Next Gen 2025: The 8 Hottest Young Stars in Hollywood

Next Gen 2025: The 8 Hottest Young Stars in Hollywood

These eight rising screen stars are popping up everywhere from streaming successes to festival stand-outs, catching the attention of directors, studio executives and audiences alike.

Some have had franchise turns like Hunger Games actor Tom Blyth and 28 Years Later’s Erin Kellyman, while others will be familiar to A24 obsessives (see: Chase Sui Wonders and Archie Madekwe). The 2025 class joins alumni that include a pre-Top Gun Glen Powell, pre-Euphoria Sydney Sweeney, pre-Spider-Man Zendaya, and many others who are now at the top of call sheets and calling their own shots.

And while Hollywood has always been a difficult industry to navigate, these talents are charting their own course. “You’re in this weird business where you’re constantly in competition with your friends,” says Madekwe. “As soon as you can learn to find joy and to celebrate everyone’s success, it frees you.”

Blyth has tackled franchise fare (Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), TV Westerns (Billy the Kid) and festival standouts (Plainclothes and Wasteman), but, as he’ll tell you, one of his hardest roles was something completely unexpected. “I’d been offered People We Meet on Vacation a couple of times and turned it down because it almost felt too light and fun and didn’t feel congruent with the other stuff I’ve been doing,” says the 30-year-old of Netflix’s highly anticipated adaptation of the Emily Henry bestseller. But the Nottingham-born actor, who studied at the city’s Television Workshop before continuing on to Juilliard, was coming off the videogame adaptation Watch Dogs and found himself craving lighter fare. In the end, the rom-com proved to be its own kind of acting challenge. At this year’s Academy Museum Gala, he was talking with Zoey Deutch, who starred in the early Netflix rom-com Set It Up, and recalls, “She said, ‘I know how hard that genre is.’ And I was like, ‘Yes! Thank you!’” He explains: “People think rom-coms must be really easy but, especially when you’re used to doing stuff that is full of grit, you’ve got to be really present and stay fluid.”

IF I WASN’T AN ACTOR I’D BE “I’ve always held this feeling I would be a Zoologist.”

WHAT I DID WITH MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD PAYCHECK“My very first one was when I was 11 or 12 and I played a feral child in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood and I bought a bunch of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.”

THE FIRST TIME I WAS STARSTRUCK “There have been many times but the first time I was properly starstruck was meeting Daniel Day-Lewis.”

THE PERSON I AM DYING TO WORK WITH “Again, dream of dreams, that person would be Daniel Day-Lewis. In terms of a person who makes other actors look good, he would make you look like a much better actor than you could ever possibly be. There are so many others, too, and I was so lucky to already work with Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage [on Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes] so the bar is already quite high.”

Kellyman was launched into Hollywood on the biggest of stages, landing her first major acting role in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Looking back now, the 27-year-old says, “I kind of spent the whole time just like a deer in the headlights.” The former child model — she discovered her love of acting during a commercial audition where she was asked to improv — has now appeared in The Falconand the Winter Soldier, Willow, 28 Years Later and the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. In between the franchises, she found time to star in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great; she says smaller movies provide the intimacy and emotionality that drew her to the industry initially. Kellyman, who is openly gay, says she’s partial to queer stories but “also wouldn’t box myself in in that way.” Looking ahead, she cites Greta Gerwig as a dream collaborator and says she’s very interested in writing and creating characters of her own. Her ultimate goal, however? “If I could be, like, one-sixteenth of what Meryl Streep is,” she says, “that would be an achievement.”

IF I WASN’T AN ACTOR I’D BE“A mess. Thank God this worked out.”

THE FIRST TIME I WAS STARSTRUCK It was meeting Donald Glover. I think I was 17, we were filming Solo and staying in a hotel and my aunt was with me. We were getting breakfast and I was like, you can sit anywhere but just not next to that guy. She had no idea who he was and I was too shy to talk to him even though we were in the same movie. Anyways I turn around and she sat at the table with Donald and his dad.

