Emerging actresses are hitting the big screens and quickly racking up major award nominations and critical acclaim. To honor those making it big in Hollywood right now, here are nine up-and-coming actresses to check out:
Talia Ryder
At 12 years old, Talia Ryder made her Broadway debut in the musical “Matilda” as Hortensia. She started her film career in the indie film “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” and earned several nominations for the film at the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.
She later appeared in Olivia Rodrigo’s music video for “deja vu” in 2021 and Steven Spielberg’s rendition of “West Side Story” the same year. Ryder is in fresh Netflix releases like “Do Revenge” and “Dumb Money.” Her most recent film appearance was a film titled “Little Death,” which debuted at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Rachel Sennott
Rachel Sennott studied acting at NYU’s Tisch Of The Arts and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in 2018. There, she performed in comedy shows, student films and shorts. Her short film “Shiva Baby” from 2017 was adapted into a movie in 2020. It was praised by reviewers at South By Southwest and the Toronto Film Festival, and Sennott won the Breakthrough Performance award at the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Awards.
Sennott gained more traction in her standout role in the 2022 A24 film “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” In 2023, Sennott reconvened with “Shiva Baby” director Emma Seligman to make the raunchy teen sex comedy “Bottoms.” It was recently announced that Sennott will star in a half-hour comedy show she sold to HBO, which she will also write and executive produce.
Maria Bakalova
Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova starred in many short films until her breakout role as the daughter of the fictional Kazakh reporter Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) in the 2020 film “Borat.” Her role earned her several awards and nominations, including a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.
Bakalova also starred alongside Sennott in “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” She would later join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Cosmo the Dog in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Bakalova has many upcoming projects, including a horror film titled “God’s Country” and a biopic role as Ivana Trump in “The Apprentice.”
Cailee Spaeny
Cailee Spaeny first appeared in the sci-fi adventure film “Pacific Rim Uprising,” the neo-noir thriller “Bad Times at the El Royale” and the award-winning political satire series, “Vice.”
Her most notable role to date is her portrayal of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” in 2023. Spaeny’s portrayal earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama. Spaeny’s most recent film release was the A24 film “Civil War.” Spaeny is set to be the lead in Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Romulus,” which will be released in August 2024.
Haley Lu Richardson
Haley Lu Richardson hit the big screens in 2016 with films like “The Edge of Seventeen” and “Split.” Among her most notable roles is the 2019 rom-com “Five Feet Apart,” alongside Cole Sprouse. More recently, Richardson had a big part in the highly acclaimed second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” playing Portia. Richardson’s next project was announced in early 2024, a Gore Verbinski film titled “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.”
Molly Gordon
Actress Molly Gordon, daughter of directors Jessie Nelson and Bryan Gordon, grew up in the theater alongside many other noteworthy actors and actresses, like Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein. Gordon later accumulated a series regular role on TNT’s “Animal Kingdom” and starred in “Life of the Party” alongside Melissa McCarthy in 2018.
Gordon has appeared in multiple coming-of-age films in recent years, such as “Booksmart” and “Shiva Baby.” She made her directorial debut with 2023’s “Theater Camp” and recently played Jeremy Allen White’s love interest in Hulu’s critically acclaimed show “The Bear.” Gordon is expected to return in the show’s third season, which is set to start production in June of this year.
Jasmin Savoy Brown
Jasmin Savoy Brown’s acting career started with a minor recurring role on HBO’s “The Leftovers.” She has booked several small roles on television shows, from “The Fosters” to “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Brown went on to star in the short-lived ABC court drama “For The People” in 2018.
She is most recognized for her role in the fifth and sixth “Scream” installments as the scene-stealing Mindy Meeks-Martin. Another notable project of hers includes Showtime’s Emmy-nominated series, “Yellowjackets,” as Taissa. She is set to return for the show’s third season, which will likely premiere in 2025.
Midori Francis
Midori Francis graduated from Rutgers University with an acting degree and starred in an off-Broadway play titled “Connected” shortly after. She earned a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Actress and went on to land a small role in 2018’s “Ocean’s 8.”
In 2019, Francis was cast as Lily in the Netflix mini-series “Dash & Lily.” Francis received a Daytime Emmy nomination for her part in the show for Lead Actress in a Daytime Fiction Program. She has since appeared in another Netflix production, “Afterlife of the Party,” in 2021. That same year, she was a part of the first season of HBO’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” In 2022, the actress joined the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” as a new surgical intern and is still working on the show.
Stephanie Hsu
Fellow NYU Tisch graduate Stephanie Hsu was a series regular on “Girl Code” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” before her breakthrough role in the 2022 A24 film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The film earned many nominations and awards. Hsu won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Hsu also played in Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings” in 2021 and the humorous "Joy Ride” in 2023. More recently, she appeared in the action-comedy film “The Fall Guy,” starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. An upcoming comedy series on Peacock, “LAID,” is set to star Hsu and credit her as executive producer. The actress was recently featured on TIME’s “TIME100 Next” list of 2023.
