This is not, we gather, the first creator power list you have read this year. Nor will it likely be the last. Like pivoting to video or starting a side gig on Substack, influencer power rankings are a media trend du jour. And it’s not shocking: The creator economy — projected to hit $310 billion this year, up 23 percent from 2025 — has totally reshaped entertainment. At first, they were outside disrupters; now they are part of the industry itself. So this year, for The Hollywood Reporter’s third annual foray into the fray, we wanted to do something different. We’ve culled our Creators A-list into a hyper-specific guide to the influencers who are the most important to Hollywood. These are the comedians, sketch writers and actors who are booking roles and selling scripts, as well as the TikTokers and YouTubers that studios and streamers consider their press tour secret weapons. They’re the creators (both current and former) who are vying for the attention not only of the public at large but the power players right here in town. If you’ve got a series to cast or a movie to promote, these are the people we think you should call — because your competition already has.
Alix Earle
Though she got her start posting Get Ready With Me videos on TikTok and then recording the Hot Mess podcast for Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network, Earle has since turned her talents to the reality television space. She competed on season 34 of Dancing With the Stars (earning second place alongside pro Valentin Chmerkovskiy), and this fall she let viewers into her New Jersey manse with Earle Meets World. The series gets a boost thanks to her specific family drama — Earle’s stepmother is Ashley Dupré, the escort at the center of Eliot Spitzer’s fall from grace — and coverage of her rumored fling with Tom Brady, and it’s one of Netflix’s better-performing reality shows (it slid into the streamer’s top 10 during its first week).
THE THING I WOULD MISS ABOUT CREATOR LIFE IF I WENT FULL-TIME HOLLYWOOD “That I could stand next to a male without sparking a dating rumor.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Going on live without realizing people would screen record it.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY “My stepmother Ashley Earle] because it would save me from holding my breath every time I refresh my social media.”
Amelia Dimoldenberg
After more than a decade, Dimoldenberg will be eating her final chicken nugget as she prepares to wind down her fast food-centric interview series. But she’s not abandoning the form entirely — instead, the YouTuber will be starring in and producing a romantic comedy set up at Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures. Dimoldenberg will play a journalist who finds love during a seemingly routine celebrity interview; a conceit that will ring familiar to those who kept a close eye on her chemistry with former Chicken Shop Date guest Andrew Garfield.
Benito Skinner
As the creator and star of Overcompensating, Prime Video’s high-performing campus comedy based on his own life as a closeted college student, Skinner is the north star for creators hoping to break into Hollywood. The comedian, who also hosts a podcast with Overcompensating co-star and longtime friend Mary Beth Barone, spent years posting sketches to his Instagram account and then developing the series with A24 and Amazon Studios. Season two is expected soon, with stars like Kyle MacLachlan and Connie Britton set to return as well. “I spend less time in wigs,” Skinner says of his life on the other side of online sketches. “But I wrote some into Overcompensating season two to fill the void.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Thinking all gay people would be nice because I’m gay. My boys take me DOWN sometimes holy fuck.”
MY DAILY MEDIA DIET CONSISTS OF … “Makeup reviews, gays dancing to Slayyyter, The O.C. or PEN15 fan cams, raccoons as pets and Disney adults ♥ I’m healthy!”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY Ben Shapiro. “I’d wipe everything!”
Brittany Broski
Broski’s YouTube chat show Royal Court continues to reign supreme as a place for actors to do just that — chat. This year alone, the likes of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Keke Palmer and Bob Odenkirk have all been lured in by the chance to trade a little bit of dignity (guests must dress up in medieval costumery) for a guaranteed-friendly interview. “I used to post videos of me being horny for celebrities I now have to sit opposite from and interview about their careers,” jokes Broski. There are no gotcha moments on Royal Court, but A-listers still have a high likelihood of virality thanks to the way the interview clips circulate across Instagram and TikTok.
CELEBRITY GUEST WHO MOST SURPRISED ME “I LOVE Riz Ahmed. I missed him the second he left the studio.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Assuming the general public will operate in good faith, or ever offer you the benefit of the doubt.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY Alix Earle. “No further comment.”
Bri Morales
Earlier this fall, Morales launched the Bri So for Real show on Instagram and TikTok, an interview series in which she asks guests to tell her their personal lore. As for her own lore? She gained fame as the host of NowThis Media’s Are You Okay? show, where she set a high — and, more importantly, cringe-free — bar for the sort of man-on-the-street interview concepts that are now taking over TikTok. She played herself on the newest season of FX’s hangout sitcom Adults, interviewing Jack Innanen’s Paul Baker.
CELEBRITY GUEST WHO MOST SURPRISED ME “The Rock was amazing. He seems nice online, but it’s true he really is one of the kindest people. Our interview got interrupted, and he went out of his way to come back and finish it.”
