BAFTA has announced the nominees for its prestigious EE Rising Star Award which honours young actors and actresses who have shown outstanding talent over the past year.
Jessie Buckley, Cynthia Erivo, Barry Keoghan, Lakeith Stanfield and Letitia Wright are all nominated for the prize, which was won by Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya in 2018.
The 2019 contenders were put forward by jurors including Rosamund Pike, Richard Madden, Ray Panthaki and film broadcaster, Edith Bowman. The winner will be announced at this year's BAFTA ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 10 February. Voting is now open to the public.
Jessie Buckley
Irish singer and actress Buckley, who was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2017, was praised for playing the leading role of Moll in the 2018 thriller, Beast. Her TV roles include Marya Bolkonskaya in BBC's adaptation of War and Peace and Lorna Bow in Taboo. Buckley's latest project, Wild Rose, is due to be released in April 2019.
Cynthia Erivo
Erivo shot to fame as 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 as well as in Steve McQueen’s Widows.
Barry Keoghan
This isn't the the first time Keoghan's star power has been recognised. In 2015, he was named as one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow and a year later, he was one of the breakout stars of Sundance 2016. He was recently seen in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Bart Layton’s American Animals.
Lakeith Stanfield
American actor Stanfield is currently starring in Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You where he was praised for his role as Cassius Green. After his lead role in Crown Heights, about the wrongful conviction of prisoner Colin Warner, he went on to win the Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
Letitia Wright
Wright's Rising Star nomination comes after she was named the highest box-office earning actor of 2018. According to Fandango, the actress' parts in Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, The Commuter and Ready Player One all contributed to her pulling in more at the box office than any other actor in Hollywood last year. Look out for her alongside John Boyega in the adaptation of Hold Back The Stars and a reboot of the French hit film, Le Brio.
Baftas 2018: Red carpet
