The 25 Best Actresses in Their 20s

Meryl Streep is over. Just kidding. Don't hurt us! Truce! But really though, she can't win everything. Eventually, she'll get tired, want to settle down somewhere along the Santa Barbara coast, and give up her spot on the Academy Award stage to a bright-eyed newbie who's been practicing her acceptance speech in front of a mirror since she was a kid—which, as it turns out wasn't that long ago. And it's not like that newbie is undeserving either.

There's a crop of talent in Hollywood who are well-deserving of the praise Cate Blanchett, Audrey Hepburn, Halle Berry, and every other storied star they look up to gets. They're full of ability and have proven themselves in quality roles that reveal much about their future potential.

These are all of the young women gunning for that coveted Oscar gold. These are the 25 best actresses in their 20s.

Written by Tara Aquino (@t_akino), Ross Scarano (@RossScarano), and Matt Barone (@MBarone)

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Age: 23
Notable role: Grace in Short Term 12 (2013)

Despite her young age, Brie Larson has paid her dues. As a kid, she was cast in two quickly canceled series Schimmel (which never made it to air) and Raising Dad, and was dropped from the unaired pilot of Hope & Faith. She had small roles in teen movies until 2009, when she was cast in The United States of Tara. It was canceled in 2011.

It's been a long time coming, but Brie Larson's raw talent is finally being recognized. Her latest film, Destin Daniel Cretton's Short Term 12, won the Grand Jury Narrative Feature Award as well as the Grand Jury Audience Award at this year's SXSW Film Festival. In it, she carries the film as a foster care facility supervisor coping with her own personal demons. Darker than any mainstream movie she's done before, namely Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and 21 Jump Street, the film proves that the fully realized Brie Larson has finally arrived.

Age: 29
Notable role: Sophina in Fruitvale Station (2013)

Everyone knows that Melonie Diaz can do comedy with the best of them. Before 2013, the NYC native was on a funny-movie roll, providing her hilarious and spark-plug charms to indie comedies like Hamlet 2, Be Kind Rewind, and last year's underrated Supporting Characters. In 2006, she even powered the Itty Bitty Titty Committee to its Jury Prize victory at the SXSW Film Festival.

It's no mystery that Diaz brings the funny, but the fact that she's also a heartbreaking dramatic whirlwind? Few saw that coming, even those who've watched her impressive work in the 2002 indie darling Raising Victor Vargas. In the new buzz-heavy, based-on-a-true-story film Fruitvale Station, though, Diaz is a devastating revelation as Sophina, the girlfriend of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), the 22-year-old Bay Area who, while unarmed, was killed by a police officer in January 2009.

Diaz's performance balances compassion and vulnerability with the quiet rage of a lover scorned by infidelity. But it's in Fruitvale Station's tragic climax, when Grant's shooting is played out to the last wrenching detail, that Diaz knocks your socks off. —MB

Age: 27
Notable role: Natalie Keener in Up in the Air (2009)

Anna Kendrick is having a moment. Thanks to the 2012 sleeper hit Pitch Perfect, she's a ginormous deal on the interwebz. Take note of the entire sub-Reddit devoted to her. Not to mention, she's killing it on Twitter. But real AK stans know that she's not just a passing trend—and that's not just because she's got Drinking Buddies, The Last 5 Years, The Voices, Wish I Was Here, Get a Job, and a rumored role in Into the Woods coming up.

A Tony nominee at 12 (for High Society), an Oscar nominee at 24 (for Up in the Air), Master of the Universe by the time she's 36 (well, if we're to follow the pattern she's setting)—Kendrick's a serious Beanie Baby of talent, one who's an expert at playing everything from fast-talking, fresh-out-of-college smart-asses to singing-and-dancing sweethearts. Her public persona is cutesy and charming, but one look at her filmography, and you know you should be intimidated as fuck.

Age: 28
Notable role: Piper Chapman on Orange is the New Black

For those who haven't had the time to watch Orange Is the New Black, this pick is coming out of left field. Consider Schilling our wild card. Until Jenji Kohan's latest Netflix comedy, Schilling's been relegated to small roles and canceled medical dramas. But damn does she make up for it.

A graduate student of NYU's acting program, Schilling shows off her craft on OITNB as a bisexual former drug mule who's reconciling her life behind bars with her WASPy new life. She can make you feel like she's a ticking time bomb about to cut you and a sweet, WASPy environmentalist who'd love to teach you how to detoxify your body—all in one episode. The show's only had 13 episodes, but she's got us completely convinced of her staying power.

