The 20 busiest actors of 2017

Since winning a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s “Room,” Brie Larson’s career has taken off, and in 2017 she starred in “Kong: Skull Island,” “The Glass Castle,” “Basmati Blues,” and “Unicorn Store.” The latter also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Joan Cusack, and Bradley Whitford, and was produced and directed by Larson in her feature-length directorial debut. In “Basmati Blues,” a romantic comedy musical, she also performed eight songs.

There simply isn’t enough space to fully explain everything Bryan Cranston has busied himself with in 2017. While acting, writing, producing, and/or directing, Cranston can list the TV shows “Sneaky Pete,” “SuperMansion,” “Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and “The Dangerous Book for Boys” on his resume, as well as the films “Power Rangers,” “The Upside,” and “Last Flag Flying.” As if that isn’t enough, he also snagged a SAG Award for 2016’s “All the Way” and is currently starring as Howard Beale in the Royal National Theatre’s adaptation of the 1976 film “Network.”

“Wonder Woman” was Chris Pine’s only film in 2017, but we was still plenty busy... on TV! He has a regular role on Crackle’s “SuperMansion,” and appeared in multi-episode arcs on both “Angie Tribeca” and “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.” He also narrated a documentary and hosted “Saturday Night Live.”

Even if you don’t know Dan Stevens by name, you’ve probably seen some of his work. He was Beast in “Beauty and the Beast,” and also starred in “Permission,” “Kill Switch,” “Marshall,” and “The Man Who Invented Christmas.” Not enough starring roles? Stevens is also the lead on FX’s “Legion,” which aired its debut season in 2017 and will air the season in 2018.

35-year-old Daveed Diggs’ acting career was almost exclusively limited to the stage before his breakout role in Broadway’s “Hamilton” catapulted him onto screens both big and small. In 2017, Diggs had regular roles on both “Black-ish,” “The Get Down,” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” as well as appearances on “Sesame Street,” ABC’s “The Mayor,” and the HBO mockumentary “Tour de Pharmacy.” Diggs also lent his voice to the FOX animated film “Ferdinand” and had a supporting role in the drama “Wonder.” 2018 will also see him star in a TV series, “Snowpiercer,” on TNT.

For the actor formerly known as The Rock, 2017 was a whirlwind year. Johnson kicked it off with a starring role in “The Fate of the Furious,” followed by “Baywatch” and “Jumanji,” the latter of which will hit theaters just before Christmas. In addition to promoting those films, Johnson still found time to shoot another season of HBO’s “Ballers,” numerous shorts for Seven Bucks Digital Studios, an appearance on YouTube’s “Lifeline,” and another turn as host of “Saturday Night Live.” Johnson was also the executive soundtrack producer (as well as a playable character) for the “WWE2K18” video game, which was released on Aug. 17, 2017. On the award front, 2017 saw Johnson nab a People’s Choice Award and an NAACP Image Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2017, Elle Fanning not only appeared, but starred, in four different films: Shawn Christensen’s “Sidney Hall,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled,” and Haifaa al-Mansour’s Irish-American romance film, “Mary Shelley.” She also has four major projects in production for 2018, including the musical “Teen Spirit” and the Woody Allen drama “A Rainy Day in New York.”

In addition to the major blockbusters “The Dark Tower” and “Thor: Ragnarok,” Idris Elba also appeared in “Molly’s Game” and “The Mountain Between Us.” On TV, Elba has a recurring role in two mini-series: “Guerilla” and “Five by Five,” both of which he produces, along with a couple other projects. The veteran actor is also the star of BBC’s “Luther,” which will air its fifth season in 2018.

“Busy” barely begins to describe James Franco in 2017. In addition to directing and starring in “The Disaster Artist” and “The Institute,” Franco appears in “Don’t Come Back from the Moon,” “Actors Anonymous,” “The Show,” “The Vault,” “Blood Heist,” “Blood Ride,” and “Blood Surf,” He also stars in the TV series “The Deuce” and the TV movie “High School Lover,” is a producer on a number of projects, and even had an uncredited role in “Alien: Covenant”! In case you were wondering, his list of projects for 2018 is just as lengthy.

John Goodman was definitely busy in 2017, but not all of his roles were in front of a camera. Goodman provided his voice for numerous documentaries, “Bunyan and Babe,” “Transformers: The Last Knight,” and “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” in addition to roles in “Kong: Skull Island,” “Once Upon a Time in Venice,” and “Atomic Blonde.” For TV, Goodman has been busy filming the revival of “Roseanne” to air in 2018. Deservingly, the veteran actor finally received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this year.

In addition to regular roles on “Archer,” “Casual,” and “I’m Sorry,” 2017 also saw Judy Greer appear on “Portlandia,” “Animals.,” “Lady Dynamite,” “Easy,” “Do You Want to See a Dead Body?,” and “American Dad!” And this doesn’t even include her roles in movies like “War for the Planet of the Apes,” “Wilson,” “Lemon,” “Our Souls at Night,” “Public Schooled,” and “Pottersville.” 2018 will include “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “The Halloween” reboot, among many other gigs.

Being a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” can really fill up one’s schedule, especially when that someone, Kate McKinnon, also has regular voice roles on “Nature Cat” and “The Magic School Bus Rides Again,” and appeared in an episode of “Friends from College.” McKinnon has been establishing herself as a film actress in recent years, and in 2017 she landed roles in “Rough Night” and the upcoming animated movie “Ferdinand.”

Kevin Hart did a little bit of everything in 2017, including two new comedy shows (“Kevin Hart Presents: The Next Level” and “Laugh Out Loud by Kevin Hart”), a regular gig with The Rock’s “Seven Bucks Digital Studios,” and roles in the movies “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie,” “The Upside,” and the upcoming blockbuster reboot of “Jumanji.” Behind the scenes, Hart also produces numerous ongoing projects, and won a People’s Choice Award and three Kids’ Choice Awards earlier this year.

With more and more characters added to the cast of “The Last Man on Earth” each season, 2017 saw actress and comedian Kristen Wiig join the group alongside Will Forte and Kristen Schaal. She also appeared on “Big Mouth,” “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later,” and “Nobodies,” to round out major movie roles in “Despicable Me 3,” “Downsizing,” and “Mother!”

Interestingly, Nicole Kidman’s biggest role of 2017 wasn’t on the silver screen, but instead the TV screen, as she produced and starred in the HBO miniseries “Big Little Lies,” which has already earned her two Emmy wins. She can also be seen in a supporting role on the BBC series “Top of the Lake: China Girl.” As for films, Kidman appeared in “The Beguiled,” “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” – all three of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. As of now, she already has four major films currently in pre- or post-production, which are scheduled for release in 2018.

In addition to the Woody Harrelson written and directed film “Lost in London,” Owen Wilson also starred in “Cars 3,” “Wonder,” and “Father Figures” in 2017. He’s busy at work planning for 2018 as well; Wilson is co-writing a Wright Brothers biopic with his brother, Luke, and a third “Shanghai” film with Jackie Chan is also reportedly in the works.

Randall Park has been acting for nearly 15 years, but the 43-year-old actor didn’t have a real breakout role on TV and in film until he became a regular on HBO’s “Veep” in 2013 and starred as Kim Jong-un in 2014’s “The Interview” alongside Seth Rogen and James Franco. From this point on, not only did his already busy schedule get even busier, but he started landing larger roles. In 2017, he appeared on “Love,” “Angie Tribeca,” “Do You Want to See a Dead Body,” “Drive Share,” “Fresh Off the Boat,” and “Veep” (with starring or recurring roles in the latter two), and in the films “The House,” “The Disaster Artist,” “The LEGO Ninjago Movie,” “Snatched,” “Dismissed,” and “The 60 Yard Line.” 

Every year is a busy year for Samuel L. Jackson. In 2017, he appeared in “xXx: Return of Xander Cage,” “Kong: Skull Island,” “Unicorn Store,” and “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” for which he wrote and performed a song, too. Jackson also lent his voice to the animated movie “Blazing Samurai,” and has a handful of projects in production for 2018, including Disney/Pixar’s “Incredibles 2.”

Three movies starred Steve Carell in 2017: “Despicable Me 2,” “Battle of the Sexes” with Emma Stone, and Richard Linklater’s “Last Flag Flying” alongside Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne. Carell is also the executive producer of “Angie Tribeca,” which aired just aired its third season, and he appeared in two documentaries: “The Shocking Truth” and “Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show.”

Tom Cruise never stops working, and 2017 was no exception. In addition to starring in the blockbuster reboot of “The Mummy,” which raked in more than $400 million worldwide, the legendary actor was also the lead in “American Made,” which received critical acclaim. In between promoting these films, Cruise also found time to shoot the long anticipated sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” and a sixth “Mission: Impossible” installment.