Who is Sydney Sweeney and what are her best roles?

Sydney Sweeney is one of the big actors of the moment, grabbing headlines for her acting, her public profile, and her personal life.

Sweeney first came to prominence in the HBO series Euphoria, with her performance as teen Cassie Howard earning her critical acclaim and an Emmy nomination. She has since starred in the likes of The White Lotus — which also scored her an Emmy nomination — and will soon appear in religious horror film Immaculate, which she also produced.

But what do you need to know about her and what could be considered her best roles? Here is everything you need to know.

Who is Sydney Sweeney?

The 26-year-old actor grew up in Spokane, Idaho, and chose to become an actor after being cast as an extra in an independent film at the age of 12, which sparked her interest in pursuing it as a career.

She has previously shared how she gave her parents a "five-year business plan" in order to convince them to let her become an actor, telling Coveteur of the experience: "My mom is a lawyer, and my dad is in the medical field, so school has always been really important. I’ve always known how to communicate to them through that way."

Read more: Madame Web star Sydney Sweeney overcame phobia for nun horror movie

Sweeney, of course, succeeded and then some, landing roles in Euphoria, The White Lotus, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Quickly her star began to rise, so much so that she was working on back-to-back film and TV projects at one point and had her first experience with burnout.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sweeney explained that she still sees herself as an outsider in Hollywood: "I had no idea getting into this industry how many people have connections. I started from ground zero, and I know how f**king hard it is. Now I see how someone can just walk in a door, and I’m like, 'I worked my f**king ass off for 10 years for this.'"

She told the publication of her struggles to make it in the business earlier in her career, with her family moving to LA to help with her dream. However the financial strain was a lot, and they were forced to live in a motel for a time with Sweeney saying they "lived in one room" and she shared the bed with her mother while her brother and father would sleep on the sofa.

It put a strain on her parents, too, with Sweeney sharing: "I thought that if I made enough money, I’d be able to buy my parents’ house back and that I’d be able to put my parents back together. But when I turned 18, I only had $800 to my name. My parents weren’t back together and there was nothing I could do to help."

Sweeney has continued to keep working hard in spite of these hardships, and she has landed a number of great roles in the process.

Sydney Sweeney's best roles

Sweeney has been lauded for her performances in Euphoria and the first season of The White Lotus, in which she starred as the petulant Olivia Mossbacher, daughter of Nicole (Connie Britton). Both roles earned her critical acclaim, for the former she was praised for her honest approach to the self-destructive Cassie which is most evident in her emotional monologue to a bathroom mirror.

Read more: Sydney Sweeney cast as new Barbarella

But that is not the only roles she has been celebrated for taking. Sweeney earned early praise for her appearance in The Handmaid's Tale, where she starred as Eden Spencer in season 2 of The Handmaid's Tale, and for her roles in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, whistleblower drama Reality and HBO's Sharp Objects.

Sharp Objects saw her star opposite Amy Adams as her character Camille's roommate Alice in a psychiatric hospital. The role was meant to be smaller than it was, but the director was so impressed with Sweeney's performance that he kept adding in new scenes.

Sweeney more recently turned her sights to the rom-com genre when she starred in Anyone But You alongside Glen Powell. The film was hit with romance rumours between her and Powell, despite her being engaged to the film's producer Jonathan Davino and him having a girlfriend at the time.

Read more: Sydney Sweeney says Quentin Tarantino was 'an absolute dream to work with him'

The actors have said that the rumours were categorically untrue, and have taken to poking fun at it on multiple occasions including during Sweeney's debut as host of Saturday Night Live.

Sweeney most recently starred in Madame Web, the Sony Spider-Man film ended up flopping at the box office, and she has been honest about her reasoning for making the film and has said she "was just hired as an actor". Speaking with GQ, she said: "Everything in my career I do not just for that story, but strategic business decisions. Because I did that, I was able to sell Anyone But You. I was able to get Barbarella.”

As well as act on screen in films and TV shows, Sweeney was the star of the Rolling Stones' music video for their song Angry in 2023. The music video sees the actor sing along and dance to the track while seated in the back of a convertible driving through LA.

Sweeney's next film is the horror Immaculate, in which she stars as a nun who takes up a position in a convent in Italy only for her to realise her new home harbours dark secrets. The actor appears in the film opposite Money Heist's Álvaro Morte.

Immaculate premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 22 March.

Watch the trailer for Immaculte: