POWER LIST

They're breaking barriers in their fields, building megasuccessful businesses, battling discrimination and standing up for what they believe in. The game-changers in our Power List have made major moves this year - and are inspiring us to do the same

ZENDAYA

ACTOR, SINGER AND PRODUCER

It’s rare to find an actor with as much range as Zendaya. Rarer still is when an actor whose formative years have been moulded by the Disney PR machine goes on to skillfully play a teenage addict with mental health issues, a retired tennis champ and a desert-plan warrior. But Zendaya has done it all in effortless fashion.

To understand the weight of the 27-year-old actor’s stardom, you need only look as far as this year’s colossal back-to-back press tours for her starring role in part two of the cult film Dune, and her first cinematic producer role in the anticipated flick Challengers. It was in Sydney on the red carpet that Zendaya came to life, stepping into the spotlight in custom Loewe for the Challengers premiere in March, and reviving an incredible archival Thierry Mugler robot outfit for the Dune: Part 2 premiere in London. Working with her famous celebrity stylist, Law Roach, Zendaya lends her voice to her clothes through fashion. After appearing in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Zendaya’s colour-changing Cinderella costume for the 2019 Met Gala marked her final exit from her Disney beginnings and into a slew of top-billed roles in HBO series Euphoria and Dune.

“I want more stories like this, things that are dynamic and entertaining but also emotional and complicated,” she told The Guardian. “With complicated, fascinating, kind of terrifying characters that are nuanced – and with great filmmakers and great actors and people that I enjoy working with.”

And if looks could talk, Zendaya’s double red-carpet outfit reveal at this year’s Met Gala tells us she’s well on her way.

EMMA MCKEON

SWIMMER AND UNICEF AMBASSADOR