Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch for 2022

Since making her debut at 16 in Alan Parker’s 1999 adaptation of ��Angela’s Ashes,” Condon has steadily built a career that encapsulates virtually every kind of work a person in her profession can do, from film (“The Last Station,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) to television (“Rome,” “Ray Donovan”) to theater (“The Lieutenant of Inishmore”). It’s in that last medium where she met one of her longest-running collaborators, playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh. She is drawing praise for her role in McDonagh’s latest project, “The Banshees of Inisherin.”

“Even though I’ve worked with Martin many times since I was 17, I still feel like I need to prove how good I am and that I deserve the part,” Condon says. “So I continue to work very hard. And I am very good at taking his notes, and he gives a lot of them.”

Having just wrapped her role on “Better Call Saul,” as Stacey Ehrmantraut, “Inisherin” marks a turning point in her career, even if she’s been working toward it for more than two decades. “I want to be in artistic movies, but I also love watching something just for entertainment, so I want to be a part of those genres and types of movies too,” she says. “I have always wanted to do everything, even before television was as mainstream as it is now, I was very happy to be doing film, theater and television. I don’t think it’s wise to limit yourself as an actor, or a person.”

— Todd Gilchrist

Reps: Agency: CAA (U.S.), Curtis Brown Group (U.K.); Management: Framework Entertainment; Legal: Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman

Influences: David Fincher, Nick Nolte, David Wilmot, Emily Watson

Like many performers from marginalized communities, there was a time when Hsu, the breakout star of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,”  felt she couldn’t identify anyone, anywhere, to serve as a direct inspiration for the career she wanted. “I remember when I was a kid I told my mom that I wanted to be an actor,” Hsu says. “She pointed at a TV screen and said, ‘There’s nobody that looks like you — that seems impossible.’”

But in just over a decade, Hsu has taken a creative path through experimental theater, reality-based comedy (“Girl Code”), Broadway (“SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical”) and television (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), to get to “Everything Everywhere,” a project as extraordinary — and uncategorizable — as the opportunity she now faces. “This movie is the most honest handshake I could possibly make with Hollywood, because it encapsulates so much of what I as an artist want to be doing in this world.”

As Hsu prepares for upcoming roles in writer-producer Adele Lim’s directorial debut and Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne’s series “Poker Face,” the multidimensional performer is only beginning to achieve the kind of success that embodies the change she wants to see in the world. Says Hsu, “I’m excited to continue to swing the pendulum in all different directions, and to do very different work that is surprising at every turn.”

— Todd Gilchrist

Reps: Agency: CAA; Management: Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment; Legal: Ziffren Brittenham

Influences: Robin Williams, Sandra Oh, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Elizabeth Swados

When Jackson was in the seventh grade, the drama club teacher invited her to join. “In Newark, New Jersey, there were not a whole lot of opportunities, so I immediately threw everything I had into it,” Jackson recalls.

Now shooting Apple TV’s “Swagger,” Jackson appears in the upcoming films “Devotion” and “Shirley.” Her first starring role was in “Annie,” but equally important was seeing her first Broadway show as part of a program for inner city kids. “I saw ‘Aida’ with Heather Headley,” Jackson says. “Seeing this beautiful statuesque Black woman singing her heart out on Broadway let me know there was space for me.”

She carved out her own space on “Boardwalk Empire,” a “validating and scary” big step forward. “I had intense scenes sparring with Michael K. Williams and I was nervous, but I knew they wouldn’t have kept giving me those scenes if I hadn’t earned it,” Jackson says.

Recent years have brought even more diverse roles for Black women and Jackson says she’s becoming “more selective about the scripts I’d like to lend my abilities to.”

“Devotion,” in which Jonathan Majors plays the first Black aviator in the Navy, and “Shirley,” starring Regina King as Shirley Chisholm during her groundbreaking 1972 presidential campaign, fit that bill. “I feel a sense of responsibility and I’m excited that I’m getting to help tell these stories and play women I’m really proud of,” Jackson says.

— Stuart Miller

Reps: Agency: Paradigm; Management: MKSD Talent; Legal: Jackoway Austen Tyerman

Influences: Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Bell Hooks, Angela Bassett

Acting has always been in Lamadrid’s blood. But it wasn’t until age 5, when she rejected a role in a school play, that she experienced an epiphany. “It was that ‘no’ that made me realize it’s a ‘yes’ for me, that for the rest of my life I’d be chasing this amazing dream.” She quickly corrects herself, “Well, what began as a dream, but no longer is a dream. It’s a reality.”

