Most Underrated Actors and Actresses Working Today

1. Karine Vanasse

Award-winning Canadian actress Karine Vanasse is internationally recognized for her dazzling performances in both English and French.

Vanasse stars as Detective Lise Delorme in the critically acclaimed CTV series Cardinal for which she received a 2019 Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress. ...

2. Ethan Embry

Actor | Sweet Home Alabama

Ethan Embry was born Ethan Philan Randall on June 13, 1978, in Huntington Beach, California, to Karen and Charles Randall. Before he started acting in movies, Ethan appeared in more than 100 TV and radio commercials. In 1991, at the age of 13, he appeared in three films and has continued acting ...

3. Tara Chocol

Actress | Florida Bush League Wrestling: The Movie

Tara Chocol was born on August 27, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Florida Bush League Wrestling: The Movie (2002), Dirt (2001) and Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997). She has been married to John Joyce since September 17, 2005.

4. Steve Zahn

Actor | War for the Planet of the Apes

Steve Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, to Zelda, who worked at a YMCA, and Carleton Edward Zahn, a Lutheran pastor at Peace Lutheran Church, Robbinsdale, Minnesota. His career kicked off in his native Minnesota when he crashed the audition of a local stage production of "Biloxi Blues" and won ...

5. Megan Follows

Actress | Anne of Green Gables

Megan (pronounced Mee-gan) has two children, a daughter, Lyla, and a son, Russel. Megan comes from a showbiz family: father Ted Follows, mother Dawn Greenhalgh, and sister Samantha Follows are all actors; her other sister, Edwina Follows, is a producer and writer; and her brother Laurence Follows ...

6. Tom Everett Scott

Actor | That Thing You Do!

Tom Everett Scott was born and raised in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the third of four children of Cynthia Ann (Pierce), an insurance saleswoman, and William Joseph Scott, who was a civil engineer. Tom spent his childhood in a "nice house in the woods", with a pond nearby, canoeing and camping...

7. Jennifer Connelly

Actress | A Beautiful Mind

Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across ...

8. Frank Whaley

Actor | Broken Arrow

Frank Whaley is a critically acclaimed actor/writer/director. He is best known for the films Pulp Fiction (1994) and Swimming with Sharks (1994), and has worked with Oliver Stone multiple times. His feature directorial debut, Joe the King (1999), earned him the Waldo Salt Screenwriting prize at the...

9. Illeana Douglas

Actress | Stir of Echoes

Illeana Douglas is an actress, writer, and producer. Born with show business in her blood, she is the granddaughter of screen legend Melvyn Douglas. Illeana began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. While working in New York as a stand-up comedian and sketch comedy artist, ...

10. Clayton Rohner

Actor | Mope

Clayton Rohner was born on August 5, 1957 in Palo Alto, California, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Mope (2019), Ozark (2017) and Bluff City Law (2019).

11. Thora Birch

Actress | Ghost World

For some people, oatmeal starts the day off right - for Thora Birch, it launched a healthy career in front of the camera. It's hard to believe that the actress, who slunk into stardom with her turn as the disillusioned daughter in American Beauty (1999), is even related to the apple-cheeked blonde ...

12. Yasiin Bey

Soundtrack | The Italian Job

Regarded as one of hip-hop's most introspective and insightful artists, Mos Def has shaped a career that transcends music genres and artistic medium. Taking a cue from the Afrocentric stylings of the Native Tongues crew, which included De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and Andres ...

13. Joanne Whalley

Actress | Willow

British-born actress Joanne Whalley has graced the big and small screens for decades. Known for such films as Scandal and Willow, she was a firm fixture on British TV screens including the hit series, The Singing Detective and nuclear industry drama The Edge Of Darkness, for which she received a ...

14. Kelley Jakle

Actress | Pitch Perfect 3

Kelley Jakle is an actress and singer/songwriter from Sacramento, CA.

As the only girl in a family with two older brothers, Kelley held her own playing competitive soccer, basketball and swimming. However, it was acting and singing that eventually consumed her interest, beginning with The Sacramento...

