From A(llison) to Z(endaya): The 20 most captivating actors in Hollywood right now (2024)

Let’s agree on one thing first. What makes an actor “good” is powerfully subjective, but perhaps not in the same way we regard musicians or other artists. Great singers are easier to define, whether it’s variance in their voice, their range or even the intangible ways they make us feel. Why we like certain singers, lyricists and guitar players is strongly influenced by our personal value systems. It’s easier to understand why people such as Adele and Beyonce are good.

Acting is different. Sure, our value systems play a role, but there are variables much trickier to define. These are people playing a role, pretending to be other people. The technical aspect counts a little more. Do you define actors by the way they wrinkle their brows when asking a question? Is it the way they can master a different accent? Is it the way their eyes lock in during a stressful scene? Is it physical? Do they fall or stumble in a way that makes you laugh? Is it their physical alignment — literally how their body presents on the screen — that alters your perception? Do you believe that they are the person they are purporting to be in a role? Or is their talent a result of good directing or even good CGI? Do they “look” how you expect an actor to look?

Or are they just impossible to ignore? See, that’s usually my thing. When I’m watching a movie or TV series, I notice who I’m drawn toward, and to me, it’s that bit of magic that functions as a line of demarcation in how I recognize talent. For this list, I asked my colleagues to consider that magic and vote on who they find the most captivating right now in 2021. This isn’t a list based on career resumes, and this isn’t a Hall of Fame list, either. It’s not even a list of who is the most popular. Look at it like an All-Pro list, a grouping of the people who, when you see them on the screen, cause your eyes to light up because they’re the best in the business. – Khalid Salaam

20. Elizabeth Moss

With her sharp features and stern darting eyes, I have to say that Elizabeth Moss was made to play roles in which she is keeping something from us and working on a master plan to overcome a force bigger than herself. When I think of Elizabeth Moss, I think of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Invisible Man” immediately. In both the show and film, she is able to portray varying emotions, but ultimately she will prevail when up against something, and she will prevail with style. Just to prove my point, I think of the last scene of “The Invisible Man,” when she walks out of the house with all the strength and grace in the world right after killing her abuser.

I also think of the latest season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” There’s a powerful scene in which June has has nothing to lose and everything to gain. She says, “Men, f*cking pathological. You are not in charge. I am.” The scene starts with her just chilling, then we progress to her crying and really feeling a mistake that she had made, and lastly she stands up and demands what she needs because, for her, there is no going back, so you better get on board. I think every woman on this planet has replayed that scene in the back of their heads, replacing Commander Lawrence with someone who has really been getting on their everlasting nerves. Basically, I can sum up Elizabeth Moss by simply saying this: Don’t mess with her after you have pushed her to the edge. — Ashlee Taylor

19. Amy Adams

If we’re going to talk about Amy Adams and have her on this list, first we have to acknowledge that not only was “Hillbilly Elegy” a questionable project to even take on, but Adams also turned in one of the weakest performances of her career. She’s more than capable of going big and going all-in (see: “Enchanted”), but her best performances play in the fine margins of control and the smallest details.

“Vice” and “Sharp Objects” provided two very different avenues for Adams to flex her muscles and explore how to bring two wildly different women to life. But for me, the gold standard over the past five years for Adams has to be “Arrival.” It’s a quiet puzzle box of a movie that at first glance might look like standard sci-fi, but the film itself — and her leading performance — is one that gets better with repeat viewings, where every moment has new weight. The film is based on a novella by Ted Chiang, and it’s Adams who keeps the spirit of the form alive: where the high concept (first contact with aliens and the power of language) is only a tool to tell a deeply personal story about love and grief. — Meg Linehan

18. Joaquin Phoenix

To suggest — as his IMDb page does — that Joaquin Phoenix “often plays emotionally and mentally troubled characters” and “dark, brooding, sinister types” is like saying Bill Belichick has poor taste in clothing. “Thanks, Captain Obvious!”

Phoenix is admittedly a weird dude. There are no two ways about it. Spoof or not, his 2009interview on Letterman is one of the batsh*t-crazier celebrity appearances of the millennium. But, man, can this weirdo act. From smaller roles in ’80s hits like “Spacecamp” and “Parenthood” to his star turn in the early aughts playing an evil emperor in “Gladiator” — his first Oscar-nominated role — and a washed-up baseball player who “swings away” at aliens in “Signs,” it was clear Phoenix had the chops to be a leading man.

