Netflix Gallery: 2/13
Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina Spellman
Kernan Shipka stars as Sabrina Spellman, and she's absolutely perfect in the role. When she was cast, she was almost 19, making her the only teen to actually star as a teen in a long time. (It's been a running joke among fans that the Riverdale cast look nothing like the high schoolers they portray, which might help make some certain scenes a little less awkward.) In fact, the character is just about three years younger than Shipka. When Shipka auditioned, she had long brown hair. After the audition, they asked her to dye her hair blonde and she was fine with that (she had been a blonde before.)
Shipka has starred in numerous roles before this one. You might remember her from Sofia the First (Oona), Neo Yokio (Helenist), Feud (B.D. Merrill), Fan Girl, but especially Mad Men. On Mad Men she played the role of Sally Draper, and important role in the show where she appeared in 89 episodes. (She joked with Glamour that Peggy would definitely have joined the coven to "stick it to the man.") This no doubt helped her get her current role.
She's also been on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and she voiced Jinora on The Legend of Korra. She played herself on Don't Trust the B, and was the "tantrum child" on six episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! She's also appeared on Heroes as a little girl on fire, on MADtv as an upset child, and on Monk as a girl customer in 2006 (one of her first roles.) She has said that the workload for Sabrina was crazy and wonderful, but the amount of hours she had to work were certainly stressful. She has also spent a lot of time with the Riverdale cast, which we're hoping means a crossover soon.
As an interesting trivia note, she apparently has a black belt in Taekwondo which she earned in July 2012, according to IMDB, which no doubt helped her role on the show. And she's appeared in more than 20 commercials.
She was born in Chicago to a real estate developer, and her mom was once the queen of Chicago's St. Patrick's Day parade, IMDB notes. They relocated to Los Angeles when she was six to help her career.
According to Netflix, "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina imagines the origin and adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, the occult and, of course, witchcraft. Tonally in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, this adaptation finds Sabrina wrestling to reconcile her dual nature — half-witch, half-mortal — while standing against the evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit." Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who also serves as chief creative officer of Archie Comics, penned the script for the series. Aguirre-Sacasa will executive produce alongside Riverdale collaborators Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater and Lee Toland Krieger. The drama hails from Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Productions. The show's close relationship with Riverdale means we might see some crossovers in the future.