Emma Stone is one of the most decorated actresses working in Hollywood today, a performer who parlayed sharp comic instincts into a dramatic range that has now produced two Academy Awards. She broke through with Superbad (2007) and Easy A (2010), then built a filmography that includes The Help (2011), Birdman (2014), La La Land (2016), The Favourite (2018), and Poor Things (2023), winning Oscars for the latter two. The arc from high school comedy to Yorgos Lanthimos collaboration is steep, and she made it look like a straight line.

On screen, Stone draws focus through an alertness that makes her scenes feel slightly more alive than the ones around them, a quality that holds across comedy, musical, and period drama alike. Her blue-green eyes and expressive, wide-mouthed face give her an openness that cameras respond to immediately, and she has used that likability as cover for increasingly strange and demanding creative choices. After Poor Things, she stands as the most adventurous major star in Hollywood, the actress most willing to spend her goodwill on something genuinely difficult.