![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Atsuko_Okatsuka.png?w=1024\")
<\/p>\nAtsuko Okatsuka<\/strong> Drop it like it\u2019s hot: <\/strong>What started as the offbeat comedian just trying to make her grandmother laugh turned into Atsuko Okatsuka\u2019s viral Drop Challenge, where participants just going about their routine suddenly get low when the beat drops during Beyonce\u2019s \u201cPartition.\u201d HBO came calling quickly after, with a standup special that The New York Times named its best debut of 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking off: <\/strong>In 2025, the Japanese American comic with the signature bowl haircut (which she reclaimed for its \u201cart gallery owner\u201d vibes) released her second comedy special, Father, and started her Big Bowl Tour. In April, she appeared alongside Keanu Reeves and Jonah Hill in the Apple TV+ dark comedy Outcome.<\/p>\n Bad Bunny<\/strong> Foto Finish: <\/strong>The Puerto Rican superstar had a huge 2025 and is off to an even bigger 2026. His seventh album, \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos,\u201d is a love letter to his island home that won him six Grammys, including Album of the Year. He supported it with a 31-day residency in Puerto Rico (the first nine dates only open to locals) that lifted the country\u2019s economy during the notoriously challenging hurricane season.\u00a0<\/p>\n History-maker: <\/strong>He had a memorable role in Happy Gilmore 2 and also toured the world, but what really broadened Benito\u2019s audience was his history-making Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, where he was the first Latino and Spanish-speaking artist to headline as a solo act.<\/p>\n Connor Storrie & Hudson Williams<\/strong> Let\u2019s hear it for the boys: <\/strong>The Heated Rivalry stars were thrust into the spotlight thanks to the low-budget Canadian series that went viral globally. Storrie and Williams\u2019 model-good looks and electrifying chemistry had men and women hot for their same-sex romance as hockey players Ilya and Shane.<\/p>\n Talk of the town:<\/strong> The show, based on a book series by Rachel Reid, catapulted the young men into superstardom and gave HBO Max its highest-performing acquired, non-animated debut. The duo have since been seen on the runways, at award shows, and even carrying the Olympic Torch (and will be back for Season 2 of Heated Rivalry next year).\u00a0<\/p>\n Identical ink: <\/strong>To commemorate their wild year, they each got matching \u201cSex Sells\u201d tattoos.<\/p>\n Ejae, Audrey Nuna & Rei Ami<\/strong> Going up, up, up:<\/strong> Life\u2019s been \u201cGolden\u201d for the three singers of Huntr\/x, the fictional girl group from Netflix\u2019s most-watched film ever, 2025\u2019s KPop Demon Hunters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Give the people what they want:<\/strong> Incredibly, the singers had never even been in the same place together until the film\u2019s premiere last summer\u2014they each recorded their vocals separately. But once the song took off, appetite for the group was insatiable: They spent eight weeks at the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 slot (the first K-pop girl group to reach the top) and picked up historic Grammy and Academy Awards in 2026. And yes, there is a sequel in the works.<\/p>\n Holiday heroines:<\/strong> The stylish trio also inspired a whole new generation of girl-power Halloween costumes.<\/p>\n Kareem Rahma & Andrew Kuo<\/strong> Just my two cents:<\/strong> Utensils are blocking your blessings. Nature is boring. If you plug your ears when a siren goes by, you\u2019re a big baby. These are just a few of the (unhinged) opinions Rahma and Kuo have solicited on their SubwayTakes Instagram series, which asks commuters to share their most controversial opinions while riding the New York City subway (or the Tube in London, or the L in Chicago).\u00a0<\/p>\n Famous fans: <\/strong>Since starting the show in 2023, the guys have racked up nearly 2 million Instagram followers and enlisted celebs like Cate Blanchett (not a fan of leaf blowers) and Hasan Minhaj (hates when restaurants sing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to adults).\u00a0<\/p>\n Longer takes: <\/strong>A longform version, SubwayTakes Uncut, was released on YouTube in February.<\/p>\n Katseye<\/strong> Bringing the chaos: <\/strong>The global girl group\u2014comprising members from South Korea, Switzerland, the Philippines, and the United States\u2014hit it big in 2025 with \u201cGnarly,\u201d the first single off their second EP, \u201cBeautiful Chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n On brand:<\/strong> The girls also helped lead a Y2K resurgence, making bath bombs with Lush, an exclusive vinyl for Urban Outfitters, and bags with Fendi. Their \u201cBetter in Denim\u201d campaign for Gap served as the rebuttal to Sydney Sweeney\u2019s American Eagle collab, earning praise for its inclusive and empowering tone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next Up:<\/strong> After a standout performance at this year\u2019s Coachella, the group announced their third EP, \u201cWild,\u201d due in August. It will be the first without Swiss member Manon Bannerman, who announced a hiatus to focus on her health in February.<\/p>\n Marcello Hernandez<\/strong> Late-night laughs:<\/strong> Saturday Night Live\u2019s first Gen Z cast member made a splash last year for his portrayal of fellow funnyman Sebastian Maniscalco, who praised the young talent\u2019s effusive and physical-heavy impression as \u201cfantastic.