Introducing Hollywood’s next big things: a brilliant cast of characters with breakout roles in the most buzzed–about TV shows and films.

• Taylor Momsen This year, Taylor, fourteen, plays two very different girls named “Jennifer,” with the premieres of director Gus Van Sant’s new film, Paranoid Park (as “a status–obsessed cheerleader”), and The CW’s Gossip Girl (as a naive New York City high school freshman). “I started acting when I was three,” she says. “My first major film was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And it all kind of went from there.”

• Jake Miller “I was in Portland on a road trip with friends, and they heard about this casting call,” says the Boise, Idaho, native. So Jake, sixteen, was surprised when he got a role in Paranoid Park. But after filming, he curbed his “whatever” attitude. “We improvised a lot; it was so relaxed,” he says. “I want to keep acting. This has been amazing.”

• Gabe Nevins Gabe wasn’t looking to be a movie star. The sixteen–year–old from Milwaukie, Oregon, stopped by auditions for the indie Paranoid Park to be a skateboarding extra. Instead, he was cast as the lead. “I was blown away,” Gabe says. “I didn’t even know who Gus Van Sant was. But I saw Elephant and Good Will Hunting, and I really enjoy his style. Now, all I watch are art films. It totally changed me.”

• Thanks Natalie