After roles in Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks” and the series “Who Killed Sara?,” Lamadrid plays a pivotal part in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Bardo” as Camila, the loving daughter of a man caught in the throes of an existential crisis. She concedes her own history — being born in Mexico, growing up in Dubai and studying her craft in New York City — greatly colored her character’s experience. “It feels like the universe and Alejandro wrote this for me,” she says,adding: “[Camila] has just graduated from university and is figuring it out. As soon as I graduated, I was figuring it out and came back to Mexico — and it connected. I saw all of the love, warmth and everything I had missed about my country all these years.”

The ability to tackle this role has only furthered her confidence. “As an actor, I have to surrender and trust that it’s going to show up, that everything is going to come out, which it did.” She now has her sights set on the literary world, seeking a publisher for her hybrid poetry-memoir “Tulip Season.” “I want to make this a very big, beautiful first book.”

— Courtney Howard

Reps: Agency: Range Media Partners, Talent on the Road Management and Relevant; Management: Range Media Partners

Influences: Carey Mulligan, Patti Smith, Matthew McConaughey

Becoming an actor was never part of Mbedu’s plan. She thought she could make a difference as a dermatologist. But choosing drama on a whim in the 10th grade was when her focus shifted. “I fell in love with it then and did not look back.” And the rewards were immediate after her first performance brought the crowd to tears. “That’s when I was like, ‘I can use acting as a tool for social change.’ It’s about that, bringing healing to people through storytelling.”

While Mbedu’s star is on the rise with terrific turns in “Is’Thunzi” and “The Underground Railroad,” her work in her first major studio release, “The Woman King,” is show-stopping. Her character Nawi, an ambitious trainee in the Dahomey king’s all-female military unit, goes on an emotional journey while her physical acuity is put to the test — something she too experienced. “I’m constantly trying to push myself and see how far I can take myself physically within the performance. I had a fitness test during my audition. That was scary, but also exhilarating.”

Projects that challenge Mbedu are those that inspire. “I want it to be a thing that, even if a small number of people watch, they’ll be mobilized for some sort of change.” She’s also open to different genres — up next is a science-fiction story set in the 1950s. “I always want to improve on who I am as an artist. I never want to relax, because then what’s the point of doing it?”

— Courtney Howard

Reps: Agency: WME; Management: Beth McIntosh; Legal: Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.

Influences: Viola Davis, Denzel Washington, John Boyega, Jonathan Majors, Sebastian Stan, Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Despite the star power of Hugh Jackman, Anthony Hopkins and Laura Dern, some of the most scene-stealing work in director and co-writer Florian Zeller’s “The Son” comes from newcomer McGrath.

It’s an emotionally intense role that deals with mental illness and generational trauma. But the actor doesn’t agree with some commentary that his character, Nicholas, should be used as a stand-in for what many teens and young adults are going through as we emerge from the pandemic. “Each and every individual has their own problems and this example can’t be applied to everyone,” McGrath says.

The middle of three fantastically named acting siblings (older brother: Gulliver; younger brother: Winta; McGrath’s first name is actually Augustus)  — the 20-year-old Melbourne, Australia, native got into the business on a whim when he replaced his older brother in the film “Aloft” after a production shut-down caused him to age out of the part. Now, with this breakthrough role, he says his brothers and friends are extra handy to have around “to make fun of me” as he adjusts to the surrealness of doing Instagram campaigns for Dior or seeing his face on billboards.

Still, he’s pragmatic enough to say he can’t define his dream role  quite yet “because you can never know what you’re gonna work on next until a script comes along.”

— Whitney Friedlander

Reps: Agency: Artist Rights Group; Management: Emma Raciti Management

Influences: Gulliver McGrath, Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Lawrence, Lucas Hedges, Christoph Waltz

Midthunder says she’s so thrilled to be named one of Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch, she needs a new word. “Overstatic? Overjoyed and ecstatic?” she jokes. “To be able to be an Indigenous person on the list, and be representing and seen in that way, I feel really proud of.”

Midthunder has been the talk of the town since “Prey,” the latest film in the “Predator” franchise, premiered to audience and critical raves. Her overnight success began over a decade ago, though, with projects large and small, including  “Hell or High Water” and “Legion” before landing the role of Rosa Ortecho on “Roswell, New Mexico.”

Midthunder grew up uncertain if acting would be her path, but as a senior in high school, she decided to move to Los Angeles and go all in. “In the rom-com that is my life, it’s like acting was my true love, and I cycled through a lot of different other ones only to come back to the original,” she says.

She’s also produced and starred in “The Wheel,” which premiered at last year’s Toronto Intl. Film Festival. She says producing is something  she’s felt “called to” lately.