His Oscar-nominated portrayal of Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line” was equal parts moody and masterful, troubling and tremendous (and likely informed by the tragic loss of his older brother, River), and his performance in the imaginative “Her” was both naively sincere and profoundly compelling. Whatever adjectives you choose, you can’t take your eyes off him.

I’m reluctant to call “Joker,” Phoenix’s absolute masterpiece for which he won an Academy Award, a great film. But his depiction of Arthur Fleck, a depressed and downtrodden (and dancing!) psychopath with mommy issues, was horrific and real. It was one of the more poignant individual performances in a film since his predecessor in the role, Heath Ledger, played the Clown Prince of Crime in 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”

The 46-year-old Phoenix has a Grammy and two Golden Globes to go with his Oscar and placed 12th on last year’s list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century by The New York Times. Whether he’s playing Jesus (which he did in 2018’s “Mary Magdalene”) or the Man in Black, Phoenix rises to the role. – Adam Hirshfield

17. Allison Janney

Are we living in a new age of Allison Janney? Even though she dipped back into C.J. Cregg for a West Wing reunion, all signs point to Janney finding new directions for her career. As much as I am an Allison Janney appreciator, I turned to my friend Jill Tomlinson (an Allison Janney expert) for her thoughts.

“She’s spent the years since her Oscar win doing some smaller film roles and a lot of fun accent work (“Bad Education”), but she’s finally about to be done cashing her CBS checks (“Mom” is good and her performance as Bonnie Blunkett has always been way better than it ever had any right to be on a Chuck Lorre multicam). Now she will have the freedom to hopefully do more/bigger/different film roles that aren’t The Mom to The Protagonist.”

I cannot remotely pretend like I have watched an episode of “Mom,” but even across her entire filmography, Janney has been an actor who can hit the big comedy notes while still digging into roles that require depth or bite (“I, Tonya” obviously comes to mind here). But I’m beyond ready for Janney’s next project on Netflix, where she will play the titular character of what’s billed as “a feminist revenge thriller.” We don’t have anything more than a paragraph-long description of the movie, and there’s already some awards buzz around her name — and that’s the power of Allison Janney. — Linehan

16. Margot Robbie

To say that Margot Robbie has range would be a gross understatement. She doesn’t merely play characters on the screen; she becomes them. From Tonya Harding to Harley Quinn, all of Robbie’s characters come to life thanks to her commitment and ability to transform herself.

Perhaps one of Robbie’s strongest performances was in the 2019 film “Bombshell,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Based on true events, the film chronicles the sexual misconduct allegations and subsequent downfall of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Robbie’s character, Kayla Pospisil, is an associate producer at the network and a self-described “evangelical millennial” who feels so authentic alongside on-air personalities Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson (played by Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, respectively) that it seems like she must exist in real life. In reality, however, Kayla Pospisil represents an amalgamation of accounts from actual sexual assault victims with connections to Fox News. Robbie’s ability to portray a composite character in such a genuine and relatable way is another example of her uniquely transformative ability.

On the surface, Kayla Pospisil could not be any more different than Tonya Harding, Harley Quinn, Sharon Tate, Queen Elizabeth I or any of Robbie’s other roles. In reality, however, they all share one commonality with each another and with Robbie herself — they are ambitious women in dogged pursuit of their goals. This drive and commitment above all else make Robbie one of the best actors of her generation. — Emma Lingan

15. Olivia Colman

Perhaps it’d be easy to say someone who’s been cast as two different queens in the span of a few years is getting typecast, but Colman brings entirely different energy to the roles. In “The Favourite,” which she won the Academy Award for, Colman’s Queen Anne is needy, vicious, hilarious and devastating, all at once. In “The Crown,” her Queen Elizabeth is stoic, distant and, at times, very funny, though often entirely because of Colman’s perfectly timed “oh dears.” In both performances, she can pivot from comedy to tragedy with one look. She’s a joy to watch on screen, and she also delivered us one of the most endearing and delightful Oscar acceptance speeches of all time. – Amy Parlapiano

14. Zendaya

Admittedly, I was late to the party with Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman. I didn’t know who she was until four or five years ago. I would hear her name mentioned or see it on social media, but I didn’t know much other than she was a young actor. I’m an adult male, and so her initial star turn on The Disney Channel never made it onto my radar.

