Intro for November 13, 2026

Dear Gossips,

On top of all of the galas and the infinite parade of women and men of the year, the year end also brings lists of rising stars. So many stars! All of them rising! What if you want to be a star moving laterally? Where is our list of stars who are content at their current level? Call them settlers if you must, but I would like to know the young actors and creators of Hollywood who are happy to exist as medium famous. Anyway, here is The Hollywood Reporter’s “Next Gen” class of 2026.

It feels a bit weird to have any kind of “rising star” conversation in 2026 and not talk about the most risen stars of the year, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, but I suppose their meteoric success took them straight over “rising” and deposited them at the top with the A-list. Still, no stars rose faster, higher, or bigger than theirs this year, though THR’s list does include their co-star, Sophie Nelisse, who says, “this is the busiest [she’s] ever been” as she comes off Yellowjackets’ final season and filming for Heated Rivalry season two (and maybe three, the extent of Rose Landry’s role is unknown).

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These rising star lists are always engineered in no small part by publicists, which is why they’re so interesting to me. It’s like Paul Anthony Kelly being named in Esquire UK’s “Better Men” issue alongside Aaron Pierre, an actor who is widely lauded for his ability and who makes sense alongside peers such as Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tom Hiddleston.

THR’s list isn’t total nonsense, though. Sophie Nelisse IS a rising star. So is Lola Tung, coming off The Summer I Turned Pretty. Whitney Peak is co-starring in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and Miami Vice 85, following stints on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the Gossip Girl reboot. Esme Creed-Miles is in the new Sense and Sensibility and starred in the series adaptation of Hanna.

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Meanwhile, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Owen Thiele, Stephen Kalyn, and Tom Francis might become more knownish names, if their careers keep trending up. Charlie Hall, too, but he has an advantage as the son of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her fellow SNL alum Brad Hall (adorably, they were college sweethearts before each landing a gig on SNL in the early Eighties).

In the past, though, this list has included the likes of Zendaya and Paul Mescal, superstars of their generation. I’m just curious how THR is defining “rising star”, beyond the publicist pitch. Like Monica Barbaro is a rising star, she appeared in one of the biggest movies of the decade so far, earned her first Oscar nomination, but still isn’t a household name. She still has upward trajectory. Same for Hunter Schafer, coming off Euphoria and promoting a new TV series in which she is has a leading role (Blade Runner 2099). Or Lily-Rose Depp, if you want to include a nepo baby, who is very popular with Gen Z but is still building her reputation with everyone else. Why not these rising stars?

I’m just very curious about how these lists come together. There is usually some element of promoting a project, everyone on THR’s list has a project out right now or coming very soon, and a sense that these will be the next Big Stars in Hollywood. Lola Tung and Sophie Nelisse, I can believe this. Whitney Peak and Esme Creed-Miles I am willing to wait and see. Everyone else I’m a little like “needs more data”. Tom Francis, for instance, has only just had his first named film role, in Peter Berg’s The Mosquito Bowl. Like, call me when he’s got more data points available, you can’t tell sh-t about an actor’s trajectory off one role. Anyway, congrats to the publicists who contributed to this list. The devil works hard, but publicists work harder.

Attached - Sophie Nelisse at the LA premiere of Yellowjackets, Monica Barbaro at GQ Men of the Year, Hunter Schafer promoting Blade Runner 2099, and Lily-Rose Depp on the set of Playmates.

Live long and gossip,

Sarah