5 August 2020
5 rising stars we’re keeping our eyes on in 2020
August is Women’s Month in South Africa, and so we’re celebrating the young women stars who are making their mark in top-notch shows and movies.
1
Amandla Stenberg: Everything, Everything
Twenty-one year old Amandla Stenberg (no, there’s no South African connection) had her breakthrough as Rue in The Hunger Games franchise. As well as being an accomplished actress, she’s also musically talented, and made a music video for her song about cultural appropriation, “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows”.
One of her songs was also featured in the movie Everything, Everything, in which she starred as a young woman who’s spent most of her life confined, only to find love with the boy next door. You’ll also find her in the gritty Netflix miniseries The Eddy. It’s set in a Paris jazz club, and Amandla plays the club owner’s daughter, Julie, with a performance hailed by Vulture as “terrific”.
2
Michaela Coel: I May Destroy You
When it comes to effortlessly cool performances, British actress Michaela Coel is one of the best in the business. She’s coming to Showmax and DStv Now from Wednesday, 26 August in her dramedy series I May Destroy You, playing the lead role of Arabella.
The character is a social media darling who’s found fame and fortune as a writer but her life is about to be derailed. While letting off steam from an intense writing session, Arabella goes partying with her besties. When she wakes up the next morning, a lot has changed for her and not for the better. Worse, Arabella doesn’t remember what happened the night before and that is a problem. Luckily, her two party pals are at her side while she tries to figure things out.
While Michaela is no newcomer to UK screens, I May Destroy You is the one you need to watch. In real life, Michaela is all kinds of bo-ho chic cool – she’s a singer, writer, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, playwright, director and music producer. And her name, while a mouthful, is too cool for school, too: Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson.
3
Florence Pugh: Fighting With My Family, Malevolent
British actress Florence Pugh cleans up nicely (her words) for the red carpet but she’s more at home playing gritty, dirty characters who don’t mind taking a tumble. The 24-year-old has been around for years but she got people talking in 2019 with her role in WWE movie Fighting With My Family.
It’s the biographical film about WWE Divas champion Paige and how a little girl from a little town in the UK became a world-famous wrestling phenomenon. For the role, Florence went to WWE finishing school in the US and was trained by real WWE superstars, although she did have a stunt double for some of the moves.
It’s not just physical characters she loves – she’s also flexing her acting skills on Showmax with Malevolent. It’s a dark thriller horror movie and she plays Angela, one half of a sibling pair of con-artists who convince people that they can contact the spirit world. They’re called out on their con, though, when an old woman living in an abandoned orphanage asks them for help – like that premise isn’t scary enough! Keep an eye on Florence, she has big things ahead of her.
4
Danielle Macdonald: Dumplin’
Aussie actress Danielle has never let her plus-size shape stand in her way even though she’s been taunted about it since junior school. Instead, she’s used it to drive her ambitions and prove her naysayers wrong. In 2018 dramedy movie Dumplin’ she plays Willowdean Dickson, an overweight teenager who rebels against the establishment by mocking her beauty pageant-winning mother Rosie (Jennifer Aniston) and entering a beauty pageant in their small town.
It’s not that Willowdean – aka “Dumplin’”, Rosie’s nickname for her – hates her mom, she just can’t stomach the hypocrisy of the “perfect” image and world that Rosie lives in in her head. If you can’t get enough of the 29-year-old’s talents, chances are good you’ve seen her in a couple of other shows too – she had small roles in Pretty Little Liars (2014), 2 Broke Girls (2015), The Middle (2015), American Horror Story: Roanoke (2017) and she’s also in the Netflix post-apocalyptic thriller movie Bird Box opposite Sandra Bullock.
5
Beanie Feldstein: What We Do In The Shadows S1-2
Her real name is Elizabeth but she’s been called Beanie all her life – it was a nickname the 27-year-old US actress was given by her nanny because she wore beanies as a child no matter what the weather. She’ll need something warm over her head for her break-out role as Jenna in Season 1 of dry, dark vampire comedy What We Do In The Shadows (she also appears in flashbacks during Season 2).
The character goes from being a human to a blood-sucking fanged vamp after she’s bullied by her “friends” but there’s more to Jenna than meets the eye… literally…because she has the power of invisibility. The show’s main cast aren’t exactly like-able vampires thanks to centuries of being cold, cruel, creepy monsters, but at least Jenna has a bit of soul left in her.
Don’t miss Beanie in a more normal role, playing high-school senior Molly in coming-of-age movie Booksmart, now on Showmax. She plays the wife of a former white supremacist in acclaimed drama Skin, and is also going to be the voice of Harriet the Spy in Apple TV+’s animated remake, coming later this year.
(Think she looks familiar, but you can’t quite put your finger on it? That’s because she’s Jonah Hill’s sister. The likeness is uncanny!)
