\n<\/p>\n
Gutsy and offbeat, with an abundance of heart. The stars who rose to the top in 2023 shared a similar mentality: do it their own way and go full tilt without sacrificing emotion or authenticity. Here are eight artists who shook up their scenes and resonated with fans.<\/p>\n
Television<\/p>\n
As the TV landscape continues to fracture, one new show emerged as a bona fide phenomenon: \u201cThe Last of Us,\u201d HBO\u2019s stunningly heartfelt zombie apocalypse thriller. Given that its source material was a beloved, acclaimed 2013 video game that has sold over 20 million copies<\/a>, the bar was extraordinarily high. The show\u2019s debut season delivered, in large part because of the synergy between the duo at its center: Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, two characters who find themselves on a cross-country quest, dodging reanimated corpses to (hopefully) save the world.<\/p>\n Ramsey, 20, who was born and raised in central England, offered a layered, tenacious, haunting performance as a teenager who is coming-of-age while being humanity\u2019s possible last hope. They have been a working actor since they signed on to \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d at age 11, as the scene-stealing giant slayer<\/a> Lyanna Mormont, and went on to have celebrated turns in the BBC\/HBO adaptation of \u201cHis Dark Materials\u201d<\/a> and Lena Dunham\u2019s 2022 period comedy, \u201cCatherine Called Birdy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For \u201cThe Last of Us,\u201d Ramsey nailed a specific combination of contradictions \u2014 funny and quirky, but violent and rough \u2014 that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, its creators, were looking for. \u201cThere are few people better between the words \u2018action\u2019 and \u2018cut,\u2019\u201d Mazin told The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ramsey\u2019s performance earned them an Emmy nomination, for outstanding lead actress in a drama, joining the likes of established stars such as Keri Russell and Elisabeth Moss. \u201cIt\u2019s only recently that I\u2019ve accepted I am Ellie, and I can do it, and I am a good actor,\u201d Ramsey told us.<\/p>\n Movies<\/p>\n Despite having three albums that reached the Billboard 200 chart, the R&B singer Teyana Taylor retired from music in late 2020, saying she was \u201cfeeling super under appreciated<\/a>.\u201d But she had hope. \u201cWhen one door closes,\u201d she wrote on Instagram, \u201canother will open.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Shortly after, another door did, and she was cast as the lead in A.V. Rockwell\u2019s drama \u201cA Thousand and One.\u201d Her character, Inez, is trying to rebuild her life after serving time in Rikers Island. When she finds that her son is falling victim to a negligent foster care system in New York City, Inez kidnaps him.<\/p>\n The Times\u2019s assistant film editor, Mekado Murphy, called Taylor, 33, \u201celectrifying\u201d in the role. And our chief film critic, Manohla Dargis, said Taylor was \u201cmesmerizing\u201d<\/a> and \u201cterrific<\/a>\u201d in the film, which had its world premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. dramatic competition.<\/p>\n Another 2023 highlight for Taylor was the release of her own Air Jordan sneaker called \u201cA Rose From Harlem,\u201d<\/a> a nod to a song of hers from 2018. In 2024, she will star alongside LaKeith Stanfield, David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard and Benedict Cumberbatch in the biblical epic dramedy \u201cThe Book of Clarence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe things that I\u2019ve been through and the amount of time that it took was not a punishment,\u201d Taylor told The Times<\/a> in March. \u201cIt was preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Jordan Alvarez started off the year with a bang, starring alongside Allison Williams as a robotics developer in the sci-fi horror comedy hit \u201cM3gan.\u201d<\/a> By the fall, he had achieved viral stardom by creating a host of characters using various face filters to hilarious effect \u2014 including the sweet, gullible, proudly gay Timothee<\/a>; the beefy yet small-head Australian bodybuilder Rick; and most famously the bug-eyed, duck-lipped pop star TJ Mack, whose earworm \u201cSitting\u201d<\/a> (pronounced \u201cSittim\u201d) has delighted millions across TikTok and Instagram.