WHAT I DID WITH MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD PAYCHECK “Got my dog, Bambi. Which my mom was not happy about.”

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN WORKING IN ENTERTAINMENT WAS FROM “Scarlett Johansson. When we were on a carpet and I was really overwhelmed, she told me to imagine I was in Hawaii.”

In the two years since Bottoms — the raunchy gay comedy from zillennial scribes Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman — came out, Havana Rose Liu has booked eight roles. “That movie changed how I see myself, and it held such a powerful space in our political landscape that opportunities started to open up for me,” says the 28-year-old actress. Originally a model (and before that an NYU student), Liu has been busy curating an indie- and auteur-heavy roster. She stole the screen in this summer’s Lurker (from The Bear‘s Alex Russell), and her turn in Tuner (the feature debut of Oscar-winning Navalny director Daniel Roher) was the talk of the fall festival circuit; still to come are roles in Jesse Eisenberg’s untitled musical comedy and Nicolas Winding Refn’s thriller for Neon. “Someone told me early on not to think about this career as a ‘job,’ or our industry as an ‘industry,’ and that has really helped me take the weight off,” she says. “And it brought me back to the core of the art.”

IF I WASN’T AN ACTOR I’D BE “I was just saying today that maybe I’d want to be a doula. Or a teacher, or something where I’d get to read a lot.”

THE FIRST TIME I WAS STARSTRUCK “I saw Tilda Swinton from very far away and literally just left the room because I was too struck.”

IF I’M WEARING MY AIRPODS ON SET, I’M PROBABLY LISTENING TO “Right now it’s Tame Impala, because I am oontz oontz-ing my way through my nerves.”

MY FIRST IMPRESSION OF DUSTIN HOFFMAN ON THE SET OF TUNER WAS “That he is such a charmer. He leads with so much gravitas and magnetism and grace. And I remember he just walked into the room very slowly and everyone sort of bristled and he has this just really cool guy charm that I think makes everyone around him feel very special. And you really see that with the greats. I think they just have a way of shining their light on you and you feel suddenly very safe and whole.”

“I’m constantly searching for roles that I haven’t seen somebody that looks like myself play,” says the 30-year-old Brit, who got his start in the theater before nabbing parts in Midsommar and Saltburn. “I’m interested in stories that show people of color not in a position of trauma.” Earlier this year, Madekwe starred in and produced the psychological thriller Lurker; now, he has his eye on developing projects of his own. “When you’re a creative person,” he says, “you write, you sing, you dance, and then at some point someone says, ‘Which one are you going to do?’ And then you choose to be an actor, but it doesn’t take away that spark of wanting to be creative from inside you.” He points to pal Harris Dickinson — who last year launched his own production company and recently released his directorial debut — as an inspiration. “You’re in this weird business where you’re constantly in competition with your friends, and as soon as you can learn to find joy and to celebrate everyone’s success, it frees you.” Up next, Madekwe will star alongside Kingsley Ben-Adir in The Arrival and opposite Sophie Turner in a Prime Video heist thriller.

IF I WASN’T AN ACTOR I’D BE “I always thought I would be great at music A&R. I thought I could hype people up, introduce them to the right venue, try to get people listening to them.”

THE FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH THE MOST “This is so embarrassing, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this but as a kid it was Lisa Simpson. I loved that she was an outcast in her family and was really into the arts. That episode when she became a Buddhist, I was like I think I’m going to become a Buddhist.”

WHAT I DID WITH MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD PAYCHECK “Bought a house before I could spend it on Nando’s and chocolate.”

THE PERSON I AM DYING TO WORK WITH“Paul Dano. He’s such a special actor and I love his career.”

