‘The Act’ and ‘The Kissing Booth’ Have Made Joey King a Streaming Superstar

In less than a decade, streaming has changed Hollywood irrevocably. TV fans are shedding their cable contracts, Hulu and Prime Video are taking home Emmys, and Netflix is poised to purchase a brick and mortar movie theater. But maybe one of the most interesting things streaming has changed is how stars are born. In the olden days, studio executives would groom movie stars, and in decades past, young stars would depend on landing box office hits and magazine covers to make themselves famous. Today, the swiftest path to stardom is via Netflix and Hulu hits, and Joey King is proof positive of this.

19-year-old Joey King has been working in Hollywood since she was 4 years old and her IMDB page touts 60 credits. She’s co-starred opposite Channing Tatum and Emma Stone, but she didn’t become a household name until last summer, when she starred in Netflix’s hit rom-com The Kissing Booth.

The Kissing Booth was a strange, sweet, and horny ode to young love that kicked off Netflix’s triumphant summer of romantic programming last year. A huge reason why the film had any resonance was thanks to King’s effervescent performance. As Elle Evans, King got to be funny, confident, and most importantly, charming. More than that, King’s years of professional experience gave the film a semblance of quality. Essentially, King sold the shit out of The Kissing Booth’s more confounding moments, and hence, made it watchable.

King became an overnight sensation thanks to The Kissing Booth. She shot up in IMDB star rankings and became an ‘it’ girl, all thanks to appearing in a Netflix rom-com — that’s already readying a sequel! Still, King had to shift to another streaming service to throw down a performance that firmly establishes her as one of the best talents of her generation: Gypsy Rose Blanchard in The Act.

As Gypsy Rose Blanchard, King exudes fragility, menace, heartache, and horror. There’s no way to look at how King has transformed herself into a Rorschach test of a human being — someone always reading the needs and wants of the person in front of them, and reflecting it back — and not feel wrecked. The performance is a profound declaration of artistry from a young woman who has spent most of her career relegated to cute kid parts and sassy teen girls. If The Kissing Booth made Joey King a famous actress, The Act proves she is a genius when it comes to her craft. And this one-two punch came not care of the traditional Hollywood system, but two streaming services.

King is hardly the first actor to make a name for themselves or give their careers a boost thanks to streaming originals. A number of Orange is the New Black stars have leapfrogged to other streaming projects, most notably The Handmaid’s Tale (Samira Wiley and Madeline Brewer) and Russian Doll (Natasha Lyonne and Dascha Polanco), and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before made Noah Centineo his generation’s leading heartthrob. Joey King is just on the vanguard of this trend, riding juicy parts on streaming to the top, but The Kissing Booth plus The Act might be one of the most impressive streaming resumés to date.

Joey King is a bona fide streaming star.

Watch The Act on Hulu