If you’re the kind of TV fan who gets totally hooked on a character’s journey, drop everything because Paulina Chávez is about to take you for a wild ride. Her star has shot up so fast it’s hard to believe she’s only in her early twenties. Yet here she is, ready to ignite Landman Season 2 as Ariana with the kind of fire only a next-gen Latina star could bring.
Now, you might remember Paulina as “the kid genius”—this all started with her lead in The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia. She was 18, playing a 15-year-old rocket scientist slaying the sitcom game for Netflix, with Mario Lopez producing and Eva Longoria sometimes calling the shots behind the camera. The show, pure positive energy, made everyone notice. Yes, it was funny. But more importantly, it flipped the script. A Latina in STEM? Genius! Literally.
This role was no one-off, either. Early buzz around Ashley Garcia was wild. Reviews and Twitter threads exploded with praise for giving kids — and adults, honestly — a geeky, lovable Latina protagonist in STEM. Everyone from NBC News to parents’ blogs raced to comment. They called it “groundbreaking” and “refreshingly wholesome.” The show itself wrapped after a single season and a Christmas special in late 2020, but Paulina’s performance stuck in everyone’s minds.
What’s even cooler is how she stood out in interviews, talking openly about what it meant to play Ashley. In 2020, Paulina told Remezcla, “Ashley is super smart, but she’s also just a regular teenager.” She wanted young Latinas to see themselves front and center, not just as sidekicks or stereotypes. And viewers? They noticed.
But sitcom stardom didn’t define her — the girl jumped genres fast. By 2022, she’d scored the role of Flora in Netflix’s “Fate: The Winx Saga.” If you followed the cartoon, you know Flora is a total fan favorite and, yes, also canonically Latina (animation fans clapped for hours). Paulina’s casting caused a mini-Internet celebration. Fan forums and Variety praised her for matching the animated Flora’s warmth and strength. She dove into the role headfirst, adding both humor and gravity. So, from multicam laughs to moody, supernatural drama, Paulina proved she could do just about anything.
And then, as if collecting hot roles by the handful, she landed on a Taylor Sheridan set. Enter: Landman on Paramount+, 2024. This show is gritty, all about oil, loss, power, and the secrets buried under the dusty roads of West Texas. You don’t get more “serious drama” than this — think Friday Night Lights but grittier, oilier, and with Oscar winners swinging for the fences.
Let’s talk Ariana. In Landman, Chávez plays her with a mix of toughness and raw emotion. Ariana’s journey? Not easy. She’s a young widow in West Texas, blindsided by her husband’s death in an oil rig explosion. The show doesn’t shy away from grief — nor from the daily fight to survive as a single mom in a boomtown shaped by oil. As Ariana, Paulina dials in every bit of resilience, heartbreak, and spark. And viewers feel it.
It’s not just us saying it. In a 2025 interview, Paulina told Town & Country Magazine that she felt “pure pride and responsibility” putting Latina women from West Texas front and center. She doubled down: “It’s beautiful. It’s us. It’s a step forward into telling more of our stories.” For her, Ariana isn’t just a character — it’s a sign of progress. With so many shows still dodging complex Latinx characters, Paulina’s role feels intentional, trailblazing, even overdue.
Landing this kind of meaty part means learning on the fly. But if anyone is ready to absorb wisdom, it’s Paulina. Early in production, she talked shop with Taylor Sheridan. You know Sheridan, right? The guy behind Yellowstone, Tulsa King, basically TV’s king of cowboy soap operas with Emmy cred. Paulina calls working with him “collaborative.” According to her chat with SlashFilm, Sheridan kept his door open, thriving on honest discussions about character beats, scene blocking, and crafting Ariana’s wild journey. Not every showrunner is this accessible, especially to young actors. So, she took the chance and ran with it.
Season 1 threw tons of drama Ariana’s way. But nothing matched the boardroom scene in Episode 8 — a total highlight for fans and critics. There, Ariana walks into a room full of powerful oil execs, stares down the elitist nonsense, and delivers a speech about representation and loss. Paulina brings such heat that you can practically hear jaws dropping around the table — and around your couch, honestly. Twitter threads exploded afterwards, with hashtags like #LandmanQueen and #ArianasSpeech trending by midnight.
Why does this moment land so hard? For one thing, Ariana, unlike so many women onscreen, doesn’t get silenced or sidelined. She calls out racism, sexism, and the risk Latina women face in male-dominated industries. She refuses to shrink. Paulina navigates all of it — the pain, the stubborn joy, the refusal to back down — with eye-popping authenticity. If you missed the scene, stop what you’re doing and go watch it now.
By the time Paramount+ renewed Landman for a second season early in 2025, the writing was on the wall: Ariana wasn’t just another side story. She was about to break out in a major way. Critical buzz from The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and fan blogs like ours all started leaning the same direction. Viewers wanted more Ariana. They wanted more Paulina.
And just for kicks? Here’s a flurry of cool facts and fan-favorite tidbits:
- Paulina grew up in San Antonio, so she brought real Texan spirit straight to the set.
- Her mother is a teacher; her dad is an engineer. That’s a STEM family, full circle.
- She keeps shouting out her Latina roots everywhere — red carpets, interviews, Insta stories. Representation is her main thing.
- Outside work, she’s a whiz on guitar and paints landscapes when she needs to recharge.
- Landman’s cast and crew praise her dedication. She often helps younger extras feel at home, keeping the vibe loose between takes.
So what comes next for Paulina? With Landman Season 2, the pressure’s on, but she seems totally unfazed. She’s already teased — as of a recent Variety interview — that Ariana’s path dives even deeper. We’ll see her dealing with both evil boardrooms and messy, loving family. Paulina promises scenes where Ariana’s “voice finally gets heard, even when it’s hard.” Expect moments of joy, heartbreak, laughter, and blazing honesty. All the things we’re craving on TV right now.
And fans? Let’s be real, they’re obsessed. TikTok clips rack up hundreds of thousands of likes within hours. Reddit threads dissect every Ariana moment. The hashtags #TeamAriana and #PaulinaForPresident keep surfacing anytime Landman trends. For every fan who saw themselves in Ashley Garcia, there’s another who sees hope in Ariana, standing up and refusing to break under pressure.
Is Paulina Chávez about to be one of the defining faces of her generation on TV? All signs point to yes. She’s not just building a career — she’s building a legacy. Each role, from genius scientist to grieving West Texas widow, puts more spotlight on real stories and real representation. She proves, over and over again, that you can be many things at once — smart, kind, fierce, vulnerable, joyful, and heartbreakingly human.
The Paulina Chávez era is here, and it’s not backing down. So grab your popcorn, cue up Landman, and get ready — Ariana’s just getting started. And if Paulina’s track record tells us anything, she’ll burn brightest when the world least expects it.
