With this year’s award season now in our rearview, it’s time to look ahead to the coming year, featuring a healthier box office (fingers crossed), and the emergence of new, young talent to get excited about. A mix of already-released and projects yet to come, below you’ll find a spotlight of emerging young stars in the making, who we predict will be making headlines – and owning awards seasons – for years to come.
Ryder Allen
Released on Amazon in late January, “Palmer” stars the multi-hyphenate Justin Timberlake, Ted Lasso’s delightful Juno Temple, and young Ryder Allen, whose IMDB page previously consisted of a single “Law & Order: SVU” credit.
The film follows former high school football coach Eddie Palmer (Timberlake) who returns home after 12 years in prison looking to put his life back together. He forms an unlikely friendship with a unique boy (Allen) from a troubled home.
While Allen currently doesn’t have any confirmed upcoming projects, his stunning performance as Sam is sure to cement his place in this business for a long time.
Archie Barnes
Also in January, Netflix released “The Dig,” starring “Promising Young Woman’s” Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, and Archie Barnes, who arguably steals the entire film from underneath his seasoned co-stars’ feet.
With two West End theater credits also on his resume, this will not be the last we see of the versatile young star.
Kea Peahu
January proved to be a busy month for up-and-coming youngsters, also seeing the release of “Finding ‘Ohana,” starring fourteen-year-old dancer, actor, and all-around social media star Kea Peahu.
While this was her first on-screen film role, Kea has been a performer most of her life, appearing in music videos for Jennifer Lopez and Chris Brown and as part of the hip-hop troupe The Lab, which competed in “World of Dance’s” first season.
Finn Little
This month, you’ll see “Reckoning’s” Finn Little as Connor Casserly in the Angelina Jolie-starrer “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” The thriller finds the teenager, a murder witness, on the run from twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with help from a survival expert (Jolie). If that’s not enough – there’s also the threat of a massive forest fire playing out at the same time.
Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe
Since the Oscar-nominated “A Quiet Place released in 2018, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe have been busy. Simmonds, who had previously starred in Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” has since recurred on Disney’s “Andi Mack,” an episode of “This Close,” and in the Freeform pilot “Close Up,” which sadly never made it to series.
Jupe, most recently seen as Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant’s son Henry in HBO’s “The Undoing,” has added “Holmes & Watson,” “Honey Boy,” and “Ford v. Ferrari” to his impressive resume and will next be seen in Steven Soderbergh’s star-studded “No Sudden Move,” alongside Matt Damon, Jon Hamm, Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Benicio Del Toro, and Brendan Fraser, and among the voice cast for “The Magician’s Elephant,” which also features “Mary Poppins Returns” breakout Pixie Davies.
Julian Hilliard
In further sequel news, June 4 brings “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” to theaters and Max and stars a young man we are sure to hear about for years to come, Julian Hilliard. In the three years since bursting onto the scene, the roughly ten-year-old Hilliard’s resume consists of a body of work that most actors work their entire careers for – including recurring roles in “The Haunting of Hill House,” “Penny Dreadful: The City of Angels,” and Disney/Marvel’s explosive hit “WandaVision” as one half of Elizabeth Olsen’s “Wanda” and Guy Pearce’s “Vision” dynamic twin sons. We have high hopes for this young man and whether his career takes him more towards film or tv in the future, we have no doubt about his longevity in this business.
Alan Kim and Elsie Fisher
We’ll end with Alan Kim. Though a release date is unknown, Kim signed on to star in the upcoming “Latchkey Kids” alongside one of our other favorite youngsters, Elsie Fisher. Slated to begin production this summer, the film follows an eccentric teenager (Fisher), who is looking to escape her dysfunctional life, but ultimately finds herself in the company of a young boy (Kim) police believe is killing his babysitters. Fisher was a breakout in 2018 for her indomitable performance in “Eighth Grade” and this film feels like a complete departure for them both – which we are here for.
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