From an early age, Thuso Mbedu knew she wanted to be an engine for change. She knew that acting was her path. She didn’t always know how it would happen. And sometimes she found it so difficult she considered quitting. Or worse — ending her own life.

Now, as she finds herself at the center of a transformative film for Hollywood and beyond, “The Woman King,” she feels prepared to be that driving force that brings progress to others. It makes her a Changemaker in so many ways, starting with playing Nawi, the young warrior in training who follows Viola Davis’ General Nanisca in an all-female army in 19th-century Africa. The fact that the story is based on historic fact makes it all the more powerful.

“People come up to me and say the movie changed them,” Mbedu told TheWrap in a conversation crammed between red carpet appearances and photo shoots during awards season. “They say they feel seen for the first time. Not just Black women, (but) Caucasian women too. We have parents coming and saying they’ve shared the story with their children. That they feel nothing is impossible for them going forward.”

To play the role, the 31-year-old South African had to learn to fight with a spear, do hand-to-hand combat and inhabit the skin of a soldier. And while “Woman King” is her first feature film, it was not her first project to break barriers or require intense sacrifice. In 2021, Mbedu played the lead in “Underground Railroad,” Barry Jenkins’ Amazon Prime series about American slavery. She was the first African to lead an American series of its kind.

But back in 2016, Mbedu was bereft — out of work, out of money and without family to speak of except her older sister. “I felt like I hit rock bottom,” she said. “For me, I’m in this industry because it’s my purpose. This was what I was created to do. At the time I hadn’t worked for six months. That is devastating when you don’t see another option of what you could be doing.”

She pulled herself out of that deep hole and went on to move to the U.S. — a daring gambit for a young woman on her own. Now, she has created meaningful, challenging performances that create pathways for other actors. “My ‘why’ in being in this industry was to bring healing through my craft,” she said. “To use my craft as a tool for social change and one day, to use my influence in a manner that will empower other people.” She added: “What I can do is try my best to make life better for the next person.” —Sharon Waxman

Jamie Lee Curtis has been beaming lately. And with good reason: In 2022, she played her iconic horror heroine Laurie Strode one last time in the worldwide hit “Halloween Ends.” And in the bonkers breakout indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” she let loose as a hard-nosed IRS agent who wields a stapler like a lethal weapon. For that delightfully uninhibited performance, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and is now generating Oscar buzz. 

“I feel light as a feather, like a leaf in the wind,” Curtis told TheWrap. “And a little curious.” 

Curiosity is part of what keeps Curtis, now 64, ticking. After 45 years in the business, the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis is every bit the national treasure her parents were, and she’s determined to make the most of what her hard work has brought her. “‘Halloween’ created the life I have,” she said. “I never had the agency. And now I do. I am running with it. I really do not have that much time. My motto is: ‘If not now, when? If not me, who?’”

Keeping her busy: Her production company, Comet Pictures, where she is developing a TV series based on Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novels and will make her feature directorial debut in a horror film about climate change; raising $1 million for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles through her retail site, My Hand in Yours; and cherishing her time husband ,Christopher Guest, and their two adult daughters, Annie and Ruby.

After all these years in Hollywood, life can still surprise Curtis — like in October, when she cast her hand- and footprints for posterity outside L.A.’s legendary Chinese Theater. (“At the hand, foot and mouth disease event!“ she cracked.) Hands pressed in cement, she realized that her parents had never left their marks on this particular stretch of Hollywood Blvd. “So on that sunny day in the California where I grew up, I felt the momentary ‘Holy f— of it all! All the work,” she said. “I felt it for a second. I remember thinking, this feels weird. Wow!” — Mary Murphy

Keke Palmer’s reign as Hollywood royalty began more than 20 years ago, with her breakout role in “Barbershop 2: Back in Business.” A slew of hit movies (and memes!) followed. This year, the actor-producer-singer knocked us out again with her starring role in Jordan Peele’s horror hit “Nope,” for which the New York Film Critics Circle named her Best Supporting Actress. She also lent her inimitable voice to the animated series “Human Resources” and “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” as well as the Pixar movie “Lightyear.”

When she’s not acting, she’s become yo girl as a ubiquitous on-air host. Palmer took over Megan Thee Stallion’s judge’s seat on HBO’s ballroom competition series “Legendary,” began co-hosting the revived game show “Password” with Jimmy Fallon and made her “Saturday Night Live” debut — where, during her opening monologue, she proudly revealed her pregnant belly and told the audience, “Baby, I’m Keke Palmer.”