Charli D’Amelio
Charli D‘Amelio — the reigning queen of TikTok — loves to dance. Whenever a new song comes on at this photography studio in L.A., Charli is shimmying her shoulders, shaking her hips. Now she stamps and turns like a flamenco dancer, swishing the skirt of her ruffly black gown. “So pretty, stunning,” says Emman Montalvan, the photographer snapping her. “Gorg!”
With her glossy black hair and sparkly smile, Charli is gorg. She’s the girl next door drawn by Disney; she’s the bright and shiny face of social media, making it all seem benign. “This is her before she becomes jaded,” Montalvan observes. “Nothing calculated. Natural. She reminds me of when Britney Spears was young.”
Rihanna’s “Breakin’ Dishes” begins to play. Charli mouths the words: “I don’t know who you think I am —”
“Are you having fun?” I ask, finding myself smiling. Because when Charli is happy, you feel happy — which is no doubt part of her appeal. You want to believe that a life spent dancing around in fabulous clothes and opening yourself up to a dizzying 160 million-plus followers (the second most on TikTok) really is as wonderful as it looks.
But a flicker of annoyance crosses Charli’s brow, as if the question touches a nerve. Maybe that’s because of how the algorithms are always demanding she offer up the semblance of a perfect life, the performance of joy, no matter the reality. Read the full profile by Nancy Jo Sales.
colin & samir
Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry have built a large following — and a lucrative business — as creators catering to other creators. They host a video series breaking down the influencer economy and offering industry analysis, and this year they hosted a sold-out summit on the Fox lot dedicated to the intersection of creators and Hollywood. They’re also starting to set up their own EP business, with (still secretive) projects in development with both Lionsgate and A24.
Dhar Mann
As the owner of Dhar Mann Studios, the creator makes inspirational scripted shorts — popular topics include unlikely romances and overprotective parents — for an audience of 170 million followers globally. Now, thanks to a new content deal, he’ll be producing 20 episodes of his signature shortforms exclusively for Disney. (The company recently launched a new vertical video product and struck a separate deal with TikTok, all part of a push to make its streaming platform more comprehensive.) “Some of my biggest breakthroughs came when I stopped worrying about production quality and started focusing on the story,” says Mann of his early learnings. “Turns out, people connect with authenticity, not perfection.”
THE THING I WOULD MISS ABOUT CREATOR LIFE IF I WENT FULL-TIME HOLLYWOOD
“Being able to wake up with an idea, film it in my apartment and post it that night. Now an idea can involve five soundstages, hundreds of people and a lot of meetings. Sometimes I miss when my biggest production problem was convincing a friend to hold the camera.”
Gabby Windey
Best known for her appearances on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and The Traitors, and for the way she harnessed her reality TV stardom to build a dedicated online following, Windey is now turning to the big screen. She’ll appear in next year’s Peaked, an A24 comedy directed by and starring Molly Gordon that is said to revolve around a high school reunion as two former mean girls attempt to relive their glory days. Windey will also play the coach of a Catholic girls’ school dance team that experiences a mass hysteria event in Netflix’s series The Body, which bows Nov. 11. Her comedic sensibility has been compared to that of Jennifer Coolidge, and it seems Hollywood is finally giving her the chance to prove it.
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Big of you to think I live life with regret.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY “I would never give away my creativity to another.”
Grace Reiter
Reiter started her own mass hysteria event — online — when her SNL season 52 announcement went live. The comedian built a faithful-slash-rabid following on TikTok and YouTube and as part of the American High sketch troupe. She cut her TV teeth during the first season of Tim Robinson’s delightfully wacky The Chair Company (she played Robinson’s soon-to-be daughter-in-law and nemesis) and is already set to take up the sketch show’s resident weirdo position. But to her OG fans, she promises she’ll never leave content creating completely: “I’m Hannah Montana, I get the best of both worlds.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “I went on Omegle on TikTok live and got banned.”
MY DAILY MEDIA DIET CONSISTS OF …. “I’m trying to train my fyp to only show me pug videos and videos with only four likes. Those videos inspire me.”
Jack Coyne
Coyne’s social media show Track Star* started as a simple on-the-street contest; if you stopped to listen to a track and could name the artist, you won $5. Now, it’s a name-that-tune quiz game meets interview format and a must-stop on global press tours for actors looking to show off a little of their own version of street cred. Like Maya Rudolph sharing iconic stories from her childhood or Andrew Garfield making his plea to star in a Cat Stevens biopic.
THE THING I WOULD MISS ABOUT CREATOR LIFE IF I WENT FULL-TIME HOLLYWOOD “The magic of being a creator is being firmly in control of your creative work. I’d hate to give up that creative control.”
