8. Danielle Macdonald

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Watching Patti Cake$, the critical hit of an underdog rapper’s fight for a record deal, you would think that its star Danielle Macdonald was a seasoned hip-hop performer from New Jersey. You would be wrong. Macdonald was initially reticent to join the film because she didn’t know how to rap and, as an Australian, she was unconvinced that she could faithfully deliver the regional accent while spitting rhymes in Patti Cake$’s original songs. Many hours of practising later – and in-depth studying of Eminem, Kanye West, Missy Elliot and Nicki Minaj – Macdonald was able to embody her musical persona with all the attendant brash and bravura. After capturing audiences’ attention at Cannes, the actress has had a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in Lady Bird and is set to star in six movies this year, among them Dumplin’, a comedy about a plus-size girl who enters a beauty pageant to spite her mother (Jennifer Aniston). Patti may be “stuck in dirty Jersey” but Macdonald is headed straight for the big time.