Next Gen Talent 2021: The Hollywood Reporter’s Rising Young Stars Revealed

Simone Ashley

Ronny Chieng

Chieng exemplifies Hollywood’s growing commitment to a sense of authenticity, or what the actor calls the “street test”: “Does what we see onscreen reflect what we see on the street?” Chieng was born in Malaysia and grew up between the U.K., U.S. and Singapore before heading to university in Melbourne, where he began performing stand-up comedy. A personal commitment to AAPI representation is evident in his growing list of credits: Shang-Chi, Crazy Rich Asians and Disney+ series Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.. Next up — when he’s not taking on Asian stereotypes and racism in his Netflix comedy special and viral segments as a Daily Show correspondent — is a martial arts action-comedy for Sony and Blumhouse horror M3GAN.

The person I am dying to work with … Leonardo DiCaprio

My pandemic binge-watch was … Billions

If I had to live in a world from a movie or TV show, I would choose … You’ve Got Mail

If I had a theme song, it would be … Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “Reducing plastic.”

Why aren’t people in Hollywood talking more about … “All these great stand-up comedians around the country who may or may not have Netflix specials.”

Madelyn Cline

Nicola Coughlan

With concurrent roles on two hit Netflix series, Coughlan went straight from shooting the second season of Bridgerton to the third season of Derry Girls with barely a weekend in between. Starring in a 19th century romance and 1990s-set coming-of-age comedy is something she never thought she’d do, because of some puzzling feedback she got in drama school: “I was told, categorically, I would never do period drama,” Coughlan recalls. “They told me, ‘Your face is too modern.’ I have no idea to this day what that means.” The Galway-born actress has learned never to rule anything out, and when she’s not on set she’s working on a soon-to-be-released Apple podcast called Whistle Through the Shamrocks that started as “this really weird running joke about Irish plays” with co-writer Camilla Whitehill. The six-episode series features a host of talent including Coughlan’s Netflix co-stars Jamie Beamish and Louisa Harland, as well as Stephanie Beatriz and Jonathan Van Ness. 

The person I am dying to work with … Judi Dench

My pandemic binge-watch was … Euphoria

I’d love to star in a remake of … “Not a remake of [Parks and Recreation], but Leslie Knope: The Early Years. I feel like I could play Leslie Knope in college.”

If I had to live in a world from a movie or TV show, I would choose … Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion 

If a superhero franchise was based on my life, my superpower would be … “Probably Nap Girl. That’s just what I’m known as at work. If I have a spare 10 minutes, I’ll just fall asleep.”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “LGBTQ rights. I play a gay character in Derry Girls and I realized the responsibility of taking that on at a time when, in Northern Ireland, gay marriage still wasn’t legal.”

Harris Dickinson

The British actor, raised by a hairdresser and a social worker, once considered joining the Royal Marines before a drama teacher talked him out of it. The decision to focus on acting paid off, with Dickinson earning acclaim (including a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination) for 2017 Sundance drama Beach Rats and turning heads as Prince Phillip in Disney’s Maleficent. He steps into his biggest roles yet with long-delayed The King’s Man from filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, whose previous discoveries include Taron Egerton and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. After that, it’s Sony’s adaptation of best-seller Where the Crawdads Sing and the Sam Rockwell-Saoirse Ronan murder mystery See How They Run, both due out in 2022.

The person I have been most starstruck by … Denzel Washington

The person I am dying to work with … Claire Denis

My pandemic binge-watch was … [Bravo’s] Below Deck

If I weren’t an actor, I’d be … “A pigeon handler”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “I’m not an expert — and I always struggle when I see actors or people in the public eye talking on things above their pay grade — but I do care about issues like homelessness, mental health, education and housing. The underfunding of these sectors is contributing to so much economic disparity and division throughout communities all over the world. It’s a social cause that is bigger than one organization or movement, I don’t have the answers to these issues, but I think a good place to start is empathy and understanding, on a global scale.”