The Los Angeles native’s big break came after losing out on what could have been a dream role. May auditioned for Mayor of Kingstown, a popular show in the vast Taylor Sheridan television universe, but didn’t get it. “Two weeks later,” she says, Sheridan called her and said, “I haven’t written it yet, but I’m going to do a show called 1883, and I’m writing you a role.” That role was Elsa, the lead character in the Yellowstone prequel about the Dutton family’s wagon train journey across the Western U.S. “It wasn’t so much about having a conversation about a scene and getting into character. You’re just thrust into it,” the 24-year-old says of the shoot, which took place outdoors in Texas and Montana, with the cast and crew subject to whatever nature threw at them. Still, May says she was grateful for the experience: “You just don’t make anything like that anymore. It’s like a film in the ’70s.” Four years after May wow-ed in 1883, audiences can expect to see a lot more of the actress. Looking ahead, she has a stunning half-dozen movies lined up, including the latest Scream (in which she plays Neve Campbell’s onscreen daughter) and other titles that see her starring opposite Jennifer Lopez and Cynthia Erivo. May says the sudden burst in productivity came after a strike-imposed period of self-reflection. “I had a weird moment of not knowing what I needed to do and maybe relying on other people to guide me. I thought, ‘Maybe I’m not cut out to be an actor,’ ” she says. “I went and lived life and traveled and then thought: ‘It’s time to get back to work.’ I feel very certain and assured now.”

THE FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH THE MOST “Probably, Holden Caulfield. I have said that since the minute I read [Catcher in the Rye]. But maybe it’s because I wanted to be more like him, which I don’t know why because I think he was very depressed. There is probably something psychological there that should be studied, but I love the way that character was written.”

IF I’M WEARING MY AIRPODS ON SET, I’M PROBABLY LISTENING TO “It varies a lot. I can listen to A Perfect Circle and Tool and Nine Inch Nails, or I could be listening to a Jazz album. But nothing pop-y.”

THE PERSON I AM DYING TO WORK WITH “Colin Farrell and Willem Dafoe. I love chameleons. I have a list that I wrote ten years ago, and I will eventually check them all off. It is my goal.”

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN WORKING IN ENTERTAINMENT WAS FROM ”She’s not in entertainment, but my mom told me when I was young, ‘Isabel, I don’t know how I can help you but I would say befriend all of the characters and the only person you are trying to impress is them.’”

As the daughter of actor Ewan McGregor, Esther was lucky enough to spend a lot of time on sets as a child. She tried several creative outlets while coming of age (she’s a licensed tattoo artist and writes music), but says that deep down, she always knew acting was going to be part of her life. And when she booked the role of a young Tilda Swinton in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, her career started to click into place. “I have a French mother, so my love for this [business] is deeply rooted in international film, and that call felt like a full-circle moment,” says the 24-year-old. “It changed my life.” She then broke big in last year’s erotic thriller Babygirl (as Nicole Kidman’s daughter) and this summer’s YA Prime Video series We Were Liars. Next, she’ll be in Chloe Domont’s follow-up to Fair Play and will co-star with Pamela Anderson and Dakota Fanning in a family drama about survivor’s guilt. “I think a lot of art we see is just distraction, which can be great, but what I want to do is tell a story that might change someone’s life.”

BEST ADVICE I’VE GOTTEN WORKING IN ENTERTAINMENT WAS FROM “Nicole Kidman told me, take care of yourself. And I think it’s a very vital part of our art and anyone’s life, but in specific, there’s a lot of giving that you do as an actor, and I think that you can’t really do it fully unless you’ve taken care of yourself properly. So I think a lot of people struggle with that, and I enjoy taking care of others more than me. And so I’ve really tried to apply that to my daily life on set or offset.”

THE FIRST TIME I WAS STARSTRUCK “I recently did a film with Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar-Jones, and they were the most inviting people ever, but I sat in the makeup chair in between them and I was like, hi. I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I also met Ari Aster and couldn’t look him in the eyes.”

WHAT I DID WITH MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD PAYCHECK “I bought an old Mercedes. It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever driven, and I’m obsessed with her, and she’s named Charlie.”

