Mikey Madison has become one of the most notable young actors working in Hollywood in no time. Born in Los Angeles in 1999, she began acting in her early teens but it was her role as Max Fox in Better Things in 2016 that brought her early recognition. As her career progressed, she did not take the easy way out of repeating herself.
She appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019, in a small role and made it unmistakably colorful. In the 2022 Scream reboot, she showed her acting skills while doing the horror genre. Most recently, she was the lead character in Anora, a film which won Best Picture and won her the Oscar for Best Actress.
The success of the film, and her position at its center, implies a career not based on luck, but thoughtful choice and a determination. Below you have a ranking of ten of her most important works in cinema and television.
Top 10 Mikey Madison Movies and TV Shows
10. Nostalgia (2018)
Nostalgia has the promise of depth but it never completely delivers. The film has a strong cast, including Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, Nick Offerman, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, and Mikey Madison, but there are too many threads to tie together. It follows the silent aftermath of loss through several families, including some thoughts on memory and the little things that are left when life has departed.
Though its themes are weighty, the reflections of the film are too fleeting to leave much of a mark. Her role, minor though touching, offers little opportunity to shape the story beyond the somber close.
9. It Takes Three (2021)
It Takes Three is unique in Mikey Madison’s work as her only foray into the romantic comedy. Loosely based on Cyrano de Bergerac, it deals with the story of a shy teenager, Cy, who helps a popular classmate, in trying to woo Roxy. The film is light, funny, and modest in ambition. Its humor and charm make it pleasant viewing, although its modern touches can be forced and its characters a little thin.
8. The Addams Family (2019)
The 2019 animated Addams Family is a light and friendly return to the known household. The story is based on preparations for Pugsley’s Sabre Mazurka, while a television host, Margaux Needler, attempts to cause suspicion among the townspeople and drive the family away. The film creates an image of the Addamses as strange but loving, to remind viewers that their strangeness is just another form of belonging.
The movie offers little new to the long history of Addams Family adaptations, but it is still a cheerful film that would be appropriate for children and adults. Mikey Madison’s role is small – she serves as the voice of a barista in Margaux’s orderly community – so her contribution is short but significant in the grand scheme of her work.
7. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a turning point in Mikey Madison’s career, and marked the beginning of her arrival in the public’s eye. Playing Sadie, one of the Manson followers, she brought a chilling conviction to a short but striking role.
Though Madison’s part is small, her presence is memorable. The film was a huge success – acclaimed for its performances, direction, and atmosphere, winning several major awards and cementing its status as one of Quentin Tarantino’s most celebrated films.
6. All Souls (2023)
Here, Mikey Madison portrays a young mother who is forced to become a police informant after being implicated in a drug scheme, when she chooses cooperation as her only way of protecting her child. Her decision leads her into harsher and more volatile situations where every decision is risky.
The film is fast paced, with sudden bursts of action, but the way it handles the guilt and desperation feels familiar. Even so, Madison’s performance lends the story its force. She comes to fear, resolve, and exhaustion in very clear fashion, and becomes the element that holds the film together.
5. Monster (2018)
Monster, a legal drama, is the 2020 adaptation of the 1999 novel on Netflix. It hangs over the stillness of the moment when a person comes to the realization that their identity can be rewritten by other people without their permission. Mikey Madison makes a supporting appearance, while her screen time is minimal, the film itself is one of the stronger and better critically received works of her career.
Starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, and others, the cast makes the film’s most powerful element. Despite mixed reviews, some criticizing its heavy-handed approach, Monster is a thoughtful and absorbing film, the kind that leaves one with questions echoing after the last scene.
4. Lady in the Lake (2024)
Apple TV+ carried on its quest for prestige television in 2024 with Lady in the Lake, a tightly wound crime drama from Alma Har’el, adapted from the novel by Laura Lippman. Its best moments are those between Portman and Mikey Madison, who plays Judith Weinstein, a Jewish woman helping to search for a missing child.
3. Scream (2022)
The 2022 Scream was Mikey Madison’s first time as a leading role in an established franchise. The film is back in Woodsboro where a new Ghostface has started to kill a group of teenagers, starting with an attack on a teenager named Tara at school. The film lives up to the series’ mix of sharp wit, self-awareness, and unexpected violence.
Veteran characters return, but the new performers (Madison among them) bear much of the story’s burden. Though the original will always be a classic, the reboot breathes new life into the franchise. For fans of horror that knows what it is, Scream is still well worth watching.
2. Better Things (2016 – 2022)
Mikey Madison first came to attention with FX’s Better Things, a sharp and humane half-hour dramedy by Pamela Adlon. The series is about Sam Fox, a working actress in Los Angeles, juggling the responsibilities of her career and three daughters. Madison is Max, eldest of the three, whose hotheadedness and sweetness make her one of the most interesting characters in the show.
Running from 2016 to 2022, Better Things kept expanding, with each season enriched by Adlon’s sure-handed writing and direction. Throughout its fifty-two episodes, the series depicted the struggles of motherhood and adolescence with atypical honesty. Madison’s performance as Max – restless, loving, and wounded – is one of her most memorable and a testament to her emotional range.
1. Anora (2024)
Anora is, by far, Mikey Madison’s best work yet. In it, she stars as Ani, a sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch and is then pulled into a vortex of excess, conflict, and humiliation. Ani navigates this world with keen self-awareness; she is confident and self-assured, yet by the end of the film she is lonelier than at the beginning. The movie itself was a critical hit, winning top awards such as Best Picture and Best Director.
Its writing and ensemble cast were praised, but it is Madison who takes center stage. Her performance is precise and disquieting, and is characterized by small gestures and unguarded moments that expose Ani’s inner world. Anora validates Madison’s capacity to carry a story entirely on her presence, and suggests that her best work might yet be to come.
Conclusion
Madison’s filmography is like playing career roulette. She’s done horror (Scream), dark comedy (Anora), Tarantino mayhem (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), family-friendly animation (The Addams Family), crime thrillers (All Souls, Lady in the Lake) and even romantic comedy (It Takes Three). The only thing that we can predict is unpredictability.
FAQs
Q1: What was Mikey Madison’s breakout role?
While Better Things (2016-2022) gave her an introduction to discerning television viewers, it was Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that truly became Madison’s proper “hello, world” moment. And she was a member of the Manson family, playing the role of Sadie, therefore in a few minutes on screen she was able to achieve the power to make the whole Hollywood market say, “Who is that?” It’s the small role that is the calling card, and it’s a testament to Madison’s ability to hold her own in a film that’s chock-full of A-list names and flamethrowers.
Q2: Has Mikey Madison won an Oscar?
Yes, and recently. Madison took home Best Actress for Anora (2024), for portraying a sex worker who impulsively marries into Russian Oligarch money – because nothing says “Oscar bait” like class warfare and poor choices. The film also won Best Picture, so Madison’s victory was more of an admission that the Academy was finally listening to what critics had been screaming for months: that this was an extraordinary performance.
Q3: What TV shows has Mikey Madison been in?
After her breakout role of Max Fox in Better Things, where she spent six seasons mastering the art of playing a complex teenager, Madison had a role in Apple TV+‘s Lady in the Lake (2024). She played opposite Natalie Portman in the limited series as Judith Weinstein, a Jewish woman helping in a missing child investigation. It’s a major departure from her chaotic film roles, indicating Madison’s skill at adding depth to prestige television’s slower burn storytelling style.