Ariana DeBose

Moving to New York City from North Carolina at 19, DeBose’s Broadway debut came in 2011’s Bring It On: The Musical, which featured lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who would later tap DeBose for early workshops of Hamilton. “To see the fruits of your hard work, become an international phenomenon, I don’t think you can ever fully process it,” says the actress, who remembers helping Daveed Diggs escape a mob of fans during a lunch break as the show was gaining popularity. It was in the middle of her Tony-nominated run as Donna Summer in the musical Summer that DeBose was called in to audition for Spielberg’s West Side Story, eventually landing the part of Anita, originally made famous by Rita Moreno. Ahead of filming, Moreno offered the actress some advice: “Lean into everything that makes you special.” DeBose surmises, “She basically was like, ‘Don’t get in my shadow.’”

The person I have been most starstruck by … Yo-Yo Ma

If I had to live in a world from a movie or TV show, I would choose … The Golden Girls

The person I am dying to work with … “Regina King and Emma Thompson.”

If I had a theme song, it would be … “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall

The social cause I am passionate about is … “Youth homelessness, especially around LGBTQ youth. I sit on the board of Covenant House International, which focuses on youth homelessness. They just opened a specifically LGBTQ-specialized home in Washington, D.C.”

Phoebe Dynevor

A week after Dynevor wrapped filming on the six-month shoot for Netflix’s Bridgerton, the quarantine began. “I went from one intense thing into another,” says the actress, who only recently grasped the reach of the pandemic’s biggest breakout: “It wasn’t until the world has gone back to normal that I have realized the enormity of the show.” The English Dynevor, who has been performing for over a decade and was previously best known stateside for TV Land-turned-Paramount+ darling Younger, is set for Amazon’s U.K. remake of French series Call My Agent and Sony feature I Heart Murder. And, of course, there is Bridgerton’s much anticipated second season. Dynevor is happy to be back at work, noting, “The noise that comes after what we do for a living is a whole separate thing.”

The person I am dying to work with … “I am obsessed with Greta Gerwig, so she would be up there.”

My pandemic binge-watch was … The Morning Show

I’d love to star in a remake of … “I don’t think this could ever be done again in the same way  but if anyone would want to remake the John Cassavetes movie A Woman Under the Influence I’d be down.”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “I am an ambassador for Action Aide and I have been for a really long time. What they do in terms of helping young women all over the world is incredible, whether it’s education or tampons or whatever it may be.”

Chloe Fineman

On SNL, Fineman has impersonated everyone from Drew Barrymore to Timothée Chalamet. She was upped to repertory status this season and is also making the jump to the big screen this year with Warner Bros.’ Father of the Bride remake, where she will take on Martin Short’s wacky wedding planner role, minus the signature accent. “I felt like it was too much if I was German,” she teases. “Now I’m the out-of-touch but likable white girl.” And, in a more dramatic turn, Fineman will appear opposite Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood epic Babylon. The goal for the NYU grad is to straddle the worlds of both comedy and drama, while also eying a future in producing. She explains, “The more hands-on I get to be, the more I enjoy it.”

The person I have been most starstruck by … Kristen Wiig

The person I am dying to work with … “Mike White, Molly Shannon, and Jennifer Coolidge.”

My pandemic binge-watch was … “Alone. It’s a weird reality show that people are stranded in the middle of nowhere.”

I’d love to star in a remake of … Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion

Why aren’t people in Hollywood talking more about … “I feel like Cardi B is an incredible actress. Cardi needs her acting moment.”

The social cause I am passionate about is … [Nonprofit] Best Buddies

Dominique Fishback

When Fishback was working a retail job at New York’s famed Drama Book Shop, she found out that the pilot she filmed titled The Deuce had been picked up to series by HBO. She kept signing up for shifts. “I still wanted to be grounded and wanted to be with everyone,” says the East New York, Brooklyn, native of the decision. “Then my schedule got too busy and I had to give all of my shifts away.” Her schedule has stayed busy with a variety of high-concept features (Project Power), Oscar-nominated titles (Judas and the Black Messiah), and prestige television (Apple’s The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey). Now, she has just wrapped filming on Paramount’s next Transformers movie, which she co-leads with fellow Brooklynite Anthony Ramos.

