Abigail Breslin

Of the many pleasures found in the sleeper comedy hit "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006), few were more endearing than Abigail Breslin's performance as seven-year-old Olive, whose unflagging enthusiasm was entirely at odds with her family, whose mental and emotional collapse might provide her biggest stumbling block in achieving the title of "Little Miss Sunshine." Drawing comparisons to Dakota Fanning and Drew Barrymore in her "E.T." (1982) days, Breslin's performance was alternately hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful, and her follow-up turns in films like "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" (2008), "My Sister's Keeper (2009) and "Zombieland" (2009) helped secure the promise she had exhibited with her career-making role in "Sunshine." Breslin then aged smoothly into adolescent and young adult roles in films ranging from science fiction thriller "Ender's Game" (2013) to dysfunctional family drama "August: Osage County" (2013) before movie to television with lead roles in Ryan Murphy's camp horror spoof "Scream Queens" (Fox 2015-16) and a made for TV reboot of '80s phenomenon "Dirty Dancing" (ABC 2017).