helps sell the relationship between Rachel and Marty, a pair of mutual grifters who are compelled to drift back into each other’s orbit. A’zion knew that Rachel added a degree of much-needed heart to “Marty Supreme,” humanizing a deeply flawed man who already considers himself one of the greats.
“It allows us to love Marty as well because of how much she loves Marty and believes in Marty,” A’zion said. “I just think that their relationship is really special and important, and it’s one of those f–king toxic relationships where you just keep going back to each other but you love each other so much, and you can’t not be in each other’s lives.”
“Marty Supreme” brought A’zion a bigger platform than she’d ever seen before — both at the box office and on the awards circuit.
“I’ve done a lot of projects. I have never been able to continue seeing the cast and crew as often as I have with this,” she said. “That is really, really nice, to be able to kind of draw out the ‘Marty Supreme’ experience with them. Usually, you have the wrap party, and that’s kind of the last time you’re ever gonna be with that group of people.”
She loves L.A.
A’zion may have gotten her big break in 2025, but she’s been around showbiz for awhile.
The actress was born Odessa Adlon, the daughter of “Better Things” creator Pamela Adlon and German filmmaker Felix Adlon. Her grandfather, Percy Adlon, directed such films as “Five Last Days” (winner of the Golden Lion), “Baghdad Café” (winner of two César Awards) and “Rosalie Goes Shopping.”
But things didn’t blow up for A’zion immediately. She picked up minor roles in the 2010s, appearing in an episode of her mom’s “Better Things,” an arc of “Nashville” and the 13-episode comedy “Fam.” Her early 2020s were characterized by appearances in a number of underseen, independent and COVID-affected films: “The Inhabitant,” 2022’s “Hellraiser” reboot and “Am I OK?” among them.
A’zion’s name started picking up buzz in early November when she appeared in the new HBO comedy “I Love LA.” A’zion stars opposite Sennott as Tallulah Stiel, a skintight-clothed influencer (and unfortunate queer icon on a Ritz Crackers mural) who moves from New York to Los Angeles. It’s a firecracker performance, one that mixes manic Gen Z comedy with increasing depth as the series progresses — and meets Sennott on her level every step of the way.
“You either have chemistry or you don’t have chemistry, and Rachel and I just had really good chemistry in life and bounce off of each other really well, improv-wise,” A’zion told TheWrap in November.
It was a career boost that mirrored Sennott’s own rise to fame, but A’zion’s “It Girl” status coalesced more quickly, thanks in large part to her double dose of high-profile projects acting and holding her own against two established talents. “I Love LA” (already renewed for a second season) had only released its finale four days before A’zion ping ponged back onto audiences’ screens in “Marty Supreme.”
“It’s very overwhelming. I’m super, super grateful,” she told TheWrap in November. “It’s been crazy balancing [it all], but I feel really, really lucky to be a part of both things and for them to be so different and satisfy both parts of the acting spectrum.”
A new star
On the eve of her anointment as an Actor Award nominee, A’zion attended a screening of “Marty Supreme” followed by a Q&A. As Mikey Madison (last year’s Best Actress winner who played a similarly hard-talking New Yorker in “Anora”) spoke of A’zion’s talents and accomplishments, the actress began to shy away from the spotlight — hugging Madison from behind, hiding in her awards predecessor’s shadow, picking at the table beside them with her nail.
She adopted the energy of someone who doesn’t know what to do with themselves as “Happy Birthday” is sung around them — a relatable feeling, though perhaps at odds with the level of stardom she’s quickly attained.
“I get shy,” A’zion later admitted during the Q&A. “Which is not great for the job I have.”
Once the Q&A started in earnest, A’zion treated it as an almost interactive exercise with the crowd, calling on them to ask if they’d seen Hitchcock films she used to study for “Marty Supreme” or could recall the feeling of being hung up on a loser. Dressed in a white collared shirt under a baggy black sweater, the actress rummaged through a mental recollection of keepsakes she stole from the Safdie set — a crushed orange ping pong ball, a series of hair clips, a patch from a bullet wound — to remember the project that’s brought her such praise.
“It’s hard for me to be like, ‘I’m awesome,’” she said in the Q&A. “But I’m working on it.”
Though she excels at the part, A’zion needn’t be typecast as the audacious wild child after this stellar 2025 run. A different character emerges when speaking to her in person — one who’s more soft-spoken, careful and, above all, grateful.
Since hurtling into the spotlight, A’zion has quickly found herself at the center of strange online discourse cycles. Social media speculation raged over whether the actress’ massive mop of curly hair was a wig and whether a photo of her at age 17 in an IDF t-shirt (mixed with her Jewish upbringing and an intensely literal reading of her last name) meant she was a Zionist. The actress has since addressed both conversations in public.
“debunking!!” A’zion commented on Instagram in response to the latter. “not a zio 
”
As for the hair, A’zion is aware of the online chatter, but told a red carpet reporter she couldn’t afford to wear a wig all the time even if she wanted to. “I’ve heard wigs can go up to $20,000 or $30,000, are you f–king kidding me? I don’t even have a hair and makeup (team) and stylist because I’m saving my money.”
Despite their many differences, there are a lot of similarities between A’zion’s “Marty Supreme” and “I Love LA” characters — both compelling mixes of headstrong and insecure, both fighting to get what’s theirs in a hustler’s world. When talking to her, it’s clear that A’zion has a deep affinity for both.
“Rachel is a really loyal, caring person, but she’s also really smart, and she takes no bulls—t,” A’zion said of her “Marty” role. “She will do whatever it takes to protect herself and her family.”
For awhile, A’zion was afraid of even seeing “Marty Supreme” in full, with Safdie having to convince her to “face her fears” to attend the New York Film Festival.
“Watching it in a theater was an unbelievable experience,” A’zion said, “and I’m happy that I’m not in 100% of the movie because I could really sit back and watch it.”
The actress is currently set to appear in 2026’s “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85” animated spinoff, and she will return in the second season of “I Love LA.” With an Actors Award nomination as a notch in her belt, only time will tell what comes next from there.
Umberto Gonzalez and Loree Seitz contributed reporting to this story.
A version of this story first ran in the Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
The post Odessa A’zion Is the New ‘Marty Supreme,’ ‘I Love LA’ It Girl: ‘My Exes’ Moms Are Texting Me’ appeared first on TheWrap.
