Can't-Miss Screen Stars of Tomorrow

1. Jitendra Kumar, India

He’s a household name in India today, but this 30-year-old engineer-turned-actor struggled to break big in Bollywood. Originally from the small town of Khairthal, Kumar originally struggled to find work as an actor in Mumbai. So he worked as an engineer for a Japanese multinational, where he said he endured racism and found the work monotonous. He soon realized his love for the screen wasn’t going away. So, despite skepticism from his family, he returned to the razzle-dazzle of the City of Dreams and worked in a production house before getting his first offer. Now Kumar is known for his brilliant performances in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and Panchayat, and he’s striving for international acclaim next.

2. Song Wei Long, China

This 21-year-old from the northeastern province of Liaoning first turned heads with the release of the historical drama Untouchable Lovers in 2018. In just three years, he has captured the imagination of the Eastern world — and advertisers — following his nuanced work in Go Ahead, Beautiful Reborn Flower and In a Class of Her Own. Such is his popularity that at least 10 brands have hired him to endorse their products, from Burberry to Emporio Armani watches. With his face on ads throughout the Asia-Pacific region, he’s bound to have worldwide recognition soon.

3. Thuso Mbedu, U.S.

Twice nominated for International Emmy Awards, this South African is on the cusp of a Hollywood breakout. Mbedu, 29, is generating buzz ahead of the release of the Barry Jenkins series, The Underground Railroad, on Amazon Prime. But the best is yet to come: Rumor has it that she was one of the three actresses called back for a lead role in an upcoming Star Wars series on Disney+ centered around Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

4. Max Harwood, U.K.

Everyone’s already talking about this 23-year-old, and that’s before the release of his first film, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Why? He plays the role of a gay teen who plans to go to prom in drag. It was a deeply personal role for Harwood, who still finds it hard to navigate the world as a gay man. In real life, he was petrified when he visited a gay club for the first time, and he aims to bring those complex feelings to the big screen. “I just want to be telling important stories for as long as possible,” Harwood says.

5. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, U.S.

She had never worked as an actor before, but that didn’t stop this 19-year-old Tamil-Canadian actor from beating 15,000 people to land the lead role in Mindy Kaling’s acclaimed Netflix series Never Have I Ever. Now, Ramakrishnan is internationally famous and has a million Instagram followers. In October, she became the brand ambassador for Plan International Canada, working on gender equality and child rights. Now, as the world awaits Season Two of her hit show, Ramakrishnan wishes the world would humanize — rather than “glamorize” — those in front of the camera.

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1. Speaking Out

The Golden Globes faced allegations over a lack of diversity in its selections, so hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler used their opening monologue yesterday to rip into the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the awards. Then key members of the group appeared onstage to vow to do better on diversity, including recruiting Black members. The pressure comes from the likes of Oscar-nominated producer Poh Si Teng and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who pushed the hashtag #TimesUpGlobes and talked about how “awards play a part in the economic reality of Black filmmakers, artists of color and women creators.”

2. Rebel Heroines

India’s surge in Hindu nationalism and the controversies swirling around the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are leading actors to take political stands like never before. For example, India’s highest-paid actor, Akshay Kumar, has become a bit of a spokesperson for the Narendra Modi–led government while big names such as Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan have stayed silent. But the rebel heroines of India, from Deepika Padukone to Swara Bhaskar, are standing by each other in the face of Hindu nationalist calls to boycott their films, demonstrating rare solidarity in the cutthroat industry.

It’s a meet-cute script for the ages: Bollywood, meet Nollywood. While for decades Indian films have made a mark in northern Nigeria, the love — and subsequent collaboration — is now becoming an industrywide alliance that straddles businesses, filmmakers, actors and even governments. Who’s leading the charge in the collaboration between two of the world’s biggest film industries? Millennials.

4. The Virtual Awakening

While streaming has been around awhile, the pandemic has drastically changed the way we consume movies and TV shows. That change is a blow to the worldwide film industry, which accounted for $42.2 billion at the box office in 2019. And while many directors are waiting for the pandemic to lift, some have been releasing movies online. Statista projects streaming media revenue will top $171 billion worldwide this year, with 10 percent growth each year going forward. Meanwhile, experts say Zoom could be the future of filmmaking, opening artistic avenues to newcomers and helping cut costs.

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Are you ready to unlock the power of catalytic questioning? Find out more about the program here.

At the height of the pandemic, Native Americans were dying of Covid-19 at twice the rate of white Americans. Huge inequalities have only grown in health, housing, education and wealth. One in three Native Americans are living in poverty, and they are 19 times more likely to live without running water in their homes. If confirmed, Deb Haaland will make history as the first Native American in a cabinet secretary role. She’ll be the secretary of the interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Could this historic appointment change the fate of Native Americans?

