This year’s Oscars may be a celebration of Brad, Tom and Renée, but get ready for Justice, Indya and Jodie.
Each year a new class of Hollywood standouts shocks and moves us with memorable performances, often eclipsing the A-listers they appear alongside. And 2019 was no different. These 10 actors’ movies and shows — hilarious, heartfelt or shattering — were as diverse as their backgrounds, and are kicking off what are sure to be extraordinary careers.
Here we introduce you to the futu𒐪re residents of the red carpet.
Isabela Merced, 18
Where you know her from: Netflix’s young-adult holiday movie “Let It Snow” and the titular role in “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” last year’s surprisingly funny take on the “Dora the Explorer” cartoon.
Where you’ll see her this year: Starring with Jason Momoa (“Aquaman”) in the vengeance thriller “Sweet Girl,” in which she plays Momoa’s daughter.
Why she’s a standout: Merced’s cheeky humor helped make the “Dora” movie more than a straight-up homage to a shrill cartoon, and she’s beloved as the former star of Nickelodeon’s “100 Things to Do Before High School.” She’s also a talented singer: Her first bilingual single, “Papi,” with an empowering don’t-stereotype-me message, currently has over 10 million YouTube hits. She recently changed her last name from Moner to Merced in honor of her late Peruvian grandmother, whom was “a force of nature, unafraid of anything … My grandmother was the one who got my mother to the United States, and the reason that my mom had the opportunities that so many people do not have. ”
Taylor Russell, 25
Where you know her from: Trey Edward Shults’ 2019 wrenching family drama “Waves,” the horror movie “Escape Room” and the TV reboot of “Lost in Space.”
Where you’ll see her this year: Two dramas themed around mental illness — “Words On Bathroom Walls” and “Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets” — as well as “Escape Room 2.”
Why she’s a standout: The Vancouver-born actress, whose early life was uprooted frequently by the itinerant career of her struggling-actor father, began her life in the arts as a ballet dancer but moved into acting in 2012. One of her idols is Patti Smith, and she even has a lightning bolt tattoo like the punk-rocker’s on her wrist. Russell takes her roles as viscerally to heart as Smith approaches her art: “I was having nightmares during the entire filming process, like every single day I would wake up like screaming or crying,” of filming “Waves,” which landed her on Time magazine’s 10 Best Movie Performances of 2019.
Indya Moore, 25
Where you know Moore from: The FX series “Pose,” and a role in last year’s Lena Waithe-penned romantic drama “Queen & Slim.”
Where you’ll see Moore this year: Roles in “A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting,” from former “Doctor Who” director Rachel Talalay, and “Escape Room 2.”
Why Moore’s a standout: The trans and non-binary Moore, who prefers the pronouns “they” and “them,” emerged from a devastatingly rough adolescence in The Bronx — they left home to go into foster care at 14, and was subsequently sex trafficked by supposed caregivers — to find a modeling career via Instagram and blossom onto small and big screens. Moore’s performance as Angel in the trans-celebratory “Pose” has drawn raves: It “requires someone of singular beauty and charisma to ground her Cinderella story. Moore is it,” said Variety. Moore is also a vocal activist for trans rights: “When I’m around people having conversations about their day, I’m looking at them, like, ‘What could they possibly be talking about? How are we not talking about deconstructing white supremacy right now? How are we not trying to save trans people?’” the actor .
Noah Jupe, 14
Where you know him from: The 2018 sci-fi horror flick “A Quiet Place” and his starring role as a beleaguered child actor in the 2019 Shia LaBeouf-written “Honey Boy,” as well as a smaller role as Christian Bale’s character’s son in the Oscar-nominated “Ford v Ferrari.”
Where you’ll see him this year: “A Quiet Place Part II” and in the David E. Kelley-created HBO series “The Undoing.”
Why he’s a standout: The British actor, who got his start on Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful” in 2015, is quite the workhorse: He’s made nine films in just the past two years. But he really broke out in last year’s “Honey Boy,” as a thinly-veiled version of LaBeouf as a young actor raised by a troubled, abusive father (played by LaBeouf himself). Jupe swears his own experience has been nothing like that film’s hellscape, which also saw him performing alongside the singer FKA Twigs: “It was very insightful to see the negative perspective on this, because my own view has been so positive,”
Anthony Ramos, 28
Where you know him from: Netflix’s “She’s Gotta Have It,” and roles in “A Star is Born,” “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and the indie drama “Monsters and Men.”
Where you’ll see him this year: Starring in the big-screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-“Hamilton” musical, “In the Heights.”