Throughout her career, Palmer, now 29, has been a force for women and people of color, speaking out on social issues including colorism, abuse against women and the marginalization of the LGBTQ community. She recently launched her network KeyTV, a digital platform for Black creators.

Palmer says she’s been inspired by performers she admires, especially Queen Latifah. As she told BlackTree TV recently, “I did not necessarily foresee a career like this. What I did do, and what my mom encouraged me to do, was attach my idea of what my future could be like to women who have done things like this.” —Raquel “Rocky” Harris

In 2021, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez made history as the first trans person to be nominated for a lead Emmy acting category with her nod for FX’s groundbreaking drama series “Pose.” A year later, she bested herself by becoming the first trans person to win the Golden Globe in the analogous category. She is, quite literally, changing the industry. 

“Change can’t happen if there isn’t something different in the space, right?” Rodriguez said. “I feel like there has to be something that is considered quote-unquote not of the norm to be normalized and understood. And I think my existence as a Black person, as a Latina person and also as a trans person, alone, is a great way to exemplify the title of Changemaker.”

Since her breakout role in “Pose” as Blanca, a small House Mother with big dreams, the actress has continued broadening her horizons: This year, she starred as the straitlaced Sofia opposite Maya Rudolph’s existentially floundering Molly in Apple TV+’s billionaire spoof comedy “Loot,” where she’ll keep flexing her comedic chops in Season 2. Up next, a voice role in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” due in June 2023. She’s also branching out into music, following up her 2021 funk single “Something to Say” with a new track, “Greenlights,” which she describes as a mix of pop and R&B. 

When asked what motivates her, Rodriguez said, “I always want to make sure that the youth know that they are OK and that there will always be space for them to feel safe and comfortable knowing that I’m still here doing the work that I’m doing.” — Natalie Oganesyan

Calling 2022 a landmark year for Quinta Brunson is putting it mildly. “Abbott Elementary” — which Brunson created, writes, exec-produces and stars in — premiered to much acclaim in December 2021 and garnered seven Emmy nominations in 2022. The show went home with three wins, including one for Brunson for writing for a comedy series, making her only the second Black woman to win an Emmy in the category.

Amid all the buzz surrounding her this year, Brunson has made a point of championing the people and communities who helped her along the way — like her former BuzzFeed collaborators Justin Tan and Kate Peterman, who are on the series’ writing team. “Abbott,” which she based on her own mother’s experiences as a public school teacher in Philadelphia, explores the challenges that schools face today, including the realities of underfunding and the ramifications of teacher burnout. Set in a fictionalized elementary school in Philly, the show spotlights what so often remains unseen in film and TV and provides a nuanced, hopeful — and ultimately very funny — picture of public education. “I do wish the system was just fixed, but I find ordinary people’s resistance to be fascinating and the strongest thing there is,” Brunson told TheWrap earlier this year. “That’s what was really appealing to me about making a show like ‘Abbott.’ These people just have to teach these kids. They just have to.”

Brunson has made an impression with her loyalty to her past collaborators and her commitment to offer opportunities to rising talent. Several former colleagues from her time as a video producer and creator at BuzzFeed have played roles on “Abbott,” and Brunson has spoken about the importance of opening doors to those who have historically been boxed out of the industry. — Mary Murphy

Niecy Nash is on top of the world. Her wildly productive 2022 included stand-out performances as an FBI agent in the new ABC spinoff series “The Rookie: Feds” and a concerned neighbor in Netflix’s limited series “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” — the latter of which earned her a Critics Choice Award nomination. She also resumed her role as the supportive therapist on “Never Have I Ever” and launched the revived television game show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!”

No matter how in demand she is, though, Nash always prioritizes what matters the most to her: her family. “Being an actor is what I do, but who I am is to be of service to the world and to love,” she told TheWrap. “I don’t fit my priorities around my work. I fit my work around my priorities.” And she couldn’t do it without her spouse of two years, Jessica Betts. Speaking of their relationship, Nash said, “It is the first time in my life that I felt fully seen. And there is a value that that gives you that is immeasurable.”