The success of “Prey” goes beyond a career achievement to Midthunder. “To have Indian country react so positively, it means the world to me. It also encourages me to work harder and accomplish more. I feel like if I can get here, who’s to say where it stops?”

— Paul Plunkett

Reps: Agency: CAA; Management: Corner Booth Entertainment; Legal: Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein

Influences: Her parents, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Damien Chazelle, Buffy Sainte-Marie

Nivola’s parents, actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, weren’t sure they wanted their son to follow their footsteps into acting.

“They really weren’t too keen on it,” says Nivola. “Because they knew how tough the lifestyle is.”

Nevertheless, Nivola found himself on this path when, at age 13, he got a subscription to the Criterion Collection and found himself hooked on film. “Since then, I’ve probably watched like two movies a day every day,” he says. “Falling in love with movies made me fall in love with acting.”

Nivola will be seen later this year in Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” as the son of Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. And in 2023, he appears as Alexander Bernstein, son of legendary conductor Leonard, in “Maestro.” Bradley Cooper is not only playing the elder Bernstein, but also directing the film.

Before shooting, Nivola was able to meet the real Alexander. “He was really cool, and really sweet, but I immediately felt like I don’t want to talk to this guy again,” says Nivola, who wanted to avoid the trap of mimicry. “It’s so hard, not to do an imitation rather than a performance.”

Nivola isn’t limiting himself to work in front of the camera, having written and directed a segment of the 2021 anthology drama “With/In.”He hopes to do more. “My favorite hobby is writing scripts based on stories, my life and stuff that I find funny,” he says. “I think it also improves my acting, to keep thinking about stories and dialogue.”

— Paul Plunkett

Reps: Agency: UTA

Influences: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliette Binoche, Tom Cruise, Leos Carax, Noah Baumbach

When Pope showed up for “The Inspection,” which takes place during military boot camp, he and his fellow actors had to get their heads shaved like real Marines. “I had a curly ’fro thing I was rocking, but this strips away a piece of yourself,” he says “We really bonded over that. It helps you learn to work as a platoon.”

Pope has already proven his acting chops. He started his Broadway career with an unprecedented two Tony nominations in one season, for lead actor in a play in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Choir Boy” and featured actor in a musical in “Ain’t Too Proud.” (The latter also brought him a Grammy nomination.) Pope’s television debut in “Hollywood” garnered an Emmy nomination.

His theater training helped on the movie on tougher days. “You have to be able to show up when things aren’t all there, to finish a puzzle when you don’t have all the pieces,” Pope says.

Pope’s next movie, “The Collaboration,” is also his previous and his next play. He plays Jean-Michel Basquiat opposite Paul Bettany’s Andy Warhol; it was a hit in London and opens on Broadway in December.

Whether it’s stage or screen, Pope remains a truth-seeker as an actor. “My only real job is to be as honest as I can, to be a vessel for someone’s narrative,” Pope says. “It’s not about Jeremy, its finding something bigger, that’s the goal.”

— Stuart Miller

Reps: WME, Management: Door 24 Entertainment; Legal: Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein

Influences: His dad, Tarell McCraney,  Verdine White from Earth, Wind & Fire, “for how he walks his earth”

It’s been a, well, strange year for “Stranger Things” breakout Quinn — or, as he describes it, “quite overwhelming.” The accomplished British TV and stage actor filmed his role as the Dungeons & Dragons-loving metalhead Eddie Munson in a vacuum before Netflix dropped the supernatural drama’s fourth season in two installments over the summer. Suddenly, everyone from Doja Cat to CAA were trying to get a hold of him and fans began clamoring for him to appear in superhero franchises such as the “Fantastic Four” reboot.

Of signing with the mega agency and what that could mean in regards to the latter, Quinn can only say that “I’m moving forward with my arms wide open. Like a baby.”

“All you want as an actor is to have choice and as much agency over your career as possible,” he says. “Even then, so much of it is out of your hands. Whatever comes my way, I’ll see what happens. I think working on something from the infancy of an idea would be a really exciting prospect.”

But the actor, who’s starred in such U.K. stage productions as “Wish List” at the Royal Court Theatre and “Mosquitos” at the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre, says he doesn’t want to stray too far from his roots.

“Every year you don’t do a play, your fear of it grows,” he says. “I’d love to do one next year maybe. You don’t want to leave it too long.”

— Whitney Friedlander

Reps: Agency: CAA (U.S.), Curtis Brown Group (U.K.); Legal: Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher

Influences: David Thewlis, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Glenda Jackson