Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande (birthname: Ariana Grande-Butera), one of the world’s biggest pop singers, has followed the tradition of previous pop artists from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga in expanding her creative work to the movies as an actor. Grande’s feature debut was a supporting voice role—with fellow voice actors Nicholas Hoult, Katie Holmes, John Leguizamo, and Mel Brooks–in director/co-writer/producer Juan Jose Campanella’s animated sports comedy, Underdogs (2016), loosely based on Roberto Fontanarrosa’s short story, Memoirs of a Right Winger, and released internationally by Universal Pictures.

Grande was cast by filmmaker Adam McKay for a key supporting role in his stark political satire, Don’t Look Up (2021), co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet and Ron Perlman, and released by theatrically and for streaming by Netflix, and receiving four Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

Grande’s first big movie moment arrived when she landed her first lead movie role as Glinda the Good Witch of the North alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Wicked Witch of the West in the two-part Jon M. Chu-directed feature version of Stephen Schwartz’s musical, Wicked (2024) and Wicked Part Two (2025), with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James and Peter Dinklage, and which was budgeted at a combined total of $300 million via Marc Platt Productions for distributor Universal Pictures.