Age: 25
Notable role: Sophie-Anne Leclerq on True Blood

For those who were either disappointed by or highly prepared for middle school thanks to director Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen, you've got Evan Rachel Wood to blame. She played Tracy Freeland, an L.A. wildchild lost in drugs, drama, and experimentation, all before she's old enough to even drive. And that was after Wood had already made a name for herself in a role that would make One Million Moms angry: the wayward lesbian teenager on Once and Again.

Her performances don't stick with you because of their shock value, they stick with you because of how committed she remains to each imperfect character she inhabits. And that includes her later work as the fabulous Sophie-Anne Leclerq on True Blood and as Mickey Rourke's rebellious, bitter daughter in The Wrestler.

Age: 23
Notable role: Dottie Smith in Killer Joe (2012)

Juno Temple. Juno, Juno Temple. She's not just an actress, man, she's an artist. That sounds lofty (and silly) to say, but it's the most appropriate way to distinguish her from the rest of young Hollywood. When she's on screen playing whichever deeply flawed character she's got lined up—whether it's an underage girl bethrothed to an older man or a stripper that needs saving—it never feels like a gimmick. It's as if she's an old soul, an old Hollywood actress reincarnated in director Julien Temple's daughter.

And she's arguably the most prolific young actress out right now, adding 31 titles to her IMDB resume (including those released, in pre-production, and in post-production) since her breakthrough role in 2007's Atonement.

Age: 28
Notable role: Kate Hannah in Smashed (2012)

If you happen to drive down Beverly Blvd. on Friday night, around midnight, take note of the long line for Edgar Wright's cult hit Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. The girl those movie nerds are there to see? Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Ramona Flowers. As the girl with a shit ton of baggage—Scott Pilgrim literally has to fight off her seven evil ex-boyfriends—Winstead coolly oscillates between frustrating nonchalance and glimmers of guilt.

Winstead has already established herself as a fanboy's favorite actress, but thanks to a convincing performance in James Ponsoldt's festival hit Smashed, in which she plays a recovering alcoholic, crusty critics are remembering her name.

Age: 22
Notable role: Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Watch the throne: Jennifer Lawrence is America's Sweetheart, a title that's gonna be damn hard to usurp from her given the magnitude of her talent and outspoken personality. Come on, when she tripped at the Academy Awards, the entire world reached out to hug her.

On screen, her acting ability is a wide-ranging as they come, playing everything from a teenage girl forced into adulthood in a town overrun with meth in Winter's Bone to a snarky widow with Dancing with the Stars dreams in Silver Linings Playbook. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for both; she won for the latter. Not bad for someone whose first gigs included an MTV commercial for My Super Sweet 16.

Age: 24
Notable role: Olive Penderghast in Easy A (2010)

We can always count on Emma Stone to deliver the laughs, no matter how many contorted faces it costs her. When it comes to comedy, she's not one to hold back for the sake of maintaining a pretty face, and that's exactly what makes her so much fun to watch.

We've seen her only lightly tap the dramatic genre, but she's got a starring role in a Cameron Crowe project and a Woody Allen project on the horizon, which will make her more than just that cute funny girl you constantly reblog.

Age: 27
Notable role: Hannah Horvath on Girls

On the first season of Lena Dunham's Girls, we watched the auteur flex her abilities as a physical comedian. Dunham used her body and face like a star of the silent era, perfecting dopey expressions and filling the screen with herself. She was like Buster Keaton.

For the second season of Girls, Dunham's performance turned uncomfortable, using her body in ways that have more in common with modern performance art and Hannah Wilke. Watching Hannah pull a splinter from her ass, or dig in her ear with a Q-tip, exposed something raw. We're told this kind of soul baring should be embarrassing, that it isn't art, that it must be self-indulgent. Those are all just defensive postures in the face of something uncomfortable and important. It's easier to call this masturbatory than to call it what it is: great. —RS

Age: 28
Notable role: Charlotte in Lost in Translation (2003)

Scarlett Johansson gets a lot of shit. Haters argue she's just a pretty face who lands coveted roles because of what her appearance can draw at the box office. To those people, we say: shut it. Those viewers who are really paying attention realize that her dedication to each of her performances deserves respect. She can do everything from kick ass in a spandex suit to quietly wander through Tokyo, intriguing everyone from Sofia Coppola to an SNL audience. If that's not convincing, then maybe her Tony Award for her role in A View from the Bridge will change your mind.

