For young actors, there is little more prestigious than being nominated for an EE Rising Star Award. One of the most hotly anticipated categories at each BAFTA Awards ceremony, it spotlights those who have shown outstanding talent on the big screen in the past year – and remains the only award voted on by the public.
Established in 2005, the EE Rising Star Award shortlists up-and-coming actors who are making waves on the scene, as selected by a panel of industry insiders and experts – including ELLE's own Associate Editor, Lena De Casparis, who has sat on the jury for several years.
'Nothing is more exciting to me than watching new talent take over our screens,' she says. 'It’s seeing those stars that are just on the cusp – and breaking the rules and boundaries in their performances – and taking a moment to celebrate them and the incredible work they make.'
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The 2023 nominees are no different: Naomi Ackie, Sheila Atim, Daryl McCormack, Emma Mackey and Aimee Lou Wood. 'Each is a total star already,' says De Casparis. 'Each one has that magic magnetic energy on screen where it’s impossible to look away – and you just know a huge and long career is ahead. At a time when taking risks and giving fresh talent a big shot to lead a film is increasingly hard, winning – or being nominated for even – a BAFTA matters more than ever.'
Here's the low-down on the next generation of Hollywood superstars, aka, this year's BAFTA EE Rising Star nominees:
Naomi Ackie
A born-and-bred North Londoner and ELLE UK's December digital cover star, 31-year-old actor Naomi Ackie has been rising through the ranks of the entertainment scene for quite some time now. Having discovered a love of acting aged 11 as the angel Gabriel in her school's nativity play, she went on to study at the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama before landing roles on hit TV series Master of None and The End of the F***ing World, as well as a part in blockbuster film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Her nomination for the 2023 BAFTA EE Rising Star Award isn't her first major recognition – she already has a BIFA and BAFTA TV Award for Supporting Actress under her belt, among other accolades – but 2023 marks the year Ackie is poised to reach even higher heights. Her lead role in the just-released biopic about Whitney Houston's life, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, has been met with widespread critical acclaim, and other high-profile upcoming projects include the lead in Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut Pussy Island and a part in Parasite director Bong Joon-Ho's new film Mickey 17.
Aimee Lou Wood
Instantly recognisable as one of the main characters in Netflix's Sex Education, Aimee Lou Wood is the 29-year-old, Stockport-born, doe-eyed actress who is slowly but surely becoming one of the hottest talents of her generation. A new kid on the block and recent RADA graduate, Wood landed her breakout role as the much-loved Aimee Gibbs on the smash-hit series Sex Education in 2019 and shot to fame practically overnight, soon earning a BAFTA TV Award for her standout performance in 2021.
But easy as it may have been to simply sail along on the coat-tails of such a successful show, the young actress has seized opportunities to work on other, less mainstream projects in between filming – and to widespread acclaim. Wood has been profiled twice in as many years by ELLE UK as a result: the first while she was in the midst of a West End run of Chekov's Uncle Vanya, and the second as she took on her first big-screen role alongside Bill Nighy in Living, earning her a BAFTA EE Rising Star nomination. But in typical Wood style, she's showing no signs of slowing soon: currently, the actress is writing her own TV show while also starring as Sally Bowles in Cabaret at The Kit Kat Club.
Daryl McCormack
Daryl McCormack was born in Tipperary, Ireland, to an Irish mother and African-American father, and studied drama in Dublin before moving to Hackney in 2017. 'I moved to London five years ago from Ireland and started waiting tables,' he told ELLE UK. 'To be nominated [for a BAFTA] feels like such a moment.'
One of three cover stars of ELLE UK's March 2023 issue that celebrates the new screen radicals, McCormack is the 'reluctant heart-throb' making waves for his role as a young male sex worker in the critically acclaimed film Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. And for the 30-year-old actor, the roles haven't stopped coming since. While he cut his teeth playing a gangster in Peaky Blinders, he has since been cast as a young author in The Tutor alongside Richard E Grant, as well as the lead in The Woman In The Wall opposite Ruth Wilson. Not to mention the whispers that he may be the next Bond...
Sheila Atim
Actor, singer, composer, playwright... Sheila Atim has many strings to her bow, but it's her move from the West End to the big screen with her breakout role in The Woman King, alongside Viola Davis and previous EE Rising Star Award winners Lashana Lynch and John Boyega, that has really got the industry buzzing.
Of Ugandan-British descent, Atim grew up in Essex with a love of science and dreams of becoming a doctor – but following a degree in Biomedical Sciences she found herself on-stage at The Globe, and the momentum hasn't stopped since. Now 32, Atim has two Olivier Awards and an MBE to her name and has starred in everything from Othello, Girl From The North Country and Constellation in the West End to Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railor and Marvel's Dr Strange & The Multiverse of Madness. Up next, the much-hyped film All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt, which premiered at Sundance and hits cinemas later this year.
Emma Mackey
The 27-year-old, French-born Emma Mackey is the second actor in this year's EE Rising Star cohort to have found fame thanks to Netflix's Sex Education. Starring in the hit show from the outset and confirmed to return for the much-anticipated season four, Mackey plays the wonderfully moody and sarcastic Maeve Wiley – a character that has won her a vast and loyal fanbase, a BAFTA TV Award nomination as well as exciting roles on the big screen.
Despite only acting professionally for the best part of four years, Mackey's career has seen her go from strength to strength – from landing her first film, Death On The Nile, with its all-star cast including Kenneth Branagh and Gal Gadot, to being cast in what is undoubtedly the most-talked-about film of 2023: Greta Gerwig's Barbie (rumours are that she will play protagonist and lookalike Margot Robbie's younger sister). But ultimately, it was her turn as 18th-century author Emily Brontë in Emily that won her a BAFTA EE Rising Star nomination – and has made her a mainstay on Hollywood's radar.
You can vote for the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award here.
Clementina Jackson is Acting Site Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, working across news and features, trends, e-commerce and SEO. She was previously Fashion Editor at Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health, and Acting Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, where she was named as a PPA 30 Under 30 award winner for her work on size inclusivity. An experienced fashion, travel and luxury lifestyle journalist, Clementina has also written for Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveller, Tatler, Red and Italy Segreta.
