,
Lili Reinhart and Mendes at the
WonderCon in 2017 Mendes' first acting job was a commercial for
IKEA. In 2016, Mendes was cast as "silver-tongued high school sophomore"
Veronica Lodge in
The CW's teen drama series
Riverdale (2017–2023), a subversive take on the
Archie Comics. For her performance, she won the
Teen Choice Award for Choice Scene Stealer in 2017. In the same month, Mendes joined the cast of the romantic comedy
The Perfect Date. The film was released on
Netflix on April 12, 2019. In 2019, the film
Coyote Lake premiered, in which Mendes is the lead. In 2020, she appeared in the critically acclaimed sci-fi/comedy
Palm Springs, which premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival and was released that July on
Hulu. She subsequently headlined the Netflix
thriller film Dangerous Lies, released that same year. In 2022, she co-starred opposite
Maya Hawke in the
teen black comedy Do Revenge for Netflix, earning critical acclaim. Mendes played Drea, a popular student at an elite high school trying to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend. Adrian Horton of
The Guardian praised her performance writing, "In particular, Mendes's six years on
Riverdale have refined her performance of a popular bitch with secret vulnerability to a fine, relishable point." In February 2024, Mendes starred as Ana Santos, an ambitious art world intern in the
Amazon Prime romantic comedy film
Upgraded. The film also starred
Archie Renaux,
Lena Olin, and
Marisa Tomei. The film earned positive reviews with Courtney Howard of
Variety describing this film as a "clever and charming romantic comedy" adding "Mendes and Renaux make for a lovely on-screen duo, teasing out lighthearted tenderness within the witty banter." That same year, she starred in another Amazon romantic comedy,
Música, which premiered at the
SXSW Festival. Rafael Motamyer of
IndieWire praised the film for its "subversion of the musical comedy", adding the film is "charming" while also praising the chemistry of the two leads. In June 2024, Mendes co-founded the production company Honor Role with
Rachel Matthews. In July 2024, Mendes was cast in the reboot of
I Know What You Did Last Summer. In August 2024, it was announced that she had been cast as
Teela in the live-action film reboot of
Masters of the Universe, co-starring with
Nicholas Galitzine as
He-Man, leading her to drop out of the former due to scheduling conflicts. In February 2026, it was announced that Honor Role hired Meredith Ditlow (from
Reese Witherspoon's
Hello Sunshine) to run film and television for Honor Role. ==Personal life==