The breakthrough actors of 2024

Playing Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” got some name recognition for Spaeny, but that movie didn’t prove much of a hit. Things solidified for her as a movie star in 2024. In addition to having a role in the polarizing, but notable, “Civil War,” Spaeny was the human face of “Alien: Romulus,” a nasty horror movie that made $350.9 million. Next year she’ll be in the next Benoit Blanc ensemble, a sure sign of notability.

Glen Powell is a movie star. It’s the leap many wondered about, especially heading into 2024. He’d popped in supporting roles, but Powell is in a different league now. In addition to being the lead that really stood out in the hit “Twisters” (no shade for Daisy Edgar-Jones), he really showed his range in Netflix’s “Hit Man,” which he co-wrote with Richard Linklater. Powell earned a Golden Globe for “Hit Man,” which solidified his breakout for us.

The critically-acclaimed “Sing Sing” is Colman Domingo, an awards darling, and a litany of unknown, non-professional actors. Among those is Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who didn’t have a Wikipedia page when the film came out. Domingo has gotten plenty of award love for “Sing Sing,” and is expected to be nominated for another Oscar, but Maclin has been the supporting actor who has been getting the most award nods, including winning a Gotham Award.

Speaking of actors who didn’t have Wikipedia pages prior to their breakthrough film, we know this is the case about Conti because we thought he popped in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” While Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and even Jenna Ortega needed no introductions, Conti was not on the same level. The song of Nina Conti, probably the only “alt-comic ventriloquist” we can think of, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was only his second on-screen role. He literally thought it was a prank when he found out he got the part.

LaBelle has leveled up once again. He went from unknown to sorta-known-ish playing the Steven Spielberg surrogate in “The Fabelmans.” That put him on the radar, and got him the chance to play Lorne Michaels in “Saturday Night.” While that film didn’t hit as hoped, LaBelle is the one who made an impact. He’s the only one to get a Golden Globe nomination from the cast, for example.

Sean Baker doesn’t do the movie star thing. Willem Dafoe counts as an A-Lister in his world. However, Baker’s films are always critical darlings, and “Anora” has taken that to a new level. Not only is it a favorite for Best Picture at the Oscars, expect both Madison and Eydelshtyen to earn acting nominations as well.

Hugh Grant (and the weird A24 cult) brought “Heretic” to the forefront, but that opened the door for attention for the two female co-leads of the horror movie. Sophie Thatcher is probably a little too established to consider “Heretic” a breakthrough for her, but East wasn’t quite on that level yet, and now you could argue she is.

If you’re a Broadway person, Slater is a name you likely already knew. For the pop culture consumers out there, though, Slater certainly had his breakthrough in 2024. The actor made his big-screen debut playing Boq in “Wicked.” We won’t pretend to know who Boq is, because we won’t pretend to be interested in “Wicked” in the slightest. What we can do is read box-office reports, though, so we know Slater’s certainly been introduced to a lot of people.

Quinn has taken the TV actor to movie actor leap. He first made an impression as Eddie Munson in the fourth season of “Stranger Things.” As popular as that show is, being in two significant movies in the same year is still a step forward. Quinn had a co-starring part in both “A Quiet Place: Day One” and “Gladiator II.” Don’t be surprised if we include Quinn in this piece again in 2025, given that he’s playing the Human Torch in the new “Fantastic Four” movie.

“Shogun” was the TV sensation of 2024. It won 18 Emmys, including two for acting from the main cast (shout out to Nestor Carbonell for his guest actor win). Hiroyuki Sanada won one of those, but he was already a notable actor, so much so he was a producer on the show and he was given an OBE by the United Kingdom. While Sawai had leading roles in “Pachinko” and the surprisingly-good “Godzilla show on Apple TV+, winning an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series for a culturally-significant show was definitely a major step forward.

The main cast of “Palm Royale” included the likes of Kristen Wiig, Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, and Laura Dern. The two former are comedy legends and the two latter are Oscar winners. Also in the main cast? Robinson, who was at a point in her career prior to 2024 that in “80 for Brady” she was credited as “Hot Wings Woman.” Yeah, starring alongside the likes of Dern and Burnett is a major step forward on one’s career trajectory.

Adapting a video game is always tricky (just look at the film “Borderlands”). “Fallout” pulled it off, crafting a darkly-comedic sci-fi show that earned several Emmy nominations. Walton Goggins got a lot of the attention, especially in the early promotion. That makes sense. Ella Purnell arguably took a step forward in her career, but not to the same degree as Moten. Unless you watched “Disjointed” (spoiler alert: You didn’t watch “Disjointed”) you were likely seeing Moten for the first time, and it was as a co-lead in a big Amazon production.

Turner-Smith had been in stuff, but in 2024 she called attention to herself. She was in three notable TV shows that debuted in 2024. While “The Acolyte” didn’t pop, and even got canceled by Disney+, it was still a “Star Wars” TV show. “Bad Monkey” landed a lot more kindly, and gave her a larger role, and while that story has concluded, “The Agency” has already earned a second season for Showtime and Paramount+.

What’s a bigger breakthrough than starring in one of the only notable new comedy shows of 2024? How about creating said show and serving as a writer and director on it as well? That’s what Alvarez has done with FX’s “English Teacher.” Creating a popular FX show certainly worked out well for the “Always Sunny” guys.

When you take up the torch for the “Big Bang Theory” universe, you’re in a good place. “Young Sheldon” ran for seven seasons and over 100 episodes simply based on the popularity of “Big Bang Theory” and the character of Sheldon Cooper. Now, “Young Sheldon” has its own spinoff. Jordan and Osment are reprising their roles as Georgie and Mandy for the CBS sitcom “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.” The entire history of this franchise would indicate these two will be leading a network sitcom for several years.

For a while Yang has been a guy you see on one-off roles in sitcoms, in small roles in comedy movies, or occasionally in a recurring role on a TV show. Prior to 2024, his most-notable role was likely as Jian-Yang in HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” On that show he was tertiary, though. He’s front-and-center in “Interior Chinatown.” Yang is the leading actor in this Hulu dramedy based on a popular book of the same name. That’s not something we envisioned happening before this year, but it’s happened now, and Yang proved up to the task in the successful series.