Stars Made Via Content Streaming Platforms

Stars gleam with a timeless glamor and elegance but for many, the road to success has been anything but a breeze. Things can be even harder if you belong to a minority. According to a USC study, out of 11,000 speaking parts in movies and TV shows in one particular year, only one third were female and 28% were minorities. Moreover, as talent agent Maury Di Mauro told GQ that while the 1980s and 1990s involved attending a good acting school and auditioning for major movie or television studios, “there isn’t a traditional route anymore.” That is, new streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, or Crackle mean that although acting continues to be a tough game, there are new avenues that are paving the way towards success. We present just a few stars who first made it big via streaming.

Katherine Langford

13 Reasons Why, produced by Selena Gomez, was one of 2017’s runaway hits and officially the most tweeted-about show in Netflix’s history. Katherine Langford, born and raised in Western Australia, appeared in a string of small independent films and completed her audition for 13 Reasons Why via Skype. Little did she know that she would play such an important role, one that advocated against sexual assault and complacency and raised important debates regarding the role of parents, teachers and friends in preventing bullying and assault-related tragedies. Before the show, she was a little known actress with a little over 1,000 Instagram followers; today, this number stands at over nine million. Not bad for a young girl from Western Australia who was first bitten by the performing bug when she saw Lady Gaga perform live.

Millie Bobby Brown

This amazing British actress, star of hit series Stranger Things, is lucky to have made it to Hollywood’s A-list of teen actors. Her family’s story is extraordinary; her parents sold everything they had to move to Hollywood to help Millie achieve her dream. They took all the risks required, taking steps to improve finances to make ends meet and eventually moving back to the UK. Millie admits that this was the lowest point in her life, and that rejection after rejection resulted in a feeling of devastation. Her audition for Stranger Things changed all that. Her family immediately took a plane back to the US, and are now overwhelmed with the success reaped by Millie for her portrayal of the enigmatic Eleven.

Claire Foy

This young Brit probably never thought that one day, she would be playing the young and beautiful Queen Elizabeth II of England on one of Netflix’s hottest shows: The Crown. Considering her previous role was that of ‘Girl’ in the poorly rated Nicolas Cage film Season of the Witch, she feels fortunate indeed to have landed a role in what Business Insider referred to “the most expensive series ever.” The streaming service paid over $130 million for lavish sets, costumes, and recreation of important events such as Queen Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip. Speaking of her success, Foy told Vogue: “I really cannot see why this has happened to me and not to someone else. I’m under no illusions as to how fickle success can be. I’ve been on the outside of it enough to see it come and then see it go. If this had happened to me when I was 23, I think I would probably have spun into a vortex.”

Streaming services are doing much more than bringing us superior quality viewing in the comfort of our home. They are also discovering new stars, many of which have struggled to make it to the big screen – for which, oddly enough, they now have a plethora of scripts to choose from. With new entities such as Facebook poised to offer its own programs, we wait with baited breath to discover the next actor who knocks us off our feet.