In February, Nash and Betts made history as the first same-sex couple to appear on the cover of Essence magazine, which only confirmed her status as a pillar of inspiration to women and the LGBTQ+ community. When asked what it means to be a Changemaker, she said, “I think you change the world by living your truth and by speaking up for those who don’t have a voice to amplify their cause.” —Elijah Gil

Janet Yang is often called The Godmother of Asian Americans in the entertainment industry. But Yang, who in June became the first person of Asian descent to be elected president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, is ambivalent about the title. “Sometimes it makes me feel really old,” she told TheWrap, laughing.

Affectionate nicknames aside, there is no denying Yang’s pivotal role in increasing Asian representation in Hollywood. In the ’80s, after serving as an unofficial ambassador for Hollywood studios selling movies to China, she worked as a liaison between Steven Spielberg and the Chinese government for the filming of 1987’s “Empire of the Sun.” She exec-produced the groundbreaking 1993 adaptation of “The Joy Luck Club” and later founded Janet Yang Productions, the company behind 2020’s Oscar-nominated animated feature “Over the Moon.”

Looking back, Yang is open about how tough it was to rise through the ranks of the overwhelmingly white and male studio system of the ’80s and ’90s. “When I first came into the industry, there were other Asian Americans and they felt they had to be white,” said Yang, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. “They could not fully be themselves.” When Yang arrived in Hollywood, she said, she wore a “big thing across my forehead that said ‘China.’ There was no mistaking I was Chinese. I was hired by American movies to sell movies to China. I spoke Chinese. That is what I was hired for, so I did not have to mute or dilute that part of me. I felt very empowered.”

Since then, she has tried to pass that affirmation on to others. Even before she was elected president of the Academy, she was instrumental in the organization’s efforts to diversify its membership. “In the last four years, our goal was to double the number of women and people of color,” she said. “We have more or less reached that. Diversity is at the top of my mind.” Now, as president, she plans to run AMPAS with the same philosophy that has driven her career: “I can fully be myself, with my values, my style, my approach, my perspective.”

As for her vision for this year’s Oscars ceremony, Yang knows everyone is still thinking about The Slap. “That is what people remember from last year. But I can definitely deal with adversity and challenges,” she said. “It was pretty horrific what happened last year, but there is so much emotion out there now — good emotion. It will be really different.” —Mary Murphy

Skydance chief creative officer Dana Goldberg embraces the “sweet spot” that her production company has found in the sci-fi/action-adventure realm of worldbuilding. Think: this year’s $1.5 billion hit “Top Gun: Maverick” (plus several “Mission: Impossible” movies and two “Terminator” films). And to Goldberg, flexibility and innovation have always been the priorities. 

“No matter how brilliant the visual effects, no matter how incredible the stunts, it’s about the characters and it’s about the story,” she told TheWrap. “I’ll use an old hockey phrase: We like to go to where the puck is going, not where the puck has been.”

Part of that quick-footed movement included the decision to delay the release of “Top Gun: Maverick” for two years, which Goldberg credits to star Tom Cruise, director Joseph Kosinski, writer Christopher McQuarrie and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. 

“Collectively, Skydance, Paramount, the filmmakers — we knew we didn’t want to release this movie into a depressed marketplace because we believed in it so much. And so everyone held hands and said, ‘No, we’re going to wait till the moment when the most audiences possible will be going back to a theater … because that’s how this movie was meant to be seen. It is the definition of a theatrical event.”

The company plans to follow up the biggest hit of 2022  — and the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time in North America — with its second Skydance Animation project, the upcoming “Spellbound” with Rachel Zegler. There are also two “Mission: Impossible” films and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.” Oh, and “Top Gun: Maverick” is on track to complete its second run in theaters. — Natalie Oganesyan

As chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content, Dana Walden oversees a rather massive portfolio: Disney +, Hulu, FX, ABC, Freeform, 20th Century Television, Nat Geo and more. This year alone, she helped shepherd such Emmy-winning projects as “Dopesick,” “The Dropout” and “Only Murders in the Building,” in addition to nominees “Pam & Tommy” and “The Girl From Plainville.” In the Hollywood parlance of the past, she would have been known as an executive with a “golden gut.” 

But Walden is quick to share credit her team. “A golden gut is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of different people,” she told TheWrap. “The keys to success involve hard work and determination, along with commitment to your company, colleagues and your leaders. It takes discipline and a rigorous approach to your work, with no shortcuts.”

Not to mention the ability to weather tumultuous storms: Walden was promoted to her current position in June after Peter Rice’s controversial ouster by then Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who was himself recently booted and replaced by Bob Iger.

Walden has long been known for building strong relationships with talent, which she says is always a priority. “You can never be too busy to create new relationships and nurture long-standing bonds with creative partners — it is integral to our roles in this business.” —Mary Murphy

In a year full of loving celebrations of mothers (“The Fabelmans,” “Till,” “Women Talking”), one bestselling book took a different approach to the topic: Jennette McCurdy’s “I’m Glad My Mom Died.” As you can probably guess from the title, this memoir dives head-first into the complex relationship that McCurdy experienced with a mother she calls both narcissistic and abusive. 

A former child star best known for playing Sam Puckett in the Nickelodeon sitcom “iCarly,” McCurdy proved to be an elegant writer with her acclaimed debut book in which she recalls how her mother pushed her into show business and, among other horrors, taught her how to be anorexic. Now 30, the former actress tackles her childhood and young adulthood with brutal honesty and an engaging voice that, even when lighter in tone, never diminishes the seriousness of what she endured.

Finding that voice was a long time coming. “I think my experience was way more common than anyone would care to admit,” McCurdy told Trevor Noah on “The Daily Show” recently. “This is what I spent 10 years in therapy to be able to talk about.” —Michele Willens

She was the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. That was in 2002. Now, that play, “Topdog/Underdog,” is back on Broadway to much critical acclaim, while three of her other works are rolling out elsewhere. No question: Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is the theatrical force of 2022. 

In October, the ambitious play-within-a-play “Sally and Tom” (as in Hemings and Jefferson) opened to positive reviews at the prestigious Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. She recent starred in an Off Broadway production of “Plays for the Plague Year,” a musical-poetic-personal piece that she wrote about the first year of COVID. And her musical adaptation of “The Harder They Come,” the 1972 crime film famous for its reggae soundtrack, is being prepped at New York’s Public Theater.

Parks, 59, is revered by the theater community and beloved by those who know her well — like Oren Jacoby, who spent almost a year making a documentary about her called “TopDog Diaries” (now available to stream). “She is the most hard-working, open, free flowing talent,” Jacoby told TheWrap. “I remember going into a voodoo store with her when she was looking for some kind of charm that would fit into her play. No one does more research.” And no one puts it to more brilliant, creative use. —Michele Willens

We knew Katy Tur had guts. She did, after all, prevail under a constant barrage of insults from Donald Trump when she covered his 2016 presidential campaign. In “Rough Draft,” her acclaimed memoir published in June, the NBC reporter and “MSNBC Reports” anchor gives us an even greater sense of her strength, confronting her childhood of abuse and confessing her struggles with imposter syndrome. That kind of frankness about mental health is still rare for public figures, especially award-winning journalists.

In the book, Tur charts her life as the child of two Los Angeles news pioneers, who, from the cockpit of a helicopter, covered the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase, the Rodney King beating and the infamous wedding flyover of the Madonna-Sean Penn wedding. As she writes in “Rough Draft,” “My childhood smelled like eucalyptus trees, the Pacific Ocean and jet fuel.”

According to Tur, her father was prone to fits of rage that he took out on his family. He would beat, belt-whip and throw objects at Tur and her brother, as well as her mother, Marika Gerrard. The memoir explores the mental abuse she suffered (which prepared her for Trump’s volatility), as well as a rocky start to a career weighed down by self-doubt, sexism and gossip following a relationship with reporter Keith Olbermann. The book also covers how, in 2013, while Tur was covering the Boston bombings, her father told her he was transitioning to become a woman. She now goes by the name Zoey Tur. 

Katy Tur credits the pandemic for her willingness to share her story. “I was stuck at home,” she told TheWrap. “I was in my own head, wondering whether I was making the world better or worse.” Getting it all out there has been a relief. “I am in a better place in December 2022 than January 2022,” Tur, a mother of four who’s married to “CBS Mornings” host Tony Dosoupil, said. “I was coming out with the memoir and it had me in a very weird place mentally. I had written it, I was honest, but now people were going to read it. It turns out it was cathartic. I confronted it. I admitted it and I feel a lightness that I have not felt (before).” —Mary Murphy