\u201d The sendup took on a life of its own, even inspiring an impression-of-an-impression by Harry Styles in a March episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n His big year: <\/strong>Hernandez\u2019s first standup special, American Boy, premiered on Netflix in January and quickly cracked the Top 10. Like fellow Creative 100 winner Bad Bunny, Hernandez also appeared alongside Adam Sandler in last year\u2019s Happy Gilmore 2. In 2025, he was named to Time\u2019s Latino Leaders and The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s Latin Power List.<\/p>\n Micky Gordon (Mickycashflow)<\/strong> Sorry not sorry: <\/strong>It\u2019s the Mickyverse, and we all just live in it. Micky Gordon told Cosmopolitan that growing up, people labeled her personality as \u201cannoying\u201d and \u201ctoo much.\u201d Safe to say she\u2019s officially found her kind, racking up more than a million TikTok followers with her authentic, hilarious content.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beauty queen: <\/strong>Her takeover of InStyle\u2019s The Intern mockumentary, \u201corganizing\u201d the magazine\u2019s beauty closet, is the series\u2019 top performer to date, besting even celebrity episodes with Drew Barrymore and Nick Jonas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cashflow: <\/strong>She parlayed her fame into a Super Bowl ad for beauty brand Byoma and a side-splitting partnership with Applebee\u2019s, which gave the chain 7.5 million views on a single video.<\/p>\n Olandria Carthen<\/strong> Claim to fame:<\/strong> The Love Island fan favorite and half of power couple Nicolandria, with fellow contestant Nic Vansteenberghe, went from the beach to the catwalk in mere months. Shortly after wrapping the reality show as runner-up, Carthen made runway appearances in New York, Paris, and Milan\u2014three of the four \u201cBig Four\u201d international fashion weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Role model: <\/strong>The first-generation college student is an alum of Tuskegee University and a higher education advocate, especially Historically Black Universities and Colleges and Universities. She\u2019s spoken at Harvard and Texas A&M, and also partnered with Microsoft Copilot for a campaign about academic success. It\u2019s a long way from her past life\u2014not even a year ago\u2014selling elevators.<\/p>\n Olivia Dean<\/strong> High note:<\/strong> Signed since 2019, the British songstress is no stranger to the industry. But it was her second album, released in 2025, that turned her into a household name. \u201cThe Art of Loving\u201d was released in September, and its catchy anthem \u201cMan I Need\u201d quickly caught fire. A Saturday Night Live musical performance put her on the U.S. map, and in February she nabbed the Grammy for Best New Artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n Going vocal:<\/strong> Dean uses her voice for more than singing. She has spoken out against unfair ticket prices, which got Ticketmaster and AXS to cap resale prices and issue refunds on her tour. And during her Grammy acceptance speech, she proudly told the crowd, \u201cI\u2019m up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.adweek.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Atsuko OkatsukaComedian Drop it like it\u2019s hot: What started as the offbeat comedian just trying to make her grandmother laugh turned into Atsuko Okatsuka\u2019s viral Drop Challenge, where participants just going about their routine suddenly get low when the beat drops during Beyonce\u2019s \u201cPartition.\u201d HBO came calling quickly after, with a standup special that The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2403795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[424789,389256,469654,431148,469655,469658,469656,361917,74739,441025,469657,21913],"class_list":["post-2403794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-adweek-awards","tag-awards-honors","tag-convergent-tv-west","tag-fashion-news","tag-influencers-creators","tag-marketing-vanguard-2026-creative-100","tag-media-influencers","tag-media-news","tag-premium","tag-sports-marketing-news","tag-the-creative-100","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/The-2026-Creative-100-Celebrities-Creators-Taking-Culture-in.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2403796,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403794\/revisions\/2403796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2403795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Comedian<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c100-the-best-bad-bunny-super-bowl-2026.png?w=1024\")
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Rapper, actor, singer\/songwriter, producer<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c100-connor-storrie-hudson-williams.png?w=1024\")
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Actors, Heated Rivalry<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c100-ejae-rei-ami-audey-nuna_.png?w=1024\")
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Singers<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/subway-takes-c100.png?w=1024\")
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Creators & producers<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c100-katseye-2.png?w=1024\")
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Pop singers<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Marcello_Hernandez.png?w=1024\")
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Comedian, actor, writer<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Micky_Gordon.png?w=1024\")
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Creator<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Olandria_Carthen_.png?w=1024\")
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Fashion tastemaker & television personality<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Olivia-Dean.png?w=1024\")
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Singer<\/p>\n