Seven young rising Hollywood stars you should know

YIP WAI YEE looks at seven young stars who are making waves in Hollywood

Miles Teller is playing Mister Fantastic in Fantastic Four, set to open in cinemas in August. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Miles Teller is playing Mister Fantastic in Fantastic Four, set to open in cinemas in August. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Chris Pratt is the leading man in blockbuster Jurassic World, which opens next week. -- PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Adam Driver will be playing baddie Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. -- PHOTO: FACEBOOK/ADAM DRIVER
Felicity Jones is filming Inferno, the latest instalment of the Robert Langdon thriller movies starring Tom Hanks. Zoe Kravitz is now filming The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1. Anna Kendrick will be seen in a string of movies, including The Accountant, Table 19 and Mr Right. Hailee Steinfeld's new action-comedy movie, Barely Lethal, will open in cinemas on June 18. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE F
Felicity Jones is filming Inferno, the latest instalment of the Robert Langdon thriller movies starring Tom Hanks. Zoe Kravitz is now filming The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1. Anna Kendrick will be seen in a string of movies, including The Accountant, Table 19 and Mr Right. Hailee Steinfeld's new action-comedy movie, Barely Lethal, will open in cinemas on June 18. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE F
Felicity Jones is filming Inferno, the latest instalment of the Robert Langdon thriller movies starring Tom Hanks. Zoe Kravitz is now filming The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1. Anna Kendrick will be seen in a string of movies, including The Accountant, Table 19 and Mr Right. Hailee Steinfeld's new action-comedy movie, Barely Lethal, will open in cinemas on June 18. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE F
Felicity Jones is filming Inferno, the latest instalment of the Robert Langdon thriller movies starring Tom Hanks. Zoe Kravitz is now filming The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1. Anna Kendrick will be seen in a string of movies, including The Accountant, Table 19 and Mr Right. Hailee Steinfeld's new action-comedy movie, Barely Lethal, will open in cinemas on June 18. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PHOTO: AGENCE F

Moviegoers are seeing a lot of Zoe Kravitz lately. Just this week, there are three films featuring the pretty 26-year-old - the actioner Mad Max: Fury Road, drama Good Kill and coming-of-age flick The Road Within, which opens tomorrow.

Kravitz, the daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, is among a new generation of young stars making waves in Hollywood, snagging major roles in prominent films.

If they can keep on the straight and narrow, you could be seeing them a lot more in the years to come.

yipwy@sph.com.sg

Follow Yip Wai Yee on Twitter @STyipwaiyee


Zoe Kravitz, 26

Known for: X-Men: First Class (2011), Mad Max: Fury Road

Who: The daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet made her acting breakthrough as a recurring guest star in TV drama Californication (2007-2014), in which she played a carefree musician. She then had commercial viewers interested when she played the sexy erotic dancer-cum-superhero mutant Angel in X-Men: First Class. She reportedly dated actor Michael Fassbender for a while after meeting him on the set.

After they split, she dated actor Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl, 2007-2012) for two years. She has also been linked to rapper Drake and actor Chris Pine. Now, she is said to be dating Noah Becker, son of three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker.

On the professional front, she has been appearing in films of all genres. In actioner Mad Max: Fury Road, she plays a bada** woman who tries to escape an evil warlord, and in her most recent work The Road Within, which opens tomorrow, she plays a young woman suffering from anorexia.

Coming up: She will be seen in Viena And The Fantomes, a movie about a young punk band, alongside Dakota Fanning and Evan Rachel Wood this year.

Kravitz is now filming The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1, in which she reprises the role of Christina.


Hailee Steinfeld, 18

Known for: True Grit (2010)

Who: The actress was nominated for an Oscar at age 14, for playing a young woman seeking retribution for her father's murder in the Coen brothers' western film True Grit, and has been on the rise since. She has since played roles in films such as Begin Again (2013), alongside Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley, and the sci-fi blockbuster Ender's Game (2013), based on the novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card.

She is now on the big screen in musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2, as aspiring songwriter Emily Junk.

