10 Rising Stars: OZY’s 100

Working in Los Angeles as a restorative yoga instructor, “Oge the Yogi” met Ged Doherty, a Hollywood producer and co-founder of Raindog Films. Believing Egbuonu had special talent, Doherty persuaded her to drop everything and dive into the film industry. The learning curve was steep, but Egbuonu embraced the challenges. Now she has made a name for herself, creating and directing the powerful documentary (In)Visible Portraits, which was picked up by the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Amid plummeting media trust, the time has arrived for Dometi Pongo, host of the MTV series True Life Crime and MTV News’ Need to Know, a Twitter and Instagram TV show covering pop culture. Pongo veers away from what most outlets are covering, doubling down on stories of police violence and racial injustice that quickly fall off the radar of other journalists — and effectively becoming an activist in his own right.

She wowed the world with her poetry at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. But we first introduced you to Amanda Gorman back in 2017 — when she was just 19 and an OZY Genius Award winner. Her project was called Generation Empathy, and the idea involved creating a virtual reality museum displaying digital portraits of a select handful of young activists. “We have these phenomenal change-makers who have these really incredible microphones to talk about society’s problems,” Gorman told us. “What I want to do is highlight the lesser-known ones who are putting themselves on the line and taking risks for what they believe in.”

You return to your childhood neighborhood, only nothing is the same. What do you do? For Merawi Gerima, the answer is easy: You make a movie about it. The mostly autobiographical Residue follows Jay, a student who returns home from film school intending to write a script about his childhood, but finds himself struggling to reconnect with the place as it succumbs to white gentrification.

The talented Isabel Sandoval sure can wear a lot of hats: writing, directing, producing, editing and starring in her 2019 Netflix film Lingua Franca. The story centers on Olivia, an undocumented trans Filipina caregiver in New York City, who becomes romantically involved with a man while pursuing a marriage-based green card. A trans Filipina immigrant herself, Sandoval insists the film is not autobiographical, but it does come from a place of authenticity, and she shares many of the tensions, paranoid fears and emotions of her protagonist.

The British daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, Michaela Coel broke through with her sitcom Chewing Gum, a coming-of-age tale about a young Black woman finding her voice and sexuality in “hilariously filthy” fashion, as The Guardian put it. And her 12-episode HBO series, I May Destroy You, quickly became one of the must-see shows of 2020. Playing the protagonist, Arabella, Coel tackles the trauma of being sexually assaulted — a battle she fought herself after being drugged and assaulted in 2016.

Though many mispronounce her “French-sounding” first name, Joyelle Nicole Johnson is rapidly rising in the comedy charts. She also stars on HBO Max’s Search Party. Johnson’s greatest strength lies in her ability to use humor to address thorny topics like female reproductive rights and vaccine skepticism, especially among Black Americans.

Which rising young star do you have your eye on? Let us know