Hottest celebrities of the next generation are already born
A who’s who of the movers and shakers who will dominate show business over the next 12 months.
Who are the stars of tomorrow? Here are a few who are already shining. Depending on your generation, some of these celebrities may be the hottest property you’ve never heard of.
ACTOR
Ncuti Gatwa
Remember when Doctor Who was an old white fella with a funny scarf and a posh accent, fighting Daleks? Well, those days are long gone and Ncuti Gatwa is now at the helm of the Tardis. He’s young, he’s muscly, he models for Vogue and he’s already a streaming star. This is a Time Lord for Generation Z. The Rwandan refugee who moved to Scotland as a boy fleeing civil war will lead Doctor Who into its new era on Disney+ (after the BBC took a huge deal with the Hollywood giant and ditched the ABC in the process). Gatwa will be well known to many as one of the stars of the hit Netflix comedy Sex Education. He’s already a favourite on all the hottest red carpets. But his debut in 2024 as the first black man to play the Doctor is set to make him one of the most famous people in the television universe.
BAND
Amyl and the Sniffers
Don’t be fooled by the gold hotpants or the Gucci campaign: when Amy Taylor takes the stage it is with the snarling intensity of a rottweiler gone rabid. Taylor is the singer of the incendiary punk band Amyl and the Sniffers who, after years spent wreaking hell on dive bar stages across Australia, are one of the most towering rock acts on the planet. The members of the Melbourne quartet, with their ragged mullets and chavvy tracksuits, are the successors to the Sharpie rockers of the 1970s and have revived the long-dormant subculture and brought it to the masses at international festivals such as Coachella and Glastonbury. Their second record, Comfort to Me, won them the best group and best rock album awards at the 2022 ARIAs. But who cares about trophies when there are face-melting riffs to write?
DESIGNER
Ava Nirui
There is perhaps no one in the fashion industry more plugged into the zeitgeist than Ava Nirui. The Australian creative, who now lives in New York, is the mastermind behind the Marc Jacobs diffusion line Heaven, which has had Generation Z firmly in its clutches since its disruptive launch in 2020. Nirui, a former music and fashion journalist, is a child of the internet who speaks the same language as the now-adults who grew up online, fetishising nostalgia and reading Rookie magazine as if it were gospel. The clothes are grungy yet modern and packed with pop culture references that span films by auteurs such as Wong Kar-wai and Sofia Coppola to nu metal bands such as Deftones. The campaigns – which are always “moments” to be obsessively unpacked – rope in a generation-spanning cast of it girls and boys such as Twin Peaks’ star Kyle MacLachlan, American Beauty actor Mena Suvari, actor Christina Ricci, musician and actor Nicki Minaj and basically every other cool person who has ever drawn breath.
DIRECTORS RackaRacka
Danny and Michael Philippou aren’t the typical filmmakers one would associate with the art-house crowd. The hyperactive fast-talking twins from Adelaide got their start on YouTube making lowbrow bro humour skits about Ronald McDonald committing massacres. Michael even wound up in court once, where he faced several charges over a stunt in which he filled up a car with water and drove it to the bottle shop during a heatwave for a skit titled Scuba Driving. Yet their debut film – the creepy horror Talk to Me – was the toast of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and left the brothers fielding offers from behemoths such as Universal, Sony, Searchlight and Neon before ultimately going with A24, the hottest independent studio, for a “high-seven-figures” sum. With a Talk to Me sequel already in the works, it seems as though RackaRacka has taken a leaf out of the James Wan playbook.
PODCASTERS Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland
Did you know German Kaiser Wilhelm II wore the wrong shoes sailing with Prince Edward (later King Edward VII), and it possibly caused World War I? How about that a pigeon called Winkie played a key role in stopping Adolf Hitler? If you do know, you’re already hooked to The Rest is History, which might be the most-hyped podcast in the world. Roman Empire expert Tom Holland and Thatcher’s Britain chronicler Dominic Sandbrook conquered Australia in November as part of their world tour and we can probably expect to see much more of them in 2024. The English pair have managed to take the woke out of history and put back the fun. This is a podcast about bloody battles, great and terrible rulers, and great mysteries of the past. Julia Gillard is among this historical dynamic duo’s fans.
SINGER
Taylor Swift
All right, all right, Taylor Swift is already a pretty big deal. But in Australia in 2024 she will ascend from mere superstar to goddess status. You already can see how her Eras tour in Australia will go, surely? Sam Kerr and the Matildas joining Tay Tay on stage to sing Shake It Off. Anthony Albanese TikToking himself and Jodie Haydon dancing in the VIP box – though don’t expect the PM to join in a chorus of “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me”. Everyone will be a Swiftie during her 2024 tour Down Under. Every show will lead the local news. Every Aussie celebrity or power player will be at the concerts. This mixture of Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton and Madonna may be the only superstar who appeals as much to tweens as to grannies. And she’ll soon be Queen of Oz.
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