Black stars like Zendaya, Ncuti Gatwa, Danielle Deadwyler, and more dazzle in Vanity Fair’s 31st annual Hollywood issue.
Vanity Fair has unveiled its 2025 Hollywood issue. The annual list, which “brings together the biggest stars of Hollywood in glorious and unexpected ways,” featured 12 stars who have each left their own unique mark in the industry over the past year.
This year’s issue features four Black stars, ranging from household names like Zoe Saldaña and Zendaya to breakout stars like the most recent “Dr. Who,” Ncuti Gatwa, and Danielle Deadwyler, who starred in “The Piano Lesson” and “Till”.
“By following their guts — and by having guts — they’re showing studios and streamers what stardom should look like now, even as executives scramble to build a new world order,” the publication boasts, explaining how each star “earned their place on [the issue] by taking risks and navigating the industry’s notorious shifting sands.”
In addition to highlighting these actors’ talents and performances throughout the years, the issue also spotlights the stars’ quirks in various video segments. This year, each cover star shared their “secret obsessions” in interviews with the publication.
While these actors and actresses are united in their passion for acting, their obsessions range from music to literature to furry friends. For Gatwa, whose secret obsession is female rap, verses like Nicki Minaj’s on Kanye West’s single “Monster” fuel his confidence. Similarly, Toni Morrison’s literature inspires Deadwyler, both as an actress and a Black woman. With a background in education, the actress is a firm believer in rereading books and learning new messages from each one.
“Something lifts off the page in a different way,” she said. “[Morrison’s novel] ‘Sula’ is my reread. But in ‘Sula,’ [the question is] how is a woman energetically charging the space … the community? And then what is held in the relationship between women?”
Just as Deadwyler appreciates the knowledge Morrison passed down through her writing, Saldaña is a fan of feminine traditions like carrying a compact mirror. After being gifted one by an unnamed woman early in her career, the actress explained how she made the gesture a tradition of her own.
“I’ve always been a fan of when women pass things down, knowledge or advice ot tops to younger women that are up can coming. It just goes a long way,” Saldaña explained. “Now I know it’s my turn to pay it forward, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been giving a lot of my girlfriends and business partners little compact [mirrors]”
Learn more about these stars’ obsessions and Hollywood journeys on Vanity Fair.
!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(“has-featured-video”,”true”)})}();
More must-reads:
