These 20 Actors Played The Lead In Their Very First Roles, And Surprisingly, Not All Of Them Are Nepotism Babies

Talk about main character energy ✨.

If you're an actor, then booking the lead role is a sign that you've truly "made it" in your chosen career path. Most actors spend years in bit parts and supporting roles, but some get lucky and land the lead role the first time they're cast in a movie or TV show.

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Here are 20 actors whose first roles were lead roles:

1. Initially, Zendaya wanted to be a WNBA player, but after deciding she wanted to pursue acting instead, she made her onscreen debut as Rocky Blue in Disney Channel's Shake It Up.

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She told Seventeen, "I grew up around the California Shakespeare Theater, and that's where I realized that my true love was in the performing arts."

2. Rachel Zegler beat out 30,000 other actors for the role of María Vasquez in Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story.

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She told BuzzFeed, "The process was extremely long and very stressful. I auditioned for about two and a half weeks shy of a year, which is not very common in things like this. I went in for the team about five or six times before I actually got the part. But I was basically in auditions from January of 2018 to January of 2019."

3. The first role Alaqua Cox ever booked was Maya Lopez/Echo, a character who debuted in Hawkeye but is set to get her own spinoff, called Echo.

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She told the Hollywood Reporter that she found out she got the role when a casting agent texted her a link to a Zoom call. 

She said, "I see about 12 people, including the Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige, doing the deaf clap where you wave both your hands. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ and they said, ‘Welcome to the Marvel family!’"

4. Jason Schwartzman got the role of Max Fischer in Rushmore after his cousin — filmmaker Sofia Coppola — introduced him to the movie's casting director at an event for a movie their grandfather composed.

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He told Dazed, "[I thought,] I’m not gonna get it, so I should just try it! I wrote down my address in LA, and [the casting director] sent the script to my home in LA, and it was the first script I’d ever read.”

5. While a commercial was being filmed outside her apartment, 15-year-old Rosario Dawson sat on her front porch and tried to flirt with a grip. Then director Larry Clark and screenwriter Harmony Korine approached her and asked her to audition for the role of Ruby in Kids.

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She told Dazed, “Larry said he was making his first movie and would I be interested. And Harmony was jumping up and down, like, ‘Oh my god, I wrote this character for you without even realizing. I didn't even know you. You're perfect for this character, you have to come in. You have to come in, you have to come in.’”

6. Maisie Williams felt out of place during her audition for Game of Thrones, but she later realized that all the things that made her different helped her get the role of Arya Stark.

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She told Backstage, "I even remember that on my audition day, I had a hole in my leggings and I was trying to cover it with my hand while I was doing the scene. But now I know that Arya is known for being scruffy, especially when she was a kid — she’s always the cause of her mother’s shame; she’s always late or has been out playing in the mud — stuff like that."

7. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan found the casting call for Never Have I Ever through series creator Mindy Kaling's tweet, and she now stars as Devi Vishwakumar.

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She told Still Watching Netflix that her best friend initially sent her the tweet about the casting call. 

8. Auli'i Cravalho was the last actor to audition for the titular role in Moana.

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At 14, she became the youngest person ever to voice a Disney princess.

9. Jamie Lee Curtis wasn't director John Carpenter's first choice for the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978), but afterward, he was so impressed with her skills that he wrote a part just for her in The Fog.

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She reprised her original role in Halloween II (1981),  Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022). 

10. Zoe Saldana made her onscreen debut as Eva Rodríguez in Center Stage in 2000.

Columbia Pictures / © Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

The cast reunited 20 years later to raise money for the American Ballet Theatre's Crisis Relief Fund. 

11. Camp Rock director Matthew Diamond attended a Jonas Brothers concert because Disney was considering them for the movie, and afterward, Joe Jonas submitted an audition tape for the role of Shane Gray.

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After a few notes from Diamond, he had to audition again before getting Disney's final approval.

12. After Nicholas Ralph booked the role of James Herriot in the remake of All Creatures Great and Small, he had to attend "vet boot camp" with the show's veterinary consultant.

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He told Vulture, "Straight off the bat with our on-set vet adviser, Andy Barrett, we were up close and personal with horses, sheep, kind of going through the procedures and things that we would be doing. Learning how to approach the animal and everything like that. Using the stethoscope on the cow’s heart, then lungs, then stomach — you do this kind of triangle as an initial examination."

13. Gabourey Sidibe "didn't think [she] had any business going to the audition," but she was cast as the titular role in Precious, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

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She told the Post-Gazette, "The biggest thing I learned is that I was wrong about what I thought I could do. I thought I'd be a receptionist my whole life."

14. Cameron Diaz made her onscreen debut as Tina Carlyle in The Mask after casting director Fern Champion found her through her modeling agent, who worked in the same building as Champion.

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Director Chuck Russell told Variety, “[Diaz] was the only person for the part, as far as I was concerned, after her first reading. And then I saw the chemistry with her and Jim [Carrey]. Eight callbacks later, including improvs with Jim, I finally convinced producers.”

15. Barbra Streisand originated the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway, and she played the same role in the film adaptation.

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16. William Hurt made his onscreen debut as Edward Jessup in Altered States.

Warner Bros / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Drew Barrymore also made her film debut in a minor role.

17. After her first audition ever, Aria Mia Loberti was cast as Marie-Laure, the main character in the upcoming Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See.

Instagram: @ariamialoberti

The former Fulbright scholar and current PhD student decided to try out because one of her teachers, who knew she was a fan of the Anthony Doerr book the series is based on, told her about the casting call. 

18. Kelly Osbourne's first role (other than a cameo as herself) was Deborah Tynan in the series Life As We Know It.

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19. Emma Watson auditioned eight times for the role of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone after being scouted from her school.

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She told Interview Magazine, "They came to my school and asked if they could put forward a group of 20 children between the ages of 9 and 12. They took my photograph in the school gym, and then I got a call three weeks later."

20. And finally, in the audition tape that landed him the role of Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 10-year-old Rupert Grint rapped to make himself stand out.

Warner Bros. / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

He told Live With Regis and Kelly that "it was basically just information," and the lyrics included, “Hello there, my name is Rupert Grint. I hope you like this and don’t think I stink."