15. Heather Matarazzo

Actress | Welcome to the Dollhouse

Heather Matarazzo was born November 10, 1982, in Oyster Bay, New York. She was adopted by Camille and Ray Matarazzo, an Italian-American couple although she is of Irish descent biologically. Heather attended both Oyster Bay High School and Long Island High School for the Arts. In 1997, she made her...

16. Taylor Nichols

Actor | Metropolitan

Taylor Nichols was born on March 3, 1959 in Lansing, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Metropolitan (1989), Barcelona (1994) and Boiler Room (2000). He has been married to Margarita de Eguilior since 1995.

17. Paz Vega

Actress | Spanglish

Paz Vega

A renowned international actress who has captivated audiences in Europe, North America, and Latin America with her talent and versatility in acting. After starting her career on the successful sitcom "Siete vidas", the Sevillian actress made the jump to the big screen with Julio Medem's "...

18. Ally Sheedy

Actress | WarGames

Ally Sheedy was born in New York City, to Charlotte (Baum), a press agent and writer, and John J. Sheedy, Jr., an advertising executive. She is of Russian Jewish (mother) and Irish and German (father) descent. While at New York's Bank Street School, twelve-year-old Ally Sheedy wrote about a ...

19. Anthony Michael Hall

Actor | War Machine

Anthony Michael Hall was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. His parents are Mercedes Hall, an actress-blues and jazz singer, and Larry Hall, who owned an auto body shop. His stepfather is a show-business manager. His sister, Mary Christian, is also a performer. He has Irish and Italian ancestry. ...

20. Iben Hjejle

Actress | High Fidelity

Iben Hjejle (22 March 1971) is a Danish actress, notable for starring in the Stephen Frears film High Fidelity (2000). In Denmark, she is perhaps best known for appearing in the Danish television sitcom Langt fra Las Vegas (Far from Las Vegas) and playing the girlfriend of Danish comedian Casper ...

21. Utkarsh Ambudkar

Actor | Brittany Runs a Marathon

Utkarsh Ambudkar, also known by his stage name UTK the INC, is an American actor, rapper, and singer. He is known for his film roles including Pitch Perfect (2012), Blindspotting (2018), Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019), The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020), Free Guy (2021), and Tick, Tick... Boom! (...

22. Megan Hilty

Actress | Smash

Megan Hilty was born on March 29, 1981 in Bellevue, Washington, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Smash (2012), Secret of the Wings (2012) and Centaurworld (2021). She has been married to Brian Gallagher since November 2, 2013. They have two children.

23. Chazz Palminteri

Actor | The Usual Suspects

Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri was a natural choice to continue the Italianate torch in film. In the tradition set forth in the 1970s by such icons as director Martin Scorsese and actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, John Cazale and Joe Pesci, Palminteri has brought grit, muscle and an ...

24. Martin Donovan

Actor | Tenet

Martin Donovan was born in Reseda, California, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Tenet (2020), Big Little Lies (2017) and Special Ops: Lioness (2023). He has been married to Vivian Lanko since 1984. They have two children.

25. Jeff Daniels

Actor | The Squid and the Whale

Actor Jeff Daniels was born in Athens, Georgia, but was raised in Chelsea, Michigan. He is the son of Marjorie J. (Ferguson) and Robert Lee Daniels, who owned The Chelsea Lumber Company and was also mayor of Chelsea. Jeff attended Central Michigan University, but became involved in acting and ...

26. Clifton Collins Jr.

Actor | Star Trek

An acting chameleon who can easily lose himself in the life of his film and television characters, Clifton Collins Jr. is a native Angeleno who grew up destined to become a part of the Latino entertainment industry. His great-grandparents on his mother's side were a Mexican trumpet player and ...

27. Hope Davis

Actress | American Splendor

Davis, second of three children, was born in Englewood, New Jersey, the daughter of Joan, a librarian (at one time, for the elementary section of Elisabeth Morrow School), and William Davis, an engineer. Davis has described her mother as a "great storyteller" who would take Davis and her siblings ...