The person I have been most starstruck by … “Jay-Z. I played his mom in a music video for ‘Smile’ but he never came to set. I was invited to the Roc Nation Brunch and I started introducing myself going, ‘Hi, I’m Dom.’ And he goes, ‘You don’t have to introduce yourself, I know who you are.’ All I could say was, ‘I’m from Brooklyn.’ He was like, ‘I know.’”

The person I am dying to work with … “Meryl Streep. If we could have some kind of two-hander, it would be a dream come true.”

If I weren’t an actor, I’d be … “I’d probably be a gymnast. I have always wanted to do flips.”

If I had a theme song, it would be … “The theme from New Girl. It would go, ‘It’s Dom!'”

The social cause I am passionate about is … Black Lives Matter

Leslie Grace

“It’s something that I was itching for — to be able to play a role that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with music,” says Grace of her latest role in the highly anticipated DC feature Batgirl. The three-time Latin Grammy nominee made her onscreen debut earlier this summer in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s NYC-set musical In the Heights, but is currently in training in London to play the superhero and alter ego Barbra Gordon (“I am stretching for fun now”). Batgirl is only the second onscreen role for the Bronx-born and Florida-raised actress, and her first time on the top of the call sheet. But Grace is no stranger to performing, having started her career as a singer-songwriter when she was 16 years old. She says, “I use all of that experience in one way or another to fuel all the things that I’m doing now.”

The person I have been most starstruck by is … “Sharon Stone was in the Sprinter [van] on the way back to the hotel from the Met Gala. I was like ‘That’s Sharon Stone, guys! What am I doing here?'”

If I weren’t an actor, I’d be … “A veterinarian.”

I’d love to star in a remake of … The Bodyguard

If I had to live in a world from a movie or TV show, I would choose … “Probably Sister Sister or the George Lopez [Show]. Any of the ’90s sitcoms. Everybody’s always popping in on everybody. I’ve always loved that.”

Patti Harrison

A 2017 segment on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon tackling then-President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military (“He probably thinks transgender people are those cars that turn into robots.”) earned the Ohio-raised comedian early attention. Guest appearances on New York-set comedy series like Broad City and Search Party followed, with a recurring role on Hulu’s Shrill coming in short order. Harrison made the jump to the top of the call sheet with the Sundance standout Together Together, co-starring with Ed Helms, and next appears in her first major studio feature, Paramount’s Lost City of D, appearing alongside Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock.

Fred Hechinger

It was a hot summer for streaming — and Hechinger. The New York City native not only starred in Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy but also in HBO Max’s buzzy dramedy The White Lotus, calling the show “an absolute godsend for me.” The actor had expected not to work for a while because of production shutdowns but was happy to find himself filming in a White Lotus bubble in Hawaii with the likes of Steve Zahn, Connie Britton and Jennifer Coolidge. He adds, “For that script to come and for it to be so amazing, and for that group of people to be so openhearted and funny, it just was a game-changer.” The actor could also be seen in other pandemic releases like Tom Hanks-fronted News of the World and Woman in the Window on Netflix. Hechinger, who says he loves musicals and would like to give one a whirl soon, will be back on streaming services soon with Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy.

The person I have been most starstruck by … “Joe Pesci. I couldn’t even go up to him. I wanted to say something and I didn’t have any words.”

The person I am dying to work with … Elaine May

If I weren’t an actor, I’d be … “A certified prankster or a graveyard attendant.”

I’d love to star in a remake of … “All my favorite movies I don’t actually want to remake. But — in some other portal or dimension where I could just act in them for my own experiential joy — His Girl Friday or The Long Goodbye.”

If I had a theme song, it would be … “That song from The Muppets, ‘Mahna Mahna.’”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “Prison abolition.”

Toheeb Jimoh

Ted Lasso is stacked with a talented ensemble cast — still, Jimoh managed to shine. His character, Sam Obisanya, became an integral part of the second-season arc, including a still-uncertain romantic relationship that took even the actor by surprise. “Jason [Sudeikis] had hinted that there’s going to be a romance story,” Jimoh tells THR, adding that he had no idea who his love interest was until they’d filmed several episodes. “I read the script and I was like, ‘She’s texting who?! Oh my God. OK, we’re doing this.’ The breadcrumbs were there, but I was figuring it out as we were filming, which was really exciting.”