The 29-year-old has been building up her filmography — and her reputation as Hollywood’s resident “cool girl” — for several years now, with turns in HBO Max’s Generation and A24’s Bodies Bodies Bodies. But it was her role as an entertainment executive try-hard on The Studio — where she held her own alongside comedic heavyweights Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn — that tipped her into full stardom. “My parents are very achievement-focused, so I always had these delusions of grandeur,” she says with a laugh. “I always thought that if I didn’t become an actor, I would be a woman of business or a CEO of something niche, like a company that manufactures plastic parts. I would wear suits and give a firm handshake.” Next, she’ll star alongside Olivia Wilde and Charli XCX in Gregg Araki’s erotic thriller I Want Your Sex, and she’s filming another A24 horror flick before returning to the Continental Studios backlot. “I think it was actually on a THR shoot where Seth just dropped to us that we were doing a season two,” she says. “We were all freaking out about it, and he was like, ‘Oh, I thought you guys all knew [another season] was a given.’ ”

THE FIRST TIME I WAS STARSTRUCK “I was at the Emmy’s the other day and I was in the queue for an interview right behind Ben Stiller and his wife. And so we kind of had to smack right into each other and I was freaking out. I was really mincing my words. He’s like, congrats on the studio. And I was like, congrats on amazing life and career. But that was amidst everything that was going on my heart. My BPM was freaking out upon seeing him.”

THE MOST HOLLYWOOD THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME IS “Every day on set of The Studio is a real Hollywood moment. You’re chilling at [craft services] and Martin Scorsese is also getting a little cup full of carrots and Charlize Theron’s looking at the monitor.”

THE PERSON I AM DYING TO WORK WITH“I have so many manifestations for season two of The Studio Seth and Evan have talked me through a lot of the plans, so I’m a little reticent to say because I don’t want them to slip through our fingers. But I think it would be very fun for fans of Seth and Evan, of which there are many, to see Michael Cera or Jonah Hill.”

Withers’ revelation came during the pandemic. After years of making online videos, the former Florida State football player picked up and moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in acting. From there, he parlayed bit parts in Atlanta and Tell Me Lies into starring roles in this year’s tentpoles Him and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Next, Withers will segue from scream king to an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him, in which he stars opposite Maika Monroe. “That was the scariest one to make,” he says, “because you’re living in the soft gentleness of masculinity and showing your emotions.” The romance deals heavily with grief, which is something that the 27-year-old is familiar with. Withers lost his older brother in a 2021 car accident and wanted to explore his own pain head-on. Looking ahead, Withers would love to lean into comedy as well. In the meantime, he says of his breakout year: “Going into these projects, I always feared that I was not the right person for the role, and then I just had to keep reminding myself that I am enough.”

THE FICTIONAL CHARACTER I IDENTIFY WITH THE MOST “Nemo, from Finding Nemo. I feel like a little fish in a big sea, trying to find my way home, which means getting creative and finding your way to success. It’s poetry.”

WHAT I DID WITH MY FIRST HOLLYWOOD PAYCHECK“I was living in Atlanta and I got my check and took myself to Olive Garden. Growing up, my mom used to take me there to celebrate for my birthday, and we’ve have soccer team dinners there. That was luxury. That is luxury.”

IF I’M WEARING MY AIRPODS ON SET, I’M PROBABLY LISTENING TO“”The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. She’s talking about anxiety, and that calms my anxiety. But it depends on the scene. The song that gets me to a sad place is “Dear April” by Frank Ocean, because I lost my brother in the month of April. And if you need to get crunk, you play Lil’ Jon or “Dreams and Nightmares” by Meek Mill.”

THE FIRST TIME I WAS STARSTRUCK“I’m shooting shots. Channing Tatum, LaKeith Stanfield, Keke Palmer, Jennifer Lawrence, Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, the list is endless. And Archie Madekwe, we’ve got to do something together. Shoutout to Archie.”