Bafta has announced the five actors in the running for the 2019 EE Rising Star Award.
They are:
- Jessie Buckley
- Cynthia Erivo
- Barry Keoghan
- Lakeith Stanfield
- Letitia Wright
Actress and singer Jessie Buckley made her breakthrough in 2017’s Beast directed by Michael Pearce. Her latest is Wild Rose, about a Glaswegian musician who dreams of becoming a Nashville star, which debuted at Toronto and is set for release in April 2019.
Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning actress Cynthia Erivo is best known for playing Celie in the 2015 Broadway revival of The Color Purple. This year, she starred in both Drew Goddard’s Bad Times At The El Royale and Steve McQueen’s Widows. Her upcoming projects include Chaos Walking, from director Doug Liman and John Ridley’s Needle in a Timestack.
Barry Keoghan starred opposite Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and appeared in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Bart Layton’s American Animals – for which he was nominated for a best supporting actor BIFA in 2018.
Lakeith Stanfield starred in Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You and Crown Heights, winner of the audience award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. He also appeared in Get Out, War Machine and FX series Atlanta.
Letitia Wright played Shuri in box office smash Black Panther, reprising the role in Avengers: Infinity War. She has also been nominated for an Emmy Award for Black Mirror. She is currently starring in The Convert at The Young Vic Theatre in London, and will star opposite John Boyega in sci-fi Hold Back The Stars.
Barry Keoghan, Jessie Buckley and Letitia Wright are former Screen Stars Of Tomorrow, with the last six Bafta Rising Star winners previously selected as Screen Stars.
The winner will be voted for by the public and announced at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday February 10.
Daniel Kaluuya won the prize last year. Other previous winners include James McAvoy (2006), Kristen Stewart (2010), Tom Hardy (2011), Juno Temple (2013), Will Poulter (2014), Jack O’Connell (2015), John Boyega (2016) and Tom Holland (2017).
This year the EE Rising Star jury, which selected the nominees, included actors Rosamund Pike and Richard Madden, broadcaster Edith Bowman, producers Ray Panthaki and Georgina Lowe; casting directors Lucy Bevan and Leo Davis; film critic Anna Smith; and jury chair Alison Thompson, Co-President of Cornerstone Films.
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