But, of course, I know who she is now. Her role as MJ in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was my introduction to her acting style. Her portrayal was off-kilter, almost subversive. It almost felt like method acting in that it was obvious she was going for something different from her castmates. I didn’t expect that in a comic book flick.

Then “Euphoria” came out and WOW. As the youngest actress to ever win a lead drama best actress Emmy award for her portrayal as the destructive teen Rue Bennett, she’s already made history. But saying she won the award doesn’t say much. People obviously win awards every year, and all of those aren’t warranted. This one was, however. I found myself hating Rue. She was a jerk to her mother, selfish with her sister, manipulative with her friends, and overall I assessed her as just a snot-nosed loser. How dare she continue down this path when so many people are trying to help her? Her character caused a visceral response, and that’s how I knew. Zendaya is an ACTOR actor.

The scene in Episode 2 where’s she on the couch with her dealer’s supplier and he’s pushing her to try fentanyl is one of the more heart-pounding moments you’ll ever see on screen. It’s a perfect example of the emotional intelligence she brings to her characters. She relays so much information in little shoulder shrugs, in the way her eyes bubble with expression and in how her voice ranges from a loud shrill to a vulnerable whimper. I couldn’t turn away from Rue and her POS life.

Since then, Zendaya has only upped her profile and become one of the more buzzed-about actors in the game, with the intense “Malcolm & Marie” being her latest chance to flex. Coming up, she has the new “Space Jam” movie and the remake of “Dune” on her docket.

We are in the early stages of Zendaya SZN, but we can already feel the breeze in the air signaling a position change of the nearest celestial bodies. She has best-actor-in-the-game potential, and I welcome a world in which she’s the undisputed titleholder. A world that will likely be here quickly. — Salaam

13. Tom Hardy

Let me start by owning up to something: I haven’t seen “Venom.” I’m sure I’d watch it at 1 a.m. if it was on TV, but I haven’t sought it out on my own. It’s a bit odd being the guy who’s waxing poetic about Edward Thomas Hardy without seeing his top box-office draw in recent years. However, I don’t need to see a CGI-aided antihero to know Hardy belongs on a list like this. With most of the actors on my ballot, their cases begin with what their characters say and how they say it. In Hardy’s case, it’s the opposite. His take on Max Rockatansky in “Mad Max: Fury Road” was so enjoyable becausethe character ceded so much dialogue to his strong female counterparts.

His performance as a pilot in “Dunkirk” was impossible to look away fromdespiteonly his eyes being visible for most scenes. His ability to let his face and eyes do the talking isn’t a new revelation — anyone who saw “Locke” recognized this strong point of his immediately — but it is an acting trait he does better than damn near anyone from any era. Again: I haveno idea if that comes across if you’ve only seen him in “Venom.” His turn in “Capone” is also largely lost on us due to the cinema shutdown in 2020. That said, I’ll continue to turn up for whatever roles Hardy takes. And deep down, I think we all know that he alone will be able to portray Conor McGregor or a facsimile of him sometime this decade. — Jeff Rueter

12. Christian Bale

It’s easy to say that Christian Bale is a great actor becausehe’s gained or lost a lot of weightto play roles andwon a bunch of awards. But that’s an oversimplification of Bale and his ability. When Bale plays a character, he’s “more committed to every line than I am to anything in my entire life,” said Jake Weisman, the co-star and co-writer of the Comedy Central show “Corporate.” Comedian Paul Scheer, who co-hosts the popular movie podcast “How Did This Get Made?” noted that Bale has the ability to actually turn himself into his character, which is rare for a Hollywood megastar. “Christian Bale is whoever he plays,” Scheer said. “He’s literally a person who on one hand is extremely famous and his characters are iconic, but on the other it feels like each time you see him, you might ask yourself, who’s this actor? He’s good. One of the rare leading men who is also a character actor.”