Why he’s a standout: Ramos is a phenomenal singer, rapper, actor and dancer who played Alexander Hamilton’s son in the off-Broadway and original Broadway productions of “Hamilton,” and took the role Spike Lee originally played in Lee’s 2017 small-screen adaptation of his 1986 film “She’s Gotta Have It.” Ramos’ range of talent has been somewhat narrowed during his transition to the big screen (there’s little opportunity for bursting into song when you’re fighting giant lizards). That should all change with his lead role in this summer’s release of Miranda’s “In the Heights,” directed by Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), which looks set to rival Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” as the film musical of the year.
Jodie Turner-Smith, 33
You may know her from: “Queen and🌞 Slim,” in which sh♐e is one half of a duo on the run.
Where you’ll see her this year: “After Yang” and “Without Remorse,” based on a Tom Clancy no♕vel.
Why she’s a standout: Although Turn💮er-Smith has been acting for seven years, beginning with a small part on “True Blood,” her first big movie role came in 2019’s “Queen & Slim,” a modern take on “Bonnie & Clyde.” Just as audiences first met her co-star Daniel Kaluuya in “Get Out,” they were enamored by her performance as a no-nonsense lawyer whose Tinder date turns into a nightmare. Although Turner-Smith grew up in the UK, she now considers herself a true Californian.ﷺ “I think of LA as my home now,” she told . “I always say to people that my coming-of-age happened in LA, the unraveling of the person I was pretending to be for a long time, and then finding of the person I feel like I now am.”
Viveik Kalra, 22
You may know him from: As an ’80s Springsteen-loving teen in “Blinded by the Light.”
Where you’ll see him this year: “Voyagers,” with Colin Farrell.
Why he’s a standout: He may be a 22-year-old Brit, but Viveik Kalra’s beaming smile brings to mind Julia Roberts’ pearly whites in the 1990s. The exuberant actor’s breakthrough moment was in last year’s delightful coming-of-age film “Blinded by the Light,” which was about and scored by the music of Bruce Springsteen. In fact, “Blinded,” directed by Gurinder Chadha (“Bend It Like Beckham”), was Kalra’s first movie ever, and scored him a face-to-face encounter with the Boss. “It was a total shock to meet Bruce,” Kalra tells The Post. “I wasn’t informed he would attend our premiere and then all of sudden I hear some commotion, look to my right and see the man himself walking across the red carpet — looking sharp in a blue blazer, with a fresh haircut. It was I guess what one would call a ‘fangirl’ moment.”
George MacKay, 27
You may know him from: As a brave solider in “1917” and from British🐼 ℱTV show “Pride.”
Where you’ll see him this year: As Ned Kellyꦅ in “True History of the Kelly Gang,” alongside Russell Crowe.
Why he’s a standout: “1917” is reaping praise for its ambitious single-take style, but much of the emotional punch is thanks to 27-year-old actor George MacKay. The deep-feeling Brit has been around a while, appearing mostly in British TV series, like 2014’s touching “Pride,” but the acclaimed World War I film is his biggest project so far, and has skyrocketed him onto international red carpets and the stage at the Golden Globe Awards last month. Although he’s boyish and clean-shaven in “1917,” in his next movie, “True History of the Kelly Gang,” he plays a real-life Australian outlaw who had formidable facial hair. “I was trying🅠 to grow a beard and it just was not happening,” . “So [the director] said, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll give him a mullet instead.’ ”
Justice Smith, 24
You may know him from: A man on a mission in “Pokémon: Detect♎ive Pikachu.”
Where you’ll see him this year: “Jurassic World 3” and “All The Bright Places.”
Why he’s a standout: These days, most new stars get their big break in indies and stay there a while (Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges). But after debuting in the Netflix show “The Get Down,” 24-year old Smith quickly wound up in worldwide blockbusters, making “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” back-to-back. But the very funny charmer definitely didn’t think he’d be palling around with Pikachu by 24. “I fully expected to be waiting tables to pay for my one-bedroom in LA, mayb꧅e having done a couple commercials and an indie movie or two,” Smith tells The Post. “I lucked out. I realized how much luck plays a p🀅art in someone’s career. I don’t know why I was lucky or what made me lucky but I am incredibly grateful.”
Kaitlyn Dever, 23
You may know her from: Playing a brainy BFF in “Booksmart.”
Where you’ll see her this year: The FX series “Platform.”
Why she’s a standout: We’ve known Kaitlyn Dever was hilarious since she stood toe-to-toe with Larry David as a peeved 12-year-old Girl Scout on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” But that was just a taste of the wry comedy powerhouse we’d meet in 2019’s “Booksmart,” in which she, alongside Beanie Feldstein, played a high-school brainiac determined to go to a kickass party before graduation.
Dever, it turns out, is just as dogged as her character, Amy. “No one wanted to give me this kind of opportunity, and by that I mean a leading role in a really big comedy type film,” Dever of her early career. “It’s actually one of those scripts that you think, ‘This is the kind of thing that I’m going to have audition five times for and really, really fight for it to get these people to want me for this role.’ ”