Amandla Stenberg's best movies and TV shows confirm her immense talent as a performer, as she has explored a variety of roles throughout her career. At just 13 years old, Stenberg had her first breakthrough in the first film of The Hunger Games franchise. Following that role, Stenberg secured other parts in Sleepy Hollow, Rio 2, and Mr. Robinson. In 2017, she starred in another YA adaptation, Everything, Everything.

A year later, Stenberg had another career-defining performance in The Hate U Give and also went on to have roles in the horror comedy Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and a smaller role in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Stenberg ed the Star Wars universe with her dual role in The Acolyte, set over 100 years before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

10 The Eddy (2020)

Amandla Stenberg as Julie Udo

Set in Paris, The Eddy is a French-American musical drama miniseries that revolves around an American jazz musician named Elliot Udo (André Holland), who moves to Paris to run a club following the death of his son. Each episode focuses on a member of the band alongside Elliot as they struggle after the murder of Elliot's best friend and business partner. The Eddy has a distinctly jazz-centric atmosphere that takes its time with not only its story but its characters, and creates a solid TV show in the process.

The Eddy has a distinctly jazz-centric atmosphere that takes its time with not only its story, but its characters.

The Eddy is full of talented actors, and Amandla Stenberg delivers a great performance as Julie Udo, Elliot's troubled teenage daughter. The character is complex and requires an emotionally powerful performance from Stenberg, which she delivers incredibly well. Her tumultuous relationship with her father throughout The Eddy is one of the show's greatest strengths.

9 As You Are (2016)

Amandla Stenberg as Sarah

Set in the early 1990s, As You Are focuses on the complex relationships between three teenagers, experienced through their disparate memories following a police investigation of a murder. Capturing the grunge feeling of its period setting, the film's exploration of each character and how they are intertwined is incredibly fascinating, and its coming-of-age story, set against the background of a crime drama, is done quite well.

Amandla Stenberg plays Sarah in As You Are, one of the film's three main characters, who is caught up in some sort of love triangle between the other main characters in the movie, Jack and Mark (Owen Campbell and Charlie Heaton, respectively). As the film's narrative begins to unravel, more of Sarah's character and life begin to be revealed, and Stenberg does a remarkable job at navigating Sarah's complexities as she tries to make sense of what is going on around her, especially as it pertains to Mark and Jack.

8 My Animal (2022)

Amandla Stenberg as Jonny

Telling the story of a young woman whose parents force her to keep the secret that she is a werewolf to herself, but she eventually begins to fall in love with a figure skater, My Animal is a poignant supernatural horror romance that hits all the right notes of the genre. Alongside being an effective horror film, the queer narrative at the center of the movie is also very well done, really elevating the entire thing, and it adheres to its own style, making it a unique experience.

Alongside Bobbi Salvör Menuez as Heather, who just happens to be a werewolf, is Amandla Stenberg as Jonny, the figure skater who becomes Heather's love interest and eventually finds out her secret. Their relationship changes after that is revealed, and Stenberg's ability to switch up how Jonny is feeling following it is incredible, but can be hard to watch as the relationship quickly falls apart.

7 Sleepy Hollow (2013-2014)

Amandla Stenberg as Macey Irving

Sleepy Hollow is a supernatural drama that is loosely based on Washington Irving's iconic 1820 short story, "The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow." The series follows a soldier from the Revolutionary War who is revived 250 years later, alongside the infamous headless horseman, an iconic aspect of the Sleepy Hollow story in every iteration. Sleepy Hollow's production values shine, while its sometimes complicated plot is engaging from start to finish. Full of fun, spooky moments, Sleepy Hollow is pretty great.

Tim Burton directed a fantastic Sleepy Hollow adaptation in 1999 that starred Johnny Depp.

Amandla Stenberg doesn't have a massive role in Sleepy Hollow, considering she only appeared in four episodes, but she does an irable job with her character's storyline. She plays Macey Irving, a high school student who is targeted by the demon Ancitif, who is trying to obtain "Washington's Bible." He is eventually successful at possessing her, and she wreaks havoc. Stenberg is fantastic in the role, and she is really great when Macey eventually gets possessed, channeling a different performance than what she is usually known for.

6 Everything, Everything (2017)

Amandla Stenberg as Maddy Whittier

In the mid-2010s. YA romance adaptations were the major rage following the massive success of The Fault in Our Stars. Some movies were even better than their YA source material, which is nearly impossible. While it might not reach quite the same heights as the novel by Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything is a great YA romance that revolves around Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg), a teenager who has a serious medical condition that stops her from being able to leave her meticulously controlled house that keeps her safe. Throughout the film, Maddy begins to fall in love with her neighbor, Olly Bright ( Nick Robinson).