This week, Carlos and Katty are joined by Jonodev Chaudhuri, ambassador for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Amber Crotty, a tribal council delegate in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, to discuss these issues. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

1. ‘Tehran’

This Israeli production and Apple TV+ original stars Niv Sultan as Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad agent assigned to take down the Iranian power grid before an air strike by Israel. But things don’t go as planned, and she is stranded in Tehran while being pursued by an Iranian security agent. This slick production tears apart the notion that spy shows should be led by men.

Little did the world know that a Thai romance drama about two male college students — which had been a hit in mainland China since it premiered last year — would be at the center of turmoil in Asia. Watch this series for lead actor Vachirawit “Bright” Chivaaree, who courted massive controversy after reposting a series of four urban landscapes shot by a Thai freelance photographer, one of which called Hong Kong a country. While Vachirawit — like many before him, he worried about losing out on the Chinese market — apologized for his “mistake,” his actions had ripple effects. He helped spark a counterrevolutiuon against Chinese trolls by Thai netizens who use cutting humor in a 21st-century war fought entirely online.

3. ‘La Jauria’

Amazon’s first original production out of Chile has been picked up by 73 global networks. The all-star cast, led by Daniela Vega, the lead in Sebastián Lelio’s Academy Award-winning feature A Fantastic Woman, adds heft to the scintillating story centering on a private Catholic school student, a police investigation, and a disturbing online game in which men record and share videos of themselves abusing women. You can find it on HBO Max in the U.S.

4. ‘Paatal Lok’

The bold police procedural show Paatal Lok (which literally means “hell”) hit Indian streamers last May — mesmerizing them with gore rather than cricket tournaments during lockdown. While stories of bitter old cops, their ambitious apprentices, corrupt journalists and politicians are nothing new for anyone who follows Indian shows (and politics), there is more to this series than meets the eye. Offering a hard look at current Indian social demons — that of religious communalism and discrimination against minorities in the name of patriotism — this controversial hit series is a nail-biting thriller. Those in the U.S. can now watch it on Amazon Prime Video.

1. Anya Taylor-Joy

Born in America but of Argentine-British heritage, Taylor-Joy’s global breakout with The Queen’s Gambit in 2020 was just a feather in the cap on a wild year that also saw her earn critical acclaim as the lead in the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. At just 24, the Best Actress in a Limited Series award winner has already shown tremendous range. If you want to see where she first got attention, tune back to 2015’s acclaimed period horror film The Witch. Then take a dip into television, where she has been equally prolific, with appearances in Peaky Blinders, The Miniaturist and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

2. Daniel Kaluuya

His partially muted speech after winning best supporting actor honors for Judas and the Black Messiah was one of the biggest stumbles of Sunday’s telecast, but the London-born Kaluuya hasn’t seen many hiccups in his Hollywood rise. You might have spotted him in Black Panther and Get Out, but an overlooked gem was Kaluuya’s starring role in Queen & Slim. The film is centered around an arbitrary traffic stop by a white officer of a Black couple, leading to the officer’s death and a set of complicated moral questions.

You won’t see much of the San Diego singer on the silver screen before her role as Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, with her previous highlights including 2017 roles as an unnamed nightclub singer in Marshall and as the voice of the forklift Sweet Tea in Cars 3. But if you’re looking to hear more from the second Black woman to ever win a Globe for best actress in a motion picture, drama, Day’s debut album, Cheers to the Fall, and its main single, “Rise Up,” both received Grammy nominations in 2016.

4. Emma Corrin

We know her now as Princess Diana from The Crown. But Corrin, who took home a best actress in a drama TV show award on Sunday, is branching out well beyond royalty. You can soon watch her alongside Harry Styles in an upcoming Amazon Studios LGBTQ romance drama My Policeman, an adaptation of Bethan Roberts' novel of the same name.

1. For the Win

They’re rightly getting flak for a lack of diversity, but the Golden Globes definitely got it right with these masterful international winners from past years. You may have caught the following in this morning’s Whiskey in Your Coffee newsletter. If not, you're missing out. Be sure to subscribe.

2. ‘Osama’

A young Afghan girl dresses up as a boy to find work under the Taliban regime in the 1990s. Smile and let this 2003 classic fill your heart with hope.

3. ‘The Official Story’

What if your adopted child was the daughter of one of the many who disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983? This is a story of parental love unlike any you’ve seen.

An out-and-out political thriller set in Cold War-era 1960s Greece, this Algerian-French stunner will leave you feeling like you’re watching a Bond film one moment, and a classy House of Cards episode the next.