Brie Larson

Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers was six when she became the youngest student admitted to the American Conservatory Theater's training program, and by 1998 she was doing comedy sketches on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She spent her teens in supporting roles - sitcoms like Raising Dad (2001-2002), a music album called Finally Out of P.E. (2005), comedies like Hoot and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - and played a sardonic teenager on United States of Tara (2009-2011). The turn came in 2013 with Short Term 12, an independent drama where she played a social worker; the performance opened the door to Room (2015), in which she played a kidnapping victim and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She moved into blockbusters with Kong: Skull Island (2017) and then took the lead as Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel (2019), anchoring a new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She returned to television with Lessons in Chemistry (2023), earning an Emmy nomination, and has directed shorts and the feature Unicorn Store (2017) while producing The Messy Truth VR Experience (2020), which won her a Primetime Emmy.