<\/p>\n The fantastically absurd song, an ode to the glory of sitting, has also prompted countless interpretations, including a lovely cover by the Gen Z pop-funk musician Remi Wolf<\/a> and a dance remix<\/a> by the producer Josh Mac.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething about this particular song seems to be lightning in a bottle,\u201d Alvarez told Time magazine<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n Alvarez \u2014 a 36-year-old New York City native who starred in the \u201cWill & Grace\u201d reboot and had a popular 2016 web series, \u201cThe Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo\u201d \u2014 also told Vanity Fair<\/a> that while silly, his characters also inspire hope about humanity. \u201cLook at this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can still make art, and we can make art using this new technology that we\u2019re sometimes afraid of.\u201d<\/p>\n In November<\/a>, FX announced it would make a series of Alvarez\u2019s comedy \u201cEnglish Teacher,\u201d which he created and will star in as a high school teacher balancing competing demands.<\/p>\n Ice Spice started the year with her first hit under her belt \u2014 the impossibly chill yet savage \u201cMunch (Feelin\u2019 U),\u201d<\/a> which earned her early fans in Drake and Lil Nas X<\/a> \u2014 but that couldn\u2019t have prepared the Bronx drill rapper for how her 2023 would go. <\/p>\n By the year\u2019s end, Ice Spice \u2014 whose signature sound (cool, confident, raw) and distinctive look (a halo of Orphan Annie curls and a Kewpie face) have proved to be social media gold \u2014 had taken the stage<\/a> with Taylor Swift at MetLife Stadium to debut their duet, a remix of Swift\u2019s \u201cKarma.\u201d She also had a top 3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with her PinkPantheress collaboration, \u201cBoy\u2019s a Liar Pt. 2,\u201d and worked with Nicki Minaj on two tracks: \u201cBarbie World,\u201d for the year\u2019s biggest movie, and a remix of Ice Spice\u2019s \u201cPrincess Diana.\u201d She was parodied on S.N.L. in November by Punkie Johnson, just weeks after she\u2019d been the musical guest, introduced by Swift herself. There was even a Dunkin\u2019 Donuts commercial<\/a> with Ben Affleck.<\/p>\n Also in November, Ice Spice \u2014 born Isis Gaston on possibly the coolest birthday: Jan. 1, 2000 \u2014 was nominated for the best new artist Grammy.<\/p>\n Her rise certainly hasn\u2019t been without detractors, but, as she told The Times<\/a> this year, that is more fuel than anything else. \u201cHate,\u201d she said, \u201ccould take you a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRemember his name!\u201d Gia Kourlas, The Times\u2019s dance critic, wrote in July<\/a> about the American Ballet Theater\u2019s corps de ballet dancer Jake Roxander after his undeniable performance as Mercutio in \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d<\/p>\n And that was just one memorable turn of many this year. He dazzled in the peasant pas de deux in \u201cGiselle\u201d and the Neapolitan Dance in \u201cSwan Lake,\u201d in which he bounded so high into the air, \u201che seemed to be floating,\u201d Kourlas wrote \u2014 the same robust yet silky approach he brought to \u201c\u00c9tudes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n As Puck in \u201cThe Dream,\u201d he was the highlight<\/a> of the company\u2019s final two programs this fall, the dance critic Brian Seibert wrote, adding that this all bodes well for the Ballet Theater\u2019s future, and for the leadership of Susan Jaffe<\/a>, its new artistic director.<\/p>\n Roxander began dancing as a child, studying with his parents at Studio Roxander, in his hometown, Medford, Ore.<\/a> He\u2019d go on to dance at Pennsylvania Ballet before joining the American Ballet Theater\u2019s Studio Company in 2020, where he became an apprentice with the main company in 2022, before joining the corps de ballet late last year.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just his scrupulous technique and explosive elevation that puts him on this list, it\u2019s the theatricality he applies. \u201cHe has swagger,\u201d Kourlas says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think in clay,\u201d the Native American sculptor Rose B. Simpson told<\/a> The Times last year. \u201cClay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of and prayed with.