As a drama student in London, Jimoh worked multiple side jobs, including one as an usher at the Young Vic Theatre. Now he’s balancing the hit Apple TV+ series with filming Amazon’s upcoming international thriller The Power. And while everyone talks about being the next James Bond, he’d rather become Black Panther — or do Shakespeare. But, just as he’s embraced not knowing what’s coming for Sam, he’s not charting too specific a course in his own life. After all, he’s where he is now, in part, because in 2019 he lost a role he thought he really wanted. “I wouldn’t have gotten Ted Lasso, [BBC One movie] Anthony and The Power,” Jimoh says. “Three huge projects I would have lost if I got that job, but the universe knew it was time for me to wait. I’m a big believer in whatever’s yours will come and whatever’s meant to be will be.”

The person I am dying to work with … “A three-way tie between Viola Davis, Denzel Washington and Mahershala Ali.”

My pandemic binge-watch was … “A Japanese anime series called One Piece. It’s got like a thousand episodes and I’m now fully caught up. I just devoted my time and attention to anime and I regret nothing.”

I’d love to star in a remake of … The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

If I weren’t an actor, I’d be … “A spoken-word artist or a very depressed lawyer.”

If a superhero franchise was based on my life, my superpower would be … “Sleeping, and it’d just be about a guy who never really leaves his house unless he has to. I’m a big advocate for napping, and I believe it’s essential to the human experience.”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “Black Lives Matter and men’s mental health, in no particular order.”

Xolo Maridueña

Maridueña had a strange request for his principal during his junior year at L.A.’s Cathedral High School. The actor, who had just booked a role on Cobra Kai, wanted to move across the country to film, but still get his diploma from the school. “I’m super appreciative to my principal,” says Maridueña, who kept up with his assignments online and graduated in 2019, while Cobra Kai became a hit on Netflix with his character, Miguel Diaz, at its center. Heat from the show, as well as a chance meeting at Sundance with director Angel Manuel Soto, led to Maridueña landing the lead in Blue Beetle, DC’s first Latino superhero movie. As for his future, Maridueña has already completed two years of credits at Pasadena City College and is looking to someday study screenwriting in college. “I’m figuring out the steps as I go along,” says Maridueña. “I don’t have the handbook or ‘Acting in Your Early 20s for Dummies’ book just yet.”

The person I have been most starstruck by … RZA

The person I am dying to work with … David Fincher

My pandemic binge-watch was … Entourage

If I weren’t an actor, I’d be … “A photographer or rapper.”

If I had to live in a world from a movie or TV show, I would choose … Pokémon

Bowen Yang

Despite landing an Emmy nom and creating viral characters like “The Iceberg that Sank the Titanic” on SNL, Yang says he has “a genuine interest in trying to push myself more.” He is now tackling his first starring film role in Searchlight’s modern-day Pride and Prejudice adaptation, Fire Island, which will see Yang handling some “intense scene work and having to hold some emotional weight.” Yang says SNL, where he is the show’s first Chinese American castmember and just became a repertory player, is preparing him for a career outside of Studio 8H: “You get the sense of who you are as a performer, comedian, writer — your point of view really solidifies.”

The person I have been most starstruck by … “It’s probably a tie between BD Wong, Kristen Wiig and Margaret Cho. Working with Margaret Cho on the set of Fire Island was really so full-circle and surreal in so many ways.”

The person I am dying to work with … “[Hacks star] Meg Stalter. We’re friends, and we’ve seen each other perform for so long, but I really want to sit down with her and work on something with her.”

Why aren’t people in Hollywood talking more about … “The fact that Gemma Chan has a perfect American accent in Raya and The Last Dragon. I think everyone should be freaking the fuck out about how you can’t trace the British-isms at all. I think she might be the only one who can do it. She might be the only British actor who can fake an American accent and no one can smell it.”

The social cause I am passionate about is … “I’ve really kept up with the work of APALA, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. They are doing boots-on-the-ground work in terms of organizing labor for specifically Asian workers in the country.”

Rachel Zegler