Age: 21
Notable role: Aimee Finicky in The Spectacular Now (2013)

Take every memory you have of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, throw into a trash can, and then set that trash can on fire. Given the right material, Woodley shines. She can't help but ooze sweetness, even when she's playing a spoiled teenager in The Descendants. However, it's her yet-to-be released film, The Spectacular Now, that will have audiences believing in the power of the next YA franchise star, Shailene Woodley. Think of her as Meg Ryan meets Audrey Hepburn, but in the 21st century.

Age: 29
Notable role: Frances Halladay in Frances Ha (2013)

A Cali native, Greta Gerwig came to New York for college—she attended Barnard—where she began a creative partnership with director Joe Swanberg. Both the star and director became synonymous with the mumblecore film movement, an aesthetic heavy on improvised-sounding dialogue that looped and stuttered and didn't quite get to the point. That, in fact, was the point, the aimlessness, the rejection of polish and closure.

Appraising the visuals of Gerwig's latest (and her best), Frances Ha, you'd be inclined to say that she's ditched her previous project for something shinier. The glorious black-and-white film is more beautiful than anything she's made before. Its loose style and candor recall those early mumblecore pictures, but it's more of a French New Wave picture than anything else. Chalk that up to director Noah Baumbach's love of foreign classics.

So, what's changed with Gerwig's performance style? Nothing, really. She's just as charming, just as physical with her humor (see: the slap-boxing in the park), and she's working with a director who loves her. No, really—they're in love. For those of us who have followed the gangly actress from the beginning of her career, there's nothing more satisfying than watching her lensed by someone in love with her.

Age: 28
Notable role: Emma in Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)

If you've been keep your fingers on the pulse of the film industry, then you're aware of Lea Seydoux. The most talked about actress of the Cannes Film Festival 2013, the French talent starred in Abdellatif Kechiche's Palme d'Or-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color, which chronicles the heartbreaking whirlwind romance between two young women. And it's no smut film, assholes. Seydoux is being praised for her fearless and magnetic performance, which she's already exemplified in past films, namely The Beautiful Person and Belle Épine.

In 2014, she'll be starring in the French remake of Beauty and the Beast, with Vincent Cassel as the Beast. Um, she's the Beauty, if that wasn't already obvious.

Age: 21
Notable role: Effy Stonem on Skins

The time is ticking until the U.S. discovers Kaya Scodelario. She's got the dystopian YA franchise, The Maze Runner, coming up in 2014, but until then, only the UK really has a grasp on her talent. If she wanted to, Scodelario could use all of her clips from Skins as her acting reel. She goes from mute party girl to overly promiscuous party girl to bipolar maniac to conniving stock trader, all within five seasons. Basically, she can play batshit pretty damn well.

As for her ability to carry a period piece? Just check out her chilling turn as Catherine Earnshaw in Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. Tears, everywhere. Bring tissues.

Age: 28
Notable role: Dee Roberts in American Violet (2008)

Since she made her critically acclaimed film debut in American Violet, Beharie's been touted as "the one to watch." She's got a commanding presence that demands you stay fixated her, whether she's playing a small role as Jackie Robinson's wife in 42 or Michael Fassbender's disturbed character's only shot of normalcy in Shame. Perhaps that's because she trained at Julliard, where was awarded a Shakespeare scholarship and studied in England.

Age: 25
Notable role: Shoshanna Shapiro on Girls

Before Zosia Mamet first batted her eyelashes and waxed neurotic about virginity (see: the losse thereof) as Shoshanna Shapiro on Lena Dunham's Girls, she was asking after Peggy Olson's vagina on Mad Men. That's range.

Mamet's Mad Men characer Joyce Ramsay entered the show's fourth season all hip swinging swagger, her hair pulled back tight against her scalp and her smile promising mischief. A photo editor at Life, she introduced Peggy to the counterculture—and made a pass at the SCDP creative in the process.