Jake Shane
This year, the TikToker and podcaster made his Broadway debut as part of the cast of All Out, did a guest role on the second season of Adults and is developing a half-hour comedy series with Hulu. He’s also worked hard to continue to crank out the digital content that his followers connect to, be it for his quirkiness on TikTok and Instagram (he takes requests for impressions of things like “a USB being flipped around a whole bunch when you try to plug it in” and “the iceberg getting hit”) or his extreme relatability on his podcast (asking Troye Sivan to explain what “the bush” is).
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Asking Kacey Musgraves what the line ‘in Beijing they’re heading out to work’ meant.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY Kylie Jenner
Jana Craig
She first burst onto the scene during the sixth season of Love Island USA and quickly pivoted her reality TV notoriety into internet stardom, doing collabs with brands like Truly, Maybelline and Venmo. Now she’s turning her sights on entertainment, with a cameo in All for Love, a film produced by Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt and a still-highly secretive lead role in a vertical series from Issa Rae’s production company. (In the meantime, you can find her at the Traitors US mansion filming season six, which is expected to hit Peacock in early 2027.)
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Going on Snapchat rants and posting a man before getting a ring. I will never post a man again until I get a ring on my finger.”
Jordyn Woods
Woods has been on screens of all kinds for years, first on the original Keeping Up With the Kardashians and then Life of Kylie, and then she came to our phones as she started building her career as a content creator. But it was this year that she truly became a star thanks to her courtside appearances and her now-husband Karl-Anthony Towns’ historic run with the New York Knicks. Her lucky bag, a faux-ostrich purse in Knickerbocker orange, became a viral sensation in and of itself — and now sits in a glass case in the hallowed halls of the Guggenheim Museum.
THE THING I WOULD MISS ABOUT CREATOR LIFE IF I WENT FULL-TIME HOLLYWOOD “The freedom to create and connect with people on my own terms. I’ve grown up in this industry, and my audience has grown with me. There’s something special about being able to share different chapters of my life while also building something of my own.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “I’ve been on social media since I was 15, and honestly, I don’t really look back at anything as a mistake. We were all figuring it out together, and back then, social media was just fun. There wasn’t the same pressure to be perfect or turn every moment into a business opportunity.”
Julian Shapiro-Barnum
What started as a heartwarming web series about a 20-something guy interviewing elementary school children for life advice has now evolved into a sought-after press stop — like doing a guest role on Sesame Street. Shapiro-Barnum still hosts Recess Therapy (guests have included Olivia Rodrigo and Matt Damon, and he’s also taken the series to awards show red carpets) and he’s since expanded his online oeuvre with Celebrity Substitute and the recently launched Outside Tonight, the first digital late night show, in partnership with YouTube.
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “I posted the back of my credit card on main … lesson learned …”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY “Let me try and run Elmo’s socials. That guy’s got potential. I can make him a star!”
Kareem Rahma
The media entrepreneur’s Subway Takes series (in which celebs share their hot takes in front of a car full of straphangers) has become an all-out sensation, even earning an Emmy nomination this year for outstanding short form comedy, drama or variety series. But Rahma’s real superpower lies in longform programming: He recently relaunched Keep the Meter Running, mini-docs that follow Rahma as he hops into the back of a taxi and asks the driver to take him to their favorite place in the city. Where Subway Takes trades in virality, Meter is all heart; as he follows drivers through far-flung corners of New York, Cairo and even Damascus, he asks poignant questions about life, love and loss. If comparisons to Anthony Bourdain were still au courant, we’d use one here.
CELEBRITY GUEST WHO MOST SURPRISED ME “I had a ton of fun with Colin Jost. He’s more buff than I thought he would be!”
MY DAILY MEDIA DIET CONSISTS OF … “Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me, Matthew Belloni’s The Town, a quick scroll of X (10 minutes max) and then lots and lots of Instagram and YouTube.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Posting a selfie. Men should never post selfies. I’m only sending you a selfie because it is required.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY Donald Trump
Mina Le
Le became known for posting thoughtful and researched commentary on both newly released and upcoming movies and TV shows — like her deep dive on blondes in the wake of FX’s Love Story. Now, she’s quickly becoming Hollywood’s right-hand woman for marketing campaigns and has paid partnerships ranging from Apple TV, HBO and Netflix to Mubi and YouTube’s Oscars programming. A role in a yet-to-be-announced major series is next.
THE THING I WOULD MISS ABOUT CREATOR LIFE IF I WENT FULL-TIME HOLLYWOOD “I like the independence. Turns out, it takes a long time to make a movie. So when I have an idea that feels timely, it’s cool to be able to self-publish.”
