Dylan O'Brien

Four auditions for a supporting role on a teen werewolf show isn't exactly a power move, but landing Stiles Stilinski on Teen Wolf in 2011 was what put Dylan O'Brien on the map. While most of the cast played brooding and supernatural, he played neurotic and funny, and audiences connected with that more than anyone expected. The real upgrade came in 2014 when The Maze Runner turned him into a franchise lead, grossing $348 million worldwide and anchoring a trilogy that cleared nearly $950 million globally. He was still filming Teen Wolf the whole time.

The accident in 2016 defined the next decade whether he wanted it to or not. A harness malfunction on Maze Runner: The Death Cure dragged him into a moving vehicle just days into production, requiring reconstructive facial surgery and shutting down production for nearly a year. He disclosed in 2024 that he'd raised safety concerns beforehand and they weren't listened to. The pivot since has been deliberate. Twinless won the Sundance Audience Award in 2025 and earned him a Special Jury Award for Acting. It's not a franchise, but it's his.

Before Teen Wolf, there was a YouTube channel called moviekidd826, started at 14 to post self-produced comedy shorts. The plan at that point was cinematography, or maybe sports broadcasting. Acting won. The drumming career also ran in parallel: he played in an indie rock band called Slow Kids at Play, and that eventually led to a drumming credit on Taylor Swift's Snow on the Beach from Midnights in 2022. Not the career path anyone predicted for the kid from the teen werewolf show.