Madelaine Petsch

Madelaine Grobbelaar Petsch is an American-South African actress and social media personality. She is best known for her role as Cheryl Blossom on the CW television series Riverdale, in which she starred from 2017 to 2023.

Petsch was born on August 18, 1994, in Port Orchard, Washington, to South African parents, Timothy and Michele Petsch. She has an older brother named Shaun. During the first ten years of her life, she divided her time between South Africa and Washington state. Petsch began taking dance classes at age three and theater classes at age five. She later attended the Tacoma School of the Arts before moving to Los Angeles after her graduation.

In 2014, Petsch appeared in a national advertising campaign for Coca-Cola. Her major career breakthrough came after meeting a casting director working on Legends of Tomorrow, who pinned her for a role in Riverdale in late 2015. She was officially cast as Cheryl Blossom in February 2016, and filming began that September. The show premiered in January 2017 and ran for seven seasons, concluding in August 2023.

Petsch expanded her acting filmography with roles in several feature films, particularly within the horror genre. In March 2017, she joined the cast of the horror film Polaroid, which was released in 2019. She subsequently starred in the films Sightless in 2020 and Jane in 2022, as well as The Strangers film series. Her lead performances in these horror projects earned her a reputation as a scream queen. In January 2019, it was initially announced that she would star in and executive produce the horror-comedy film Saint Clare, though Bella Thorne later took over the lead role in 2022.

Beyond her acting career, Petsch has engaged in business ventures and digital media. In April 2018, she partnered with the sunglasses company Privé Revaux to launch her own collection of sunglasses. She also runs a personal YouTube channel, which she created to allow fans to see her life outside of her acting roles.