Actor: Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain appeared in six films in 2011, including The Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter, having graduated from Juilliard and worked in theatre for years beforehand.

Zero Dark Thirty brought a Best Actress nomination for a performance of near-total obsession with almost no personal life written into the character.

She won Best Actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye under extensive prosthetics, and Molly’s Game and Interstellar fill out the range. She has been consistently vocal about pay equity and has renegotiated her own contracts publicly.