For her turn on Girls, Mamet traded in the trim blazer and cool confidence for sweatpants ensembles and wide-eyed naivete (sometimes terror, too). Shoshanna is the most consistent (and lovable) sources of humor on Dunham's increasingly uncomfortable look at quarterlife crises. —RS

Age: 26
Notable role: Santana Lopez on Glee

Put her name in for Emmy consideration, because Rivera's been putting in work these last couple seasons of Glee. After a delivering one of the most heartbreaking coming out speeches in recent TV history, critics buzzed about her performance, praising her ability to toe the line between vulnerability and her character Santana's signature toughness. If this is a sign of her potential post-Glee, then we're looking forward to seeing what she does next.

Age: 27
Notable role: Clara in Byzantium (2013)

Gemma Arterton is an unsung talent. With her latest, Neil Jordan's vampire drama Byzantium, making the rounds of indie theaters everywhere, moviegoers are starting to take notice of the girl who's best known stateside for playing "that chick from Prince of Persia." She's not just a queen or girlfriend or [insert pretty character type here]. She's got the kind of acting ability that can make bad movies watchable (Hansel & Gretel) and ho-hum flicks (Tamara Drewe) captivating. Thankfully, she's working with great material in Jordan's haunted fairy tale.

Age: 28
Notable role: Jenny Mellor in An Education (2009)

Carey Mulligan projects an air of timelessness. She can glide between playing a suburban teenager in the '60s to a flamboyant, spoiled socialite in an F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation with ease, and embody each coveted character completely. The British actress is so spellbinding on screen, her performances make you swallow that lump in your throat, that one that announces tears—just watch Never Let Me Go.

There's no sign of the Oscar-nominated actress losing her knack for picking quality roles anytime soon either. Up next, she's got the critically acclaimed Coen Brothers ode to indie folk music: Inside Llewyn Davis.

Age: 28
Notable role: Cecilia Tallis in Atonement (2007)

The amount of times Keira Knightley has had to wear a corset for a role probably outnumbers the amount of times she's gotten to wear a T-shirt. Props. That only means she's found her shtick as a muse for period piece film directors. She's just made for complicated roles, ones that require heavy emotions and eloquent British speech, and it's worked out for her just splendidly.

Age: 23
Notable role: India Stoker in Stoker (2013)

Take a look at Mia Wasikowska's filmography. She's got every genre covered, and plays it to a tee. Fantasy? She nailed the whimsical restlessness of Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Period piece? Watch her quiet performance in Jane Eyre. Thriller? All you need to do is preview the trailer of Stoker to see how menacing she can be. If you're too intimidated to pronounce her name, just call her the Queen of Versatility.

Age: 23
Notable role: Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Emma Watson is a self-proclaimed perfectionist. Whilst filming The Perks of Being a Wallflower, her first role with an American accent, Watson would repeatedly ask director Stephen Chbosky if she was delivering her lines like any Pittsburgh girl would. He reassured her that she had the talent. And she really does. Growing up on screen as Hermione in the Harry Potter franchise has worked its magic. She's developed natural charisma that makes all of her performances feel sincere. Even when she's playing the nasty Nicki (a fictionalized Alexis Neiers) in Sofia Coppola's controversial indie The Bling Ring.

Look for her next in Darren Aronofosky's highly anticipated epic Noah.

Age: 24
Notable role: Martha in Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

While the Olsen twins have entirely stepped away working in front of the camera, their younger sibling, Elizabeth, has stepped up as the Olsen rep in Hollywood. But she's not merely Mary Kate and Ashley's lil' sis, a singing and dancing type suitable for YA mystery novels and ABC shows. Rather, she's a dramatic actress with good taste, one who was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award for her first film, the cult drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, and was in the running for a BAFTA Rising Star Award in January 2013.

Come 2014, she'll be a household name. She stars as the titular character of Oscar hopeful, Therese, about a woman in the 1800s trapped between a loveless marriage and a dangerous affair; the female lead in Spike Lee's Old Boy, out this October; and she's got a part in the upcoming Godzilla remake.

Age: 28
Notable role: Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Rooney Mara catches a lot of flak for her social awkwardness. She's not a smiler. She oftentimes wears a far-off gaze, like she's thinking about poetry. And it's precisely that air of introspection that brings such intensity to her roles. Case in point: her Oscar-nominated role as the sociopathic hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Mara is best described as a quiet storm. Her latest efforts, Steven Soderburgh's last theatrical release Side Effects and the Cannes selection Ain't Them Bodies Saints, have proven that while she's not the most outspoken actress on the red carpet, all you need to do is watch her on screen to understand her appeal.