Zoomer culture—with its progressive tendencies and therapy-speak—has infiltrated screens both big and small.
By Lisette Voytko, Maggie McGrath, Dana Feldman and Jair Hilburn
In HBO’s breakout comedy series Hacks, Hannah Einbinder’s Ava—a striving but canceled comedy writer—tries to order coffee at a comedy club, but non-dairy milks, such as oat or soy, aren’t available. Her boss Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a caustic comedy legend in the vein of Joan Rivers, is quick to lambaste her young writing partner. “Oh God. The entitled Millennial is going to have to drink two percent. Emergency! Somebody get an epi-pen!”
Ava is quick to shoot back: “I’m Gen Z, okay? There are Millennials who are, like, 40.”
With Hacks, Einbinder, 27, landed her first-ever lead television role after years of trawling the Los Angeles comedy scene and fruitlessly auditioning. No more. Einbinder earned two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe for Hacks. Her work on the show is just one example of how this year’s 30 Under 30 Hollywood are putting Gen Z, and its attendant stereotypes, front and center in entertainment’s hottest films and TV shows.
Youth walks on the dark side in Euphoria, another HBO smash series following teen girls trying to navigate high school, sex, and drug addiction, among other weighty issues. Sydney Sweeney, 25, became a dominant presence on the show as Cassie Howard, who slowly comes undone as her classmates gossip about her sexual past and as she seeks an abortion. Sweeney’s performance nabbed a Best Supporting Actress Emmy nomination opposite Under 30 alum and fellow Euphoria costar Zendaya. Sweeney’s acting was so nice, she got nominated twice—for a second Emmy—as the spoiled teenager Olivia Mossbacher in another HBO show, The White Lotus.
Photo by Tim Tadder for Forbes
This year’s featured lister Ayo Edebiri, 27, brought Gen Z into the notoriously difficult restaurant business with her crowd favorite performance as the plucky, go-getting Sydney in FX’s The Bear, daring to ask her boss for a healthier workplace dynamic. In the real world, Edebiri tells Forbes she has to remind herself that as an actor and comedian and TV writer, she’s a freelancer and always is on the lookout for more work. The upside? “It’s nice to not have a boss you have to report to. Or, like, a weird photocopying machine.”
Another Gen Z-er at work: Myha’la Herrold, 26, as the acerbic, mercenary Harper Stern in HBO’s Industry, whose ruthless tactics as a trader for the fictional Pierpoint bank is more reminiscent of previous generations’ approach to work above all else. Herrold also joined the red-hot A24 shingle this year with an ensemble appearance in the black comedy slasher (and Gen-Z lampooning) Bodies Bodies Bodies alongside fellow 2023 lister Chase Sui Wonders, 26, and upstarts including Pete Davidson and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm).
The 2023 class of Hollywood and entertainment’s 30 Under 30 come from all parts of “the town,” including actors, agents, storyboard artists, directors, producers and change agents succeeding during a rocky, post-covid year. All list members must be under the age of 30 as of December 31, 2022 and cannot have appeared on any previous 30 Under 30 lists.
Forbes invited four Hollywood leaders to serve as judges for this year’s class: director Leslie Linka Gladder (The Morning Show, The Walking Dead, Twin Peaks); actor Ariana DeBose (West Side Story); author Jenny Han (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before); and actor Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).
This year’s list was edited by Lisette Voytko, Maggie McGrath, Dana Feldman and Jair Hilburn. For a link to our complete Hollywood & Entertainment list, click here, and for full 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2022/11/29/ayo-edebiri-hannah-einbinder-and-sydney-sweeney-hollywoods-30-under-30-ushers-in-big-gen-z-energy/