Just think of the number of characters he’s played and the number of layers he’s able to add to them. His Batman/Bruce Wayne, the role that brought him the most commercial prominence, is far and away the most conflicted Batman/Bruce Wayne combo we’ve seen in movies and made us think the character could be an actual person in today’s world. Bale as Patrick Bateman from “American Psycho” is iconic and will forever be linked to Bale like Indiana Jones will be to Harrison Ford – that’s a bit of a stretch but whatever … I’m just a huge Bale fan because of how Bale seemed to become the character. In recent years, he brought levity and deviousness to Dick Cheney in “Vice” and flat-out owned the screen as Ken Miles opposite Matt Damon in “Ford v. Ferrari.” What I find most interesting about Bale is that he’s only 47 and continues to figure out different ways to become a better actor. His best days in the profession could be ahead of him, which is pretty mind-blowing considering his incredible body of work. — Josh Cooper

11. Leonardo DiCaprio

There isn’t anyone on this list I would put before DiCaprio. His track record of great roles is pushing three decades, and even in recent years, as his output has trailed off a bit, when he does drop something new it’s always worth your time. I know “Inception” doesn’t count as recent, but that’s my favorite movie of the past decade, and he was stellar in his role of the conflicted Cobb. “The Revenant” (2015) and “Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood” (2019) were also strong portrayals, but evidently his chilling phase is over. He has five movies on his docket ranging from post-production to newly announced, including a biopic where he’s going to give Theodore Roosevelt a try. — Salaam

10. Frances McDormand

If you need clear examples of Frances McDormand’s stunning talent and unlimited range (you could really pick any one of her 68 credited roles on IMDb), you could do no worse than watching her two Oscar-winning performances (duh!): the first from “Fargo” in 1996, the second from “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in 2017.

In “Fargo,” we don’t meet McDormand’s Marge Gunderson until more than 30 minutes into the movie, and she is the antithesis of every big city, hard-boiled, fast-talking, chain-smoking and possibly corrupt detective. Marge is the pregnant police chief of Brainerd, Minn., battling morning sickness while swaddled in a thick Minnesota accent and a puffy police parka. Soon, she has a triple murder on the outskirts of her sleepy town dropped in her lap. For the next hour, we watch as Marge uses her wits, experience, persistence and investigative instinct to solve the case. But it’s that final car ride, with one of the perps handcuffed in the backseat, that we see Marge, who has been a pillar of strength and resolve throughout the movie, crack a little, as she stares straight ahead and wonders aloud why five people are dead. “And for what? A little bit of money.”

McDormand’s Marge goes from inquisitive to wistful to disgusted — note the quick, penetrating look she shoots the perp in the rearview mirror — to confused in a span of 90 seconds and doesn’t move her head more than an inch in the whole scene. She is mesmerizing as the movie’s moral center and summarizing the film’s plot.

In contrast to “Fargo,” it takes us about a minute to meet McDormand’s Mildred Hayes in the intriguing and imperfect “Three Billboards” and about five more to learn what she wants: the local police to finally find her daughter’s rapist and murderer. Unlike Marge, Mildred is profane, aggressive and furious about the local police’s inaction regarding her daughter’s case. Unlike Marge, who is drawn into a mystery, Mildred has no effs left to give and, by calling out the town’s police chief on those titular three billboards, drags the story, kicking and screaming, into motion.

Hayes and Gunderson, from their appearances to their approaches, especially Mildred’s violent actions, have nothing in common. Yet they share many characteristics. Like Marge, Mildred is sharp, persistent and resolved to right a wrong. For Marge, it’s a duty; for Mildred, it’s a determination. That McDormand can make us understand Marge’s sangfroid and Mildred’s white-hot rage is a testament to her gift as an actor. From her stellar debut in “Blood Simple” to “Raising Arizona”’s dippy Dot who’s determined to let Ed know Junior needs his “dip-tet” to her putting a golden god in his place over the phone in “Almost Famous” to her most recent Best Actress nomination win for “Nomadland” (for which she became the first woman in Academy Awards history to win an Oscar as an actress and a producer), McDormand elevates everything she’s in. Lady Macbeth in “The Tragedy of Macbeth” with Denzel Washington and directed by her husband, Joel Coen, is up next. — Rob Peterson

9.Michael B. Jordan

I have enjoyed watching Michael B. Jordan throughout his filmography, an acting career that spans from “The Wire” to “Black Panther” and beyond. But it was “Creed 2” where I really took notice of how seamlessly Jordan morphs between physicality and vulnerability. It is hardly an easy task for an actor. In that film, as Donnie Creed, son of Apollo of “Rocky” fame, Jordan pulls off what is a near-impossible challenge for any actor — he makes you believe that he could indeed be the character he is portraying. But it’s the vulnerability part that separates Jordan from just another great body.