Coming up: Her new action-comedy movie, Barely Lethal, will open in cinemas on June 18. She plays the lead of a young assassin who craves the life of a normal high school student.


Felicity Jones, 31

Known for: The Theory Of Everything (2014)

Who: This English rose started out as an 11-year-old star in the popular children's television series The Worst Witch (1998-2001), before snagging a role in BBC drama Servants (2003-present) and the lead in iTV's adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (2007).

She garnered critical acclaim for playing a college student barred from seeing her boyfriend in the indie film Like Crazy (2011), earning a Special Jury Prize for her performance at the Sundance Film Festival.

But it was her role as the wife of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything that shot her to the A-list, earning her Best Actress nominations at every major awards show, including the Oscars, Baftas and Golden Globes.

Coming up: She is filming Inferno, the latest instalment of the Robert Langdon thriller movies starring Tom Hanks, which are adapted from Dan Brown's best-selling books. As the film's female lead Sienna Brooks, she plays a doctor who helps Langdon solve a mystery in Florence, Italy.


Anna Kendrick, 29

Known for: Up In The Air (2009), Into The Woods (2014)

Who: She can sing well, which makes her the go-to person for musical movies such as Into The Woods, in which she played Cinderella, and the popular Pitch Perfect movies (2012, 2015), about a college women's a cappella group.

But she has made people sit up and notice her sensitive dramatic portrayals ever since she played the ambitious Natalie in Up In The Air, alongside George Clooney, for which she earned Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Oscars, Baftas and Golden Globes.

Coming up: The busy actress will be seen in a string of movies, including the thriller The Accountant alongside Ben Affleck, comedy Table 19 with Stephen Merchant, and action comedy Mr Right with Sam Rockwell and Tim Roth.


Adam Driver, 31

Known for: HBO television series Girls (2012-present)

Who: After his breakout role in Lena Dunham's buzzworthy TV series Girls as the star's boyfriend, he has been cast in several major films, including the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). He was also in the critically acclaimed indie films Frances Ha (2012) and While We're Young (2014), both directed by Noah Baumbach, who has said numerous times before in interviews that he finds Driver a "very compelling" actor.

Last year, Driver won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice International Film Festival for playing a conflicted parent in Italian psychological drama Hungry Hearts (2014).

Coming up: He will be playing baddie Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the muchanticipated new instalment of the Star Wars franchise that opens in cinemas in December. In the first teaser trailer for the film, he was seen carrying a new type of lightsaber that looks like a cross, which was the cause of much fan discussion online.


Chris Pratt, 35

Known for: Parks And Recreation (2009-2015), Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

Who: He used to be the goofy, slightly rotund Andy Dwyer on the television comedy Parks And Recreation, but is now better known as the hunky and buff superhero in Guardians Of The Galaxy. For going from "dad bod" to super hottie, he placed No. 2 on People's Sexiest Men Alive list last year.

He was also the leading voice talent on the hit animation flick The Lego Movie (2014), in which he voiced the endearing, everoptimistic Lego figurine Emmet.

Pratt is married to actress and comedienne Anna Faris.

Coming up: He is the leading man in upcoming blockbuster Jurassic World, a new instalment in the classic Jurassic Park movie franchise which opens next week.

He has also been cast in The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the classic 1960 western, alongside the likes of Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio.


Miles Teller, 28

Known for: The Spectacular Now (2013), Whiplash (2014)

Who: The critics loved him after his notable leading-man turns in the acclaimed indies The Spectacular Now and Whiplash, but he has also garnered a following in the commercial movie world after starring in the popular Divergent movies (2014-2015).

He is said to be dating model Keleigh Sperry.

Coming up: Teller is the next superhero to watch out for this summer as he is playing Mister Fantastic in Fantastic Four, a highly anticipated reboot of the Fantastic Four movie franchise set to open in cinemas in August.

He is also filming biopic Bleed For This, in which he will be playing the main role of former top American boxer Vinny Paz, who was known among Americans as "The Pazmanian Devil".

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