Stenberg does an incredible job at exploring the complicated, often life-and-death situation that she finds herself in. Her relationship with Olly is tender and often heartbreaking, and Stenberg's performance is emotionally powerful, especially when she struggles to come to with her medical condition and the desire to leave her house to experience the world with Olly.

5 The Acolyte (2024)

Amandla Stenberg as Osha and Mae

Disney started focusing on developing their live-action television side of the Star Wars universe following the massive success of The Mandalorian season 1. One project that showed a lot of promise was The Acolyte, a series set near the end of the High Republic, about 100 years before Anakin's story began. Despite the intense backlash the series received from a very vocal group online, The Acolyte was actually pretty good, and the wuxia-inspired lightsaber fights are some of the best in the series. It also opened up Star Wars lore in new ways that Disney hadn't really explored yet.

Amandla Stenberg is tasked with not only being the lead of The Acolyte but taking on a double role as the twins Osha and Mae. They were created by the Force, and were once a single being split in two. Osha and Mae were separated as kids following a tragedy that had to do with the Jedi, and Osha became a padawan (before ultimately leaving the order), while Mae walked down the path of the dark side. Both characters have very different personalities in the series, and Stenberg does a great job depicting the chasm between the once-close sisters.

4 Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Amandla Stenberg as Sophie

Bodies Bodies Bodies focuses on a group of friends at a house party who decide to play the titular murder in the dark-style parlor game that quickly goes wrong after one of them is killed. Leaning into the comedic aspects of its horror, poking fun at many Gen Z stereotypes, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a lot of fun that can also be quite tense at certain moments in between the hilarious bits throughout.

Amandla Stenberg leads a strong cast of up-and-coming actors as she plays Sophie, a wealthy young woman who is in a romantic relationship with an Eastern European girl named Bee, and the two of them attend the party at David's house, Sophie's best friend. She is basically the estranged friend in the group, and her outsider status often causes tension with her friends over the course of the night. Stenberg does an incredible job at sitting in the underlying tension her character is feeling, alongside the desperation of the situation.

3 Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023)

Amandla Stenberg as Margo Kess / Spider-Byte

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had the pressure of being the follow-up to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, one of the best superhero films ever made. Diving even deeper into who Miles Morales is as a person and hero, while spanning the multiverse in exciting new ways, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse largely succeeds at being a worthy successor. The film is stunning from to bottom and the way it examines the history of the characters, and has a conversation with some of Spider-Man's key aspects of who he is, is the highlight of the film.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features a massive cast of Spider-Man variants as Miles Morales s Gwen Stacy and others in a journey through the multiverse. Amandla Stenberg plays one of those Spider-Man variants, Margo Kess, a genius student at Peter Parker Memorial Institute of Science and Technology, who becomes Spider-Byte through the use of VR technology. While she doesn't have a massive role, it is integral towards the end of the film, and Stenberg shows that she should have more to do in the final installment.

2 The Hunger Games (2012)

Amandla Stenberg as Rue

Following in the footsteps of Twilight a few years prior, The Hunger Games truly kicked off the YA dystopian movie adaptation craze, and is still one of the best examples of how great the genre is. Focusing on a group of kids who are forced to compete in a deadly game of survival by their fascist country to keep them in line, The Hunger Games is an often brutal and unflinching look at the horror human beings can inflict upon each other, all for the entertainment of the elite.

In some ways, Rue ends up being the heart and soul of the film, and one of Katniss' main ideological driving forces following her death in the games.

The Hunger Games was Amandla Stenberg's first major role, and her first big breakthrough as an actress. She plays Rue, the 12-year-old tribute from District 11, who strikes up an alliance and friendship with Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen. In some ways, Rue ends up being the heart and soul of the film, and one of Katniss' main ideological driving forces following her death in the games. Stenberg does a spectacular job showing her vulnerability and strength despite the terrifying circumstances she is in.

1 The Hate U Give (2018)

Amandla Stenberg as Starr Carter

It's not often that YA novel adaptations reach the incredible heights of The Hate U Give, a truly remarkable adaptation of the novel of the same name by author Angie Thomas. The movie focuses on the aftermath of a police shooting of an unarmed Black teenager through the eyes of Amandla Stenberg's Starr Carter, who was there to witness her best friend Khalil get killed. The Hate U Give is emotionally devastating and powerful, and it is an incredibly important film that has a lot to say about the idea of police brutality and the killing of Black teenagers.

Just as The Hunger Games was Amandla Stenberg's first breakthrough, The Hate U Give was her second, this time as the lead protagonist. Her complex range of emotions, from grief to anger to confusion, is astonishing to see play out on screen, and it is arguably the best performance of her entire career. Amandla Stenberg empathetically explores the subject matter and the life-altering situation Starr is placed in.