His ability to show tenderness with a variety of actors — notably Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad and Sylvester Stallone— is what ultimately reinforces why he can lead a movie. He once described his movie selection philosophy to Entertainment Weekly as “bigger project, smaller project, remind people why you’re here — become a household name and then always go back to the smaller films, the heartfelt projects with a message. It’s a good balance.”That’s true of Jordan the performer, too. He’s 34 years old, so this is a scary thought: His best work is yet to come, and he’s already produced brilliance. — Richard Deitsch

8. LaKeith Stanfield

If the juxtaposition of dark skin against even darker hair and a scruffy beard isn’t enough for you to be intrigued by LaKeith Stanfield, I feel sorry for you, but Lakeith’s acting ability alone is enough to make you like him. I first fell in love with his role as Darius in “Atlanta.” He plays the role of the weird stoner friend. That guy in high school who you remember was cool with everyone and down for everything. For reasons you never knew, he always seemed to be getting by just fine and could be really sweet but a bit out there.

Stanfield has been able to successfully perform in various movie roles that force us to see him as a skilled actor. Some of those movies include “Sorry to Bother You,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “The Photograph.” For me, “The Photograph” was notable. I usually have to take a trip to the ’90s movie collection in order to see a movie just simply about Black love (with two dark-skinned people, might I add) that didn’t involve some external hardship going on. It’s sad to say that as a Black woman, I do have to remind myself that I am lovable and that movie re-upped the feeling of wholeness that I needed on Valentine’s Day.

Nothing is stopping Stanfield right now, and I look forward to whatever he has in store for us. — Taylor

7. Saoirse Ronan

Here’s what 27-year-old Ronan’s resume looks like over the past few years:

• 2016: Best Actress nominee for “Brooklyn.
• 2018: Best Actress nominee for “Lady Bird.”
• 2020: Best Actress nominee for “Little Women.”

And that doesn’t even include the nomination for Best Supporting Actress she received at age 13 for “Atonement.” She brings such depth and emotion to each role she plays, emphasizing the humanity in even her most flawed characters.

Her performance and delivery of lines like “I want you to like me” in “Lady Bird” nailed the insecurities a teenage girl feels when trying to both figure out what she wants from the world andunderstand her own complicated relationship with her mother. And she was able to play Jo March, a beloved literary figure who’s been portrayed by so many actresses through the years, and make the character entirely her own. It’s easy to envision her having a Kate Winslet-esque career, but she brings such a sense of individualism to each role that it doesn’t make much sense to compare her to someone else. She’s just Saoirse Ronan. (And also, one more time, it’sSur-sha!) — Parlapiano

6. Meryl Streep

There are only a handful of actors who are guaranteed to knock a performance out of the park 100 percent of the time. At the top of that list sits Meryl Streep.
Even when you think she might not be great in something, she just is. Need a cold, precise, powerful woman who manages to show an ounce of humanity just when you think there is nothing redeeming about her? Enter Meryl as Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Need someone to be ultra bubbly and slightly exaggerated and nail the inflection of Julia Child’s voice? Meryl in “Julie & Julia.” Need someone to make you cry ugly tears and feel deep, burning sorrow in your chest. Meryl in “Sophie’s Choice.” She can play a has-been Broadway star (“Prom”), a surly nun (“Doubt”), a modern-day Mrs. Dalloway (“The Hours”), a fierce Margaret Thatcher (“The Iron Lady”). She steals the show by nailing the dark humor in “Death Becomes Her” and elevates an excellent show like “Big Little Lies” by adding a new character — the troublemaking mother-in-law.

