Hi, my name is Mia and I’m doing my college work experience at Raindance! I have a strong interest in writing my novel and illustrating, and love psychological horror films and Lady Gaga. Here are 10 influential people you should check out who have dabbled in, or work in, the film industry.
1) Musician Lady Gaga (aka. Stefani Germanotta)
Apart from being one of the most infamous singers in the world, as well as a fashion game-changer, Gaga has acted in numerous projects such as 2018’s A Star is Born and the upcoming 2024 Joker: Foile a Deux. The Poker Face singer has a keen interest in theatrics and attended acting classes as a young adult. You can also find genius, movie-like qualities in her music, which is noticeably cinematic in its nature, and includes themes from expressing oneself (Born this Way) to politics (Americano) to feminism (ScheiBe) to dance anthems (Just Dance).
Specific recommendations:
ARTPOP (album) – experimental and psychological
Chromatica (album) – tells a blended story of mental transformation
Marry the Night (music video) – a theatrical art film reflecting on Gaga’s past traumas and recoveries
2) Director Stanley Kubrick
The renowned film director was a force in the film industry. He directed my favourite film, 1980’s The Shining. Kubrick incorporated elements like a Steadicam, which gives an eerie personified quality to the film, and its brilliant madness, echoed through the colour theme of the film, which is blood-red, snow-white, and sky-blue, reflecting the corruptness of the USA by using its flagship shades. Kubrick, though notoriously awful to his coworkers, produced other masterpieces like 1968’s Space Odyssey: 2001, exploring human consciousness on a stratospheric level, and 1964’s Dr. Strangelove, satirizing fears of a nuclear war.
Specific recommendations:
The Shining – psychological horror
Spartacus – epic historical drama
3) Rapper Kendrick Lamar
The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper is famous for his social commentary lyrics. The song Alright has been a power anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement, and the critically acclaimed 2022 studio album Mr Morale & The Big Steppers explores through beautifully cinematic, raw music videos, the pain of healing from trauma caused by police brutality, racism, homophobia and gang culture. Lamar recorded the soundtrack to 2018’s Black Panther, a genius musical sound wave transmitting a superhero film to something sociologically relevant.
Specific recommendations:
good kid, m.A.A.d city (album) – tells the story of a young Kendrick’s experience in the dangerous streets of Compton
We Cry Together (music video) – filmed in one take, it cinematically illustrates a tormented relationship
4) Actress Michelle Yeoh
She was the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for ‘Best Actress.’ Yeoh has a star-like quality and brings power, intense emotion, and martial arts skills to her roles. She starred in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once as Evelyn Wang, a Chinese-American launderette owner who has to realize that everything makes life meaningful. Her performance also illustrates the difficulty of mother-daughter and wife-husband relationships. She rose to fame in the 1990s playing in martial arts movies and is an extremely important trailblazer in film.
Specific recommendations:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Yeoh stars as a secretly-trained warrior
Crazy Rich Asians – Yeoh plays the ice-cold matriarch
5) Director Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock has had such an impact, he’s even made it into Lady Gaga lyrics: “I want your psycho, your vertigo shtick, want you in my rear window, baby you’re sick.” It’s not surprising that Gaga chose to include his films in her lyrics; Hitchcock is seen as the father of the thriller. 1940’s Rebecca, based on my favourite book, captures the delirious, nightmarish quality of the story perfectly, through the use of gothic sets and stark cinematography. He changed cinema by incorporating unique aspects into his films, such as the “zoom dolly” in 1958’s Vertigo, which spins to connote the character’s feelings of disorientation.
Specific recommendations:
Psycho – think “woman screaming in shower” scene
The Birds – it’s scary because we don’t know why it’s happening
6) Musician Janelle Monae
My mum and I have been fans of Monae since their 2007 EP, Metropolis: The Chase Suite. Not only has Monae been in award-winning films like Hidden Figures and Moonlight, but their music really reflects the magic of cinema itself. In fact, Monae created a whole universe to spin the robot lore told in their 2010 debut album, The ArchAndroid, where orchestral interludes and operatics reflect the philosophical nature of film itself, exploring themes like queerness (Monae is pansexual and non-binary) and love.
Specific recommendations:
Django Jane (music video) – camerawork reflects the anger in the lyricism
Glass Onion – Monae plays twins in the spin-off of Knives Out
7) Actor Elliot Page
As well as being an important activist for the queer community being a transgender man himself, Page has acted in infamous productions like 2010’s Inception, and 2007’s Juno. He brings a fresh perspective to roles, extremely dynamic and stark in his portrayals. In 2020, Page came out as trans and has since then written an autobiography, Pageboy, about his experiences. This is so important to the film industry, which does not have a notable list of transgender people being portrayed or written about.
Specific recommendations:
The Umbrella Academy (TV series) – Page plays Viktor Hargreeves, the “talentless” sibling
Hard Candy – a vigilante protest against pedophilia
There’s Something in the Water (documentary) – Page directed this film on environmental racism
8) Actor Shah Rukh Khan
SRK is one of the biggest stars in the world. He is a figurehead for bringing the Indian film industry of Bollywood into the Hollywood sphere. After his first feature film, 1992’s Deewana, was released, SRK shot to fame. He is known for his expressive facial charisma and natural acting. SRK also alludes to the alienation of people of colour within Hollywood; in 2013 he reportedly said he would not be interested in playing a stereotypical role created for Asians by Hollywood, and “to get a role not specific to my colour or the way I speak or act is very difficult.” Thus, SRK provides a sense of pride to the industry of Bollywood.
Specific recommendations:
Pathaan – SRK plays a RAW agent
Fan – SRK is dangerously obsessed with a movie star; this role really shows off his raw acting ability
9) Singer Rina Sawayama
The 2020 album Sawayama is cinematic in its nature; you could compare it to Gaga’s Born This Way and Beyonce’s Renaissance in its themes of love, family, queerness and culture. The Japanese-British singer released a music video alongside her song STFU!, which uses clever camera transitions, and evokes quiet racism through images like an irksome white man flicking sushi rice at Sawayama. She has been instrumental in bringing awareness to important social issues like homophobia and immigrant family struggles.
Specific recommendations:
XS (music video) – a “f*** off” to consumerism
John Wick: Chapter 4 (movie) – Sawayama debuts as Akira
10) Writer-Director Jordan Peele
Did you also get freaked out after seeing Get Out? What about Us? Peele, foremost performing alongside Key in their comedy duo, is a genius director and producer. Get Out is shocking but unsurprising, having clear but well-disguised undertones of quiet racism in its storytelling and cinematography. It exaggerates microaggressions to show the everyday Black experience, and that is why it is so horrifying. Peele has crafted a perfect sauce that draws out tension slowly and doesn’t fall victim to predicting audiences. He wants to make films that are “what Black audiences need.”
Specific recommendations:
Candyman – don’t pick any fallen Chuppa Chups off the floor after seeing this…
Nope – explores the power and downfall of spectacle
My name is Mia and I’m doing my college work experience at Raindance! I have a strong interest in writing my novel and illustrating, and love psychological horror films and Lady Gaga.
