BAFTA Rising Star Awards: meet 2024's incredible nominees

Known for: Bridgerton, Fair Play, Bank of Dave

The daughter of Coronation Street icon Sally Dynevor, it seems as though Phoebe was destined to become a star too! The 28-year-old British actress, who shot to fame with her role as Daphne Bridgerton in the hit Netflix period drama Bridgerton, recently showed her impressive range in the psychological thriller, Fair Play, where she plays a hedge fund analyst whose relationship begins to fail after she lands a promotion. 

"To prepare for the role, I read a book called 'Hedge Funds for Dummies' because I had no idea what people in finance do on a daily basis," she explained to HELLO! and other reporters at the EE BAFTA Rising Star announcement. "I tried to highlight as much as I could then quickly realised that I would never get my head around it. So then moved on to getting the accent and rehearsing with Alden [Ehrenreich] which was the dream." 

Speaking about finding out about her BAFTA nomination, Phoebe reveals that she was on a plane at the time. She explains: "I told my mum, and was so excited. Then I realised there were people around me and I was quiet, but it was too late!" 

Known for: How to Have Sex, Persuasion

After making her start in shows including EastEnders and Holby City before becoming a star of CBBC’s Dumping Ground series, Mia has gone from strength to strength with her recent roles. Critics lauded the 26-year-old’s performance in How to Have Sex, where she played a teenager on her first party holiday, and you may have also spotted her as Anne’s infuriating (but hilarious) sister Mary in the Netflix Jane Austen adaptation, Persuasion. 

Speaking about filming How to Have Sex, the British actress says: "We shot in Malia, on the strip! It was amazing! I went on holidays when I was younger so it was tapped back into 17-year-old Mia!" 

She continues: "It was just incredible. I know it’s so cliche but we were literally a family shooting this movie. Everyone was so passionate about what we were doing, everyone turned up everyday so buzzing to be there the whole way through. We just had the best time." 

Known for: Talk to Me, Everything Now

Sophie has been on our screens more and more recently, but her breakout performance has to be in the horror Talk to Me, where she plays a teenage girl toying with a hand that possesses you when you touch it - and it was down to rehearsals that the cast felt confident enough to act out the hauntings without feeling self-conscious. 

"I did a film called Talk to Me," she says. "We had an amazing long rehearsal period and it was great, everyone played out each other’s possessions so no one would feel embarrassed about putting themselves in ridiculous situations!" She adds that it wasn’t too scary on set, and that the directors injected a "huge energy" to make things fun. 

"They’re obsessed with Uno. They do this thing where you have to play Uno and if you lose, you have to do an embarrassing social dare. There were a lot of embarrassing social dares going on… It wasn’t me, I never lost! I’m really good at Uno! But my friend lost and when she met Sam [Jennings], the producer, she had to put mayonnaise on her hand, and go up and hold her hand." 

Speaking about the nomination, the Australian actress adds: "When you get on a call and your entire team is on the call, that’s when you know it’s something big, because you’re like, 'Why would you all be on this call otherwise?!'"  

Known for: Saltburn, Euphoria, Priscilla 

After making his start in the movie franchise The Kissing Booth before a star-making turn in Euphoria as Nate, Jacob had an incredible 2023 following the release of Saltburn and Priscilla, and it’s only going to get better! 

The Australian actor has no less than six upcoming projects on the go, including Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein as The Monster, where he replaced Andrew Garfield in the role after the actor left the project due to scheduling conflicts. 

However, Prime Video’s movie Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, is certainly one of the talked about right now, and sees Jacob play a handsome and wealthy university student, Felix, who takes loner Oliver (Barry Keoghan) under his wing. 

Speaking about giving the star some period costume tidbits for the movie, which is set in 2003, Emerald told Radio Times: "If somebody looks like Jacob Elordi, the best thing you can do is give them a Carpe Diem tattoo and a Livestrong bracelet and two long sideburns." 

Known for: Bottoms, The Bear

Not only is she known on the Internet for having a brilliant Letterboxd account (a social media platform where you rate and review movies), but Ayo is at an absolute high point of her career too, having just received a Golden Globe award for her role as Sydney Adamu in The Bear. 

The American actress’ 2023 movie Bottoms, where she plays an unpopular girl who starts a high school fight club with her friend, was also a smash hit. The star has a series of projects in the works, including reprising her voice role in the hit animation Big Mouth, Marvel movie Thunderbolts, and opposite John Malkovich in Opus. 

Ayo has amassed a huge fan following not just because of her incredible skills as an actress, but also her brilliant comedic timing. In her speech after accepting the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, she says: "There’s so many people who I probably forgot to thank- oh my God! Oh my God! All of my agent and managers’ assistants! The people who answer my emails. Y’all are real ones! Thank you for answering my crazy, crazy emails."