Owen Cooper<\/a> emphatically announced himself to the world in 2025. The \u201cAdolescence\u201d star became the youngest male acting winner at the Emmy Awards. He was just 15. It was his first professional job.<\/p>\n The young English actor’s rocket-fueled arrival was just one of several notable career turns that got the world of entertainment talking this year.<\/p>\n \u201cSeverance\u201d star Tramell Tillman<\/a> also made Emmy history<\/a> as the first Black man to win for supporting actor in a drama series, Chase Sui Wonders<\/a> helped make Seth Rogen’s \u201cThe Studio\u201d a delicious satire, and Danny Ramirez<\/a> captivated in Season 2 of \u201cThe Last of Us.\u201d Plus, you couldn’t miss Arden Cho,<\/a> who voiced Rumi, star of Netflix\u2019s chart-topping animated film, \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n All five have ended 2025 with critical and popular attention and have been named The Associated Press\u2019 Breakthrough Entertainers of the Year.<\/a><\/p>\n Few performers have had a year like Cho, a Korean American who as the lead character in \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d propelled it to becoming Netflix’s most watched movie of all time and watched as it notched four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 1 hit \u201cGolden.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like it is my golden moment,\u201d says Cho.<\/p>\n The Harvard-educated Wonders had two plum parts in 2025 \u2014 playing Quinn Hackett, a comically manipulative creative executive on \u201cThe Studio\u201d and the scream-queen Ava Brucks in \u201cI Know What You Did Last Summer.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI do feel absurdly lucky that I get to be on set with all my friends and telling a bunch of jokes and being a weirdo on screen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Ramirez, best known for playing Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe \u2014 the first Latino Avenger \u2014 and Lt. Mickey \u201cFanboy\u201d Garcia opposite Tom Cruise in \u201cTop Gun: Maverick,\u201d made a memorable turn as a vengeful member of the group that hunted down our favorite characters in the hellish landscape of \u201cThe Last of Us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAcross the board, it\u2019s been creatively, incredibly fruitful,\u201d says the actor. \u201cI\u2019ve been a part of some amazing productions. I\u2019ve been able to see the world. It\u2019s been the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruise also connects another AP Breakthrough Entertainer \u2014 Tillman, who co-starred in one of the biggest hits of the year, \u201cMission: Impossible \u2014 The Final Reckoning\u201d<\/a> as well as enjoying a breakout Season 2 as Seth Milchick in \u201cSeverance,\u201d capped by a finale in which he led a marching band with full choreography.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been quite a banner year,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to continue to expand and to tell more stories, stories that we haven\u2019t heard and stories that tell the same story but in a different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n That’s also something the now-16-year-old Cooper is looking forward to after a 2025 that saw him anointed as a new Hollywood star.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to do everything,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n