28. Nina Siemaszko

Actress | More Tales of the City

Antonina Jadwiga Siemaszko is an American actress. Best known for her film roles in Little Noises (1992), The Saint of Fort Washington (1993), and for her role as Eleanor Bartlet in The West Wing (2001-2006).

Siemaszko was born in Chicago. Her father, Konstanty, was a Polish-born Roman Catholic, and...

29. Maisie Williams

Actress | The New Mutants

Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams (born April 15, 1997) is an English actress. She made her professional acting debut as Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones, for which she won the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama, the Portal Award for Best Supporting ...

30. Liam Cunningham

Actor | Hunger

Irish actor Liam Cunningham was an electrician in the mid-'80s. He saw an ad for an acting school and he decided to give it a try. His first film role was as a policeman in "Into the West." Since then, he has been involved in many films and theater productions on both sides of the Atlantic.

31. Zuleikha Robinson

Actress | Hidalgo

Zuleikha Robinson was born in London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Hidalgo (2004), The Merchant of Venice (2004) and Homeland (2011). She was previously married to Sean Doyle.

32. Gwendoline Christie

Actress | Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

London-based Gwendoline Christie is one of the most exciting and unique British actresses working today, having caught the industry's attention with her Emmy and Critics' Choice nominated role in the global hit HBO series "Game of Thrones." During her time on the show, she was also nominated ...

33. Geneviève Appleton

Producer | Women Building Peace

Geneviève Appleton started her career in the 1980s as an actor in such films and television programs as KIDS OF DEGRASSI and ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, THE SEQUEL (US title: ANNE OF AVONLEA). After receiving her B.A.A. in Film Production with Honours from Ryerson University (Toronto) in 1994, she ...

34. Oscar Isaac

Actor | Ex Machina

Oscar Isaac was born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada in Guatemala, to a Guatemalan mother, María Eugenia, and a Cuban father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernández-Cano, a pulmonologist. Oscar was raised in Miami, Florida. Before he became an actor, he played lead guitar and sang vocals in his band the Blinking ...

35. Scott Glenn

Actor | The Hunt for Red October

Scott Glenn was born January 26, 1939, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Hope Elizabeth and Theodore Glenn, a salesman. As he grew up in Appalachia, his health was poor; he was bedridden for a year and doctors predicted he would limp for the rest of his life. During long periods of illness, Glenn was...

36. Maggie Gyllenhaal

Actress | Secretary

Maggie Gyllenhaal was born on November 16, 1977 in New York City, New York as Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal, the daughter of producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She is of Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and Swedish, English, and ...

37. Kat Dennings

Actress | Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Kat Dennings was born Katherine Victoria Litwack in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, to Ellen (Schatz), a speech therapist and poet, and Gerald Litwack, a molecular pharmacologist. She is the youngest of five children. Her family is of Russian Jewish descent. Kat was predominantly ...

38. Alison Pill

Actress | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Alison Pill was most recently seen in HELLO TOMORROW! for Apple TV+. She previously starred in the CBS All Access series, STAR TREK: PICARD, Alex Garland's FX miniseries, DEVS, and the Amazon series, THEM. Pill's other television work includes Ryan Murphy's AMERICAN HORROR STORY: CULT, the ABC ...

39. Nathan Fillion

Actor | Castle

Nathan Fillion was born on 27 March 1971 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is the son of Cookie (Early) and Bob Fillion, both retired English teachers, and has an older brother, Jeff. His father is of French-Canadian descent, and his mother is of English, German, Finnish, and Norwegian ancestry. In ...

40. Amir Arison

Actor | The Blacklist

Amir Arison was born on March 24, 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Blacklist (2013), The Dropout (2022) and Ramy (2019).

41. Amanda Righetti

Actress | Captain America: The First Avenger

Amanda Elizabeth Righetti is a Utah-born, Nevada-raised actor/producer and Best Actress Award winner by the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. Righetti began her career at 14, as a young model, but made waves as the trust-fund squandering, world-traveling black sheep, "Hailey...