Meryl Streep gives the kind of screen performances that make you escape into a movie without even knowing it’s happening. She’s been dazzling audiences since the late 1970s and is still landing role after role every single year. Because when you cast Streep, the performance is going to be a great one. Period. — Jenny Creech

5. Daniel Kaluuya

I think it’s fair to call “Get Out” a classic, right? The think pieces that movie spawned surely hit the triple digits. It was a zeitgeist moment, capturing the “Wait, who did you vote for again?” energy that defined 2017. Kaluuya’s character, Chris Washington, put him squarely on the map. As did his role in “Black Panther” playing the treasonous W’Kabi. But his best role might have been in the crime drama “Widows,” where he played a wildly convincing organized crime lieutenant. Most recently he’s up he won and Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of freedom fighter Fred Hampton. He hit the A-List with the quickness and has shown few signs of slowing down (I’ll give him a pass for “Queen & Slim”), and for fans of his forays into the horror genre, he’s working on a yet-to-be-named project with “Get Out” director Jordan Peele. – Salaam

4. Denzel Washington

Praising Denzel Washington is a pretty rough exercise — it’s like someone saying “write about why oxygen has been good to you.” Do you wax poetic on “Glory”? “Malcolm X”? “Philadelphia”? “Crimson Tide”?? “He Got Game”???!! He’s won two Oscars, been nominated six more times and won the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Washington has even won the Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ award for “Most Egregious Age Difference Between the Leading Man and the Love Interest” for “Flight” (not sure that’s a good thing, but it gives you an idea of how much stuff he’s won).

But Washington isn’t just in meaningful movies with epic, award-chasing roles. In the mid-’90s he had roles in three borderline bombs. But I somehow saw all of them and remember how good he was, even in this weird array of films. The first was “Virtuosity,” a little-seen movie from 1995 that was kind of prescient in terms of AI and virtual reality. It was Washington against a pre-breakout Russell Crowe, and I don’t remember it being as bad as the 5.6 rating it has on IMDB; maybe it’ll gain some cult status at some point.

The second is “Fallen,” a forgotten supernatural thriller from 1998 that I really thought more people saw, but nobody else seems to remember. It had a post-“Roseanne” John Goodman as the No. 2 and ruined “Time Is on Our Side” (in a similar fashion to how The Sopranos ruined “Don’t Stop Believin'”) for a while. The third is “The Preacher’s Wife,” and that’s the one I keep going back to. The movie is a not-good remake of “The Bishop’s Wife,” with Washington in the Cary Grant role. And he was so good as Dudley. Understated, supremely cool, a little aloof. The original was the first time I ever saw Cary Grant in anything, and I finally understood, after seeing it, why everyone a generation or two older than me loved him so much — just from seeing Cary Grant being suave in a Christmas movie. In 30 years, someone is going to stumble upon “The Preacher’s Wife” and see Denzel order that slice of pizza and they’re going to get why their parents talk about Washington being the greatest actor of their time, just from that Christmas movie that didn’t even make $50 million. And that’s what makes him great. Those three movies he’ll never be known for — that people barely remember — that you can click on and just watch to the end because he is so good, even if the plots are not. — Nando Di Fino

3. Regina King

There’s a scene in the second episode of the last season of HBO’s “The Leftovers” where only a character portrayed by Regina King can disarm the show’s most guarded personality. But King’s Erika Murphy busts down the walls always held up by Carrie Coon’s character, Nora Durst, as they share a couple of beers. Erika asks Nora why she broke her own arm. With her cast finally off, she embarrassingly shows what she was covering up: a new tattoo of what she describes as “The Wu-Tang Band.”

Erika lets her down smoothly. “I think you mean The Wu-Tang Clan.” The persistence with which King’s character keeps going as the show’s vulnerable star breaks down proves how, in a span of a few minutes, King can steal a scene designated for the headliner. After explaining more, Erika tells Nora that she randomly bought a trampoline. The next scene in a series filled with absurd scenes that hit with perfection features the two jumping on a trampoline in slow motion while Wu-Tang’s “Protect Ya Neck” plays on. Watch the show. My only plea.

