Odessa A’zion’s first acting roles were at summer camp. “I was always the creature,” she tells Highsnobiety. “Anytime they needed somebody running around the stage on all fours, it was me.” Barefoot, bald, bloody — the stranger the part, the better. “I was a fucking weird kid.”

Eventually, A’zion graduated from her creature days. Her breakout role was in 2017 as a dreadlocked teen in Nashville, and a slew of projects followed: the CBS show Fam and films Am I OK?, Good Girl Jane, and the Jennifer Esposito–directed Fresh Kills. Then, last year, the 25-year-old got a call from Jennifer Venditti, the legendary casting director, who asked if she could record an audition tape for director Josh Safdie. He was starting work on the A24-produced Marty Supreme, a film about the life and career of professional ping-pong player Marty Reisman, starring Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Tyler, The Creator. “I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’” A’zion says.

Odessa A’zion’s first acting roles were at summer camp. “I was always the creature,” she says. “Anytime they needed somebody running around the stage on all fours, it was me.” Barefoot, bald, bloody — the stranger the part, the better. “I was a fucking weird kid.”

Soon enough, A’zion will be everywhere; she also stars in Rachel Sennott’s HBO comedy series I Love LA, which comes out in November. For the second cover of Highsnobiety’s fall 2025 issue, writer Madeline Cash flew to Los Angeles to spend time with the starlet and found an unbrushed iconoclast, all nervous energy and instinct, resisting refinement at every turn — someone who’d rather be herself than fit the Hollywood mold. In A’zion’s words: “let freaks be freaks.” 

© Aidan Cullen / Highsnobiety