Noah Beck
Once a member of Sway House, the frat-like content studio that dominated during the pandemic, Beck is now leveraging his roots (dancing shirtless on TikTok) for something ever-so-slightly less bro-y. In January, he’ll star in McG’s Baywatch reboot, in which he plays a lifeguard alongside Stephen Amell, Brooks Nader and Shay Mitchell. Beck also just wrapped production on Danny Ramirez’s directorial debut, Baton, opposite Lewis Pullman and Camila Mendes.
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Responding to a comment that was addressing a completely different Noah …”
Quenlin Blackwell
Blackwell got her start on the shuttered app Vine (she posted mostly physical comedy like clips of her falling during a cheerleading stunt) before eventually amassing more than 16 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. In her new, more Hollywood-focused era, she’s honing in on YouTube with her Feeding Starving Celebrities series, which sees her chatting and cooking with Meg Stalter, Tyriq Withers and Charli XCX. She ventured into traditional entertainment when she appeared as a heightened, dramatized version of herself on the first season of I Love LA but says she doesn’t want to choose between the two: “The plan was never creator or Hollywood, it’s both, and I own the show.”
THE THING I WOULD MISS ABOUT CREATOR LIFE IF I WENT FULL-TIME HOLLYWOOD “If I had to name it: being the one who decides when something is done.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY Oprah Winfrey. “I’d post one thing and then sit with the comments like it’s a book club.”
Reece Feldman
Feldman started as a PA capturing behind-the-scenes content on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and has grown to become Hollywood’s chosen creator thanks to his authoritative yet relatable POV. Under his guise of Guy With a Movie Camera, he’s been hired by studios and streamers to help promote their projects with his particular brand of BTS content. Christopher Nolan personally invited him to the set of The Odyssey to show fans what the massive production was like, and Feldman was just announced as this season’s Oscars ambassador for the Academy, a role that will see him hosting the official red carpet.
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Reading every comment.”
Sean Evans
With the pending end of Chicken Shop Date, Evans will officially have the last poultry-themed interview show standing. And in fact, he’s expanding — after dominating with Hot Ones (A-listers eating increasingly spicy wings while he delivers a very specific line of questioning about their bodies of work) and Hot Ones Versus (A-listers competing to see who can answer the most hard-hitting questions and thus be fed the least spicy wings), he’s now added Hot Ones Wing Pong (casts of shows like Adults and Outer Banks playing a version of beer pong) to the mix. The franchise is now so famous that Evans is called on to stage the series in movies like Happy Gilmore 2 and Verity.
CELEBRITY GUEST WHO MOST SURPRISED ME “It always surprises me when a guest runs the [wing] gantlet without even flinching. Shout-out to Demi Moore. Shout out to Karl-Anthony Towns. Shout out to Ariana Grande.”
MY DAILY MEDIA DIET CONSISTS OF … “MLB highlights on YouTube, movie screeners for upcoming Hot Ones guests and podcasts at 2.5x speed.”
Tiff Baira
As the self-coined Cupid of New York, Baira has been making videos about dating in the Big Apple since the days of the pandemic. She started by sharing her own (occasionally horror) stories and now hosts several viral dating-centric series — Take Me Out and StreetHearts — that lure in guests like Belmont Cameli, Snoop Dogg and Jennifer Lopez to talk about their careers and love lives. (She was also selected to appear as herself on the most recent season of Adults.)
CELEBRITY GUEST WHO MOST SURPRISED ME “Snoop Dogg once told me I was ‘pretty in pink’ during an interview, and I’ve truly never gotten over it.”
Veronika Slowikowska
Entering her sophomore season of Saturday Night Live, Slowikowska is carving out a niche in what we’ll call lovable cringe comedy. She was cast thanks to the popular sketch comedy she posted on her TikTok page, and even though her schedule is increasingly full with Hollywood projects — she had a small part in One Night Only and next will appear in Craig Zobel’s Turpentine alongside Melissa McCarthy and Connor Storrie — she continues to create alongside her boyfriend and collaborator Kyle Chase. “There’s no green lights or auditions or Hollywood producers running my page,” she says. “It’s just me, and it feels liberating.”
THE BIGGEST ROOKIE MISTAKE I MADE ONLINE “Reading comments. Good or bad or ugly, none of my business!”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY Home Depot. “I’d post some funny memes to a Chanel Beads song.”
Ziwe
Three years after the cancellation of her eponymous Showtime talk show, Ziwe went back to her roots by relaunching the series — this time on YouTube. Now branded as You’d Be an Iconic Guest, she’s using her signature confrontational yet deadpan interview style to grill people like Kevin Hart, Law Roach and Hasan Piker in segments that go consistently (and extremely) viral.
CELEBRITY GUEST WHO MOST SURPRISED ME “All of my guests are surprising, please don’t make me choose between icons.”
THE PERSON WHOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT I’D LIKE TO RUN FOR A DAY The Pope. “I would not want to run anyone’s social media, but if I had to choose …”
This story appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.