\u201d<\/p>\n What she creates, though, is well beyond pottery. Simpson, who lives in her native New Mexico, creates androgynous sculptures that she calls \u201cbeings\u201d or \u201cancestors,\u201d which she adorns with materials like metal and leather. After showing in regional museums \u2014 including the ICA Boston<\/a> and the Fabric Workshop and Museum in<\/a> Philadelphia \u2014 she had a breakthrough year in New York with a big, attention-grabbing solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery, and now an installation, \u201cCounterculture<\/a>,\u201d at the Whitney Museum of American Art, through Jan. 21. And her solo show \u201cSkeena<\/a>\u201d runs through Dec. 23 at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Recently, it was announced that she was one of four contemporary artists commissioned by the Madison Square Park Conservancy for the 20th anniversary of its public art program. From April through September next year, \u201cSeed,\u201d a series of her large-scale sculptures, will be on display across two parks in Manhattan.<\/p>\n As the Los Angeles curator Helen Molesworth put it, Simpson\u2019s work has \u201ca badass, \u2018Mad Max,\u2019 \u2018Blade Runner\u2019 vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no question that we\u2019re watching a star be born,\u201d Alicia Keys told Vogue in November<\/a> about Maleah Joi Moon, 21, who channels a teenage Keys in \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d the semi-autobiographical Off Broadway jukebox musical built on the star\u2019s life and musical catalog.<\/p>\n Jesse Green, The Times\u2019s chief theater critic, would agree, calling Moon\u2019s debut New York City performance \u201csensational<\/a>.\u201d She\u2019s \u201cprecociously clever and fearless,\u201d he writes, in delivering a complex portrait of Ali, the dreamy main character.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an incredibly rare feat to step out in a principal role \u2014 so ambitious a proposal, in fact, that Moon almost didn\u2019t try out. \u201cI told my agent, \u2018This sounds amazing. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right for me.\u2019 I didn\u2019t feel like I was enough,\u201d she recently told The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Luckily, she was convinced to audition, where she impressed the musical\u2019s director, Michael Greif (\u201cRent,\u201d \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d), with her flexibility, instinct, courage and extraordinary singing ability. \u201cWe all got excited about building our production around her,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s proving us right.\u201d (More proof: The show has been selling out nightly, and it was recently announced that it would move to Broadway<\/a> in the spring.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAfter that first day,\u201d Moon said, \u201cI realized how much I loved this. It\u2019s a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n Classical Music<\/p>\n The conductor Dalia Stasevska\u2019s star has been rising since she graduated from the esteemed Helsinki conservatory Sibelius Academy in 2012. From there, she become an assistant to Paavo J\u00e4rvi at the Orchestre de Paris, and in 2019, she secured the principal guest conductor position at the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britain. In 2020, she became the chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland.<\/p>\n This year, Stasevska, 38 \u2014 who grew up in Estonia and Finland, the daughter of a Finnish mother and Ukrainian father \u2014 led the New York Philharmonic in a celebrated series of concerts. She conducted Wang Lu\u2019s \u201cSurge,\u201d in its world premiere, \u201cwith verve, commitment and, above all, clarity,\u201d our critic Joshua Barone wrote<\/a>. <\/span>Claire Chase, a prominent flutist and educator, has described her as a \u201csupernova.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2022, Stasevska has also become known for her vocal criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition to fund-raising efforts, she has driven trucks of supplies into the beleaguered nation. \u201cI can\u2019t save Ukraine by playing music, but I can use my mouth and speak out, and I can act,\u201d she told us. \u201cWe can\u2019t just hide behind our virtues. There comes a time for action.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nTeyana Taylor<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nDalia Stasevska<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n