The Prime Video series”Carrie” employs a host of up-and-coming young actors to play the mean girls at Ewen High School, some of whom should be familiar to audiences. For example, Josie Totah plays Tina Blake in Mike Flanagan’s new Stephen King adaptation. Fans of the original novel or previous adaptations will recall that Tina is the circle of Carrie’s biggest bully, Chris Hargensen. Tina is not just an associate of the main mean girl — she helps Chris make Carrie’s life as hellish as possible.
Totah is best known for starring in Peacock’s “Saved by the Bell” reboot as Lexi Haddad-Defabrizio. While Chris is the queen bee at Ewen, it’s Lexi calling the shots at Bayside — she’s a popular cheerleader who once starred in her own reality show about transitioning from male to female. According to Totah, who is a transgender woman, the role was interesting because Lexi’s experience at school was very different to a lot of transgender students.
“A big theme of our show is privilege, and I think privilege exists on so many different levels, even within marginalized communities,” Totah told TVLine ahead of “Saved by the Bell” Season 2. “Everyone has privilege in some capacity, and Lexi has had this privilege to not have to face, you know, certain obstacles in her life because of her socioeconomic status, and because of her popularity at school.” Lexi ends up taking over writing the school play so she can send a message to her fellow students abouttransphobia.
Josie Totah has been in some big movies and TV shows
Totah has been popping up in various popular shows and movies since childhood. She had a recurring role in the Disney Channel series “Jessie,” playing a student with an unrequited crush on one of the main characters. During her time on “Jessie,” Totah also landed guest roles in “New Girl,” “2 Broke Girls,” and “Glee.”
In 2018, Totah played a main role in the NBC sitcom “Champions,” which was co-created by Mindy Kaling, but it wascancelled after the first season. That same year,Totah announced that she identifies as a transgender female. “It wasn’t a ‘coming out’ moment for me since my family has known I was transgender since I was three years old; it was more of a ‘Let me just inform the world of something they don’t know’ kind of moment,”she latertold Refinery29.
Following her announcement, Totah started playing female roles, beginning with Lisa Haddad in the Netflix dramedy “No Good Nick.” Lisa is a senior who competes with one of the leads of the show to be student council president. Her biggest role aside from “Saved by the Bell” is that ofMabel Elmsworth in AppleTV’s “The Buccaneers.” Mabel isan American heiress trying to explore her lesbian sexuality in 1870s London.
Totah’s notable guest roles includeNatalie in Netflix’s animated sitcom “Big Mouth,”Willow in the Paramount+ revival of “iCarly,” andinfluencerTiti B in the NBC sitcom “Mr. Mayor.” On the big screen, she’s appeared in minor roles inthe Marvel blockbuster “Spider-Man: Homecoming” andAmy Poehler’s dramedy “Moxie,” and more recently she played another influencer character in the 2026 horror film”Faces of Death.”