Another scene in which King showcases her elite acting ability is in the penultimate episode of HBO’s “Watchmen” series. It’s an episode that bounces back and forth between time and space (literally), and it’s all built around King’s character, Angela Abar, being hit on by a blue guy marketing himself as Dr. Manhattan. With “The Blue Danube Waltz” playing on the periphery, Abar refuses to give in to this actual real-life God complex being sent her way. She scoffs at his self-proclaimed ability to walk on water and that he can create life on a different planet in approximately 90 seconds.

“Typical,” she says, sipping her tall beer. “A man creating life in under two minutes.”

It’s effortless.

King, 50, has won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and four Emmys. She was nominated for best director at this year’s Golden Globes for her role as director in “One Night in Miami …” Kids of the 1990s remember her telling Ice Cube to not be such a loser as his sister in “Friday” or as no-bullsh*t-taking Marcee Tidwell in “Jerry Maguire.” King’s masterpiece film role, at least to date, was her role as Sharon Rivers in “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Among the impossibly long list of talents, King, with her ability to make the courage and empathy she exudes zip through the screen, is elite as elite gets. — Chris Kamrani

2. Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali is as captivating of a figure on screen as you will see, whether it’s as the charismatic and principled Remy Danton in “House of Cards” or the talented but conflicted Dr. Don Shirley in “Green Book,” a role that earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. There’s no bombast in his performances, just powerful, indelible displays as evidenced in “Moonlight,” the 2016 Best Picture winner in which Ali won his first Oscar in a supporting role as Juan, the mentor trying to help young Chiron find his way. This thoughtful and impactful honesty behind his portrayals has come to define Ali as one of the best actors today.

Standing in the spotlight is the complete opposite of who Ali was as a basketball player in high school and college. The teenage Ali, then known as Hershal Gilmore, was less a standout star and more a dutiful leader in the early ’90s at Mt. Eden High in Hayward, Calif., only because the selfless style of head coach Ron Benavides didn’t require one (but that didn’t prevent Ali from landing a scholarship at nearby St. Mary’s). The discipline, passion and attention to detail Ali showed on the court have stayed with him as he has risen to prominence in Hollywood, and these qualities can be seen in every character he painstakingly crafts. — Joe Lago

1. Viola Davis

Viola Davis is a force. In the last decade, she’s won acting’s Triple Crown, picking up her second Tony Award in 2010 for “Fences”; an Emmy Award in 2015 for “How To Get Away With Murder”; and an Academy Award in 2016 for her big-screen reprisal of her role in “Fences,” for which she also won a Golden Globe that year. She could very well win her second Oscar on Sunday for her powerful performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Her acting resume would be impressive for anyone, but it’s even more impactful for the fact that it keeps getting stronger with age. In a Hollywood that remains unkind to women of a certain age, Davis’s career really took off at age 45 — she’s currently 55, and like a fine wine, only getting better. Her upcoming roles include portraying Michelle Obama in Showtime’s series “The First Lady,” and hopefully, finally getting to play Harriet Tubman in an untitled HBO project that’s been in pre-production for years.

Her strength is her range. In the last decade, Davis has portrayed Black women on screen and on stage in multitudes that Hollywood hasn’t historically afforded them. Flawed, raw, strong, weak, stoic, vulnerable — the depth of her characters knows no bounds, and it can’t be overlooked that she’s doing all this as a darker-skinned woman in a society whose beauty standards still emphasize colorism. She’s spoken often about how scripts tend to flatten the humanity of Black women — “We don’t always have to be slaves or in the hood or fighting the KKK,” she famously said — and she’s helped usher in an era of three-dimensional protagonists, telling stories of Black women long presumed to be uninteresting to white audiences. That scene in “How To Get Away With Murder” remains iconic, when she takes off her wig, removes her false lashes and makeup, and sits in front of the mirror in her headwrap, removing the armor in which her character steps into the world each day, honestly portraying a Black woman’s beauty routine, and show another side of her character’s confidence and sex appeal.

There is a power she exudes on screen, even when playing characters who are systemically powerless — an internal fortitude necessary for Black women to navigate an America that still largely ignores them. But it’s impossible to ignore Viola Davis. She has become must-see, both on-screen and in her acceptance speeches. One can only wonder what powerful statement we’re in for the next time she picks up an award. — Kavitha Davidson

(Top photos by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for L’Oréal Paris, VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images, Wiktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via Getty Images,Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

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