Actresses Who Should Play Mermaids

1. Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande was born Ariana Grande-Butera on June 26, 1993 in Boca Raton, Florida to Joan Grande, a chief executive officer for Hose-McCann Communications & Edward Butera, a graphic designer, photographer, artist and Ibi Designs Inc. owner/founder. She starred in the 2008 musical, 13 before ...

2. Lindsay Lohan

Actress | The Parent Trap

Lindsay Dee Lohan was born in New York City, on 2 July 1986, to Dina Lohan and Michael Lohan. She began her career at age three as a Ford model, and also made appearances in over sixty television commercials, including spots for The Gap, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, and Jell-O (opposite Bill Cosby). Lohan ...

3. Sophie Turner

Actress | Game of Thrones

Sophie Belinda Jonas (née Turner; born February 21, 1996) is an English actress. Turner made her professional acting debut as Sansa Stark on the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011) (2011-2019), which brought her international recognition and critical praise. For her performance, ...

4. Lily Collins

Actress | The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Lily Jane Collins was born in Guildford, Surrey, England. Her father is English musician Phil Collins, while her mother, Jill Tavelman, who is from Los Angeles, California, was president of the Beverly Hills Women's Club for three terms. Lily moved with her mother to LA at the age of five, after ...

5. Isla Fisher

Actress | Wedding Crashers

Isla Lang Fisher was born on February 3, 1976 in Muscat, Oman, to Scottish parents Elspeth Reid and Brian Fisher, who worked as a banker for the U.N. She spent her early childhood in Bathgate, Scotland, before moving to Perth, Australia with her family in the early 1980s. From a young age, Isla ...

6. Amy Adams

Actress | Arrival

Amy Lou Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy, to American parents, Kathryn (Hicken) and Richard Kent Adams, a U.S. serviceman who was stationed at Caserma Ederle in Italy at the time. She was raised in a Mormon family of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado, and has English, as well as ...

7. Karen Gillan

Actress | Selfie

Karen Sheila Gillan was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland, as the only child of Marie Paterson and husband John Gillan, who is a singer and recording artist. She developed a love for acting very early on, attending several youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at ...

8. Sarah Bolger

Actress | In America

Sarah Lee Bolger (born 28 February 1991) is an Irish actress. She is best known for her roles in the films In America (2002), Stormbreaker, and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), as well as her award winning role as Lady Mary Tudor in the TV series The Tudors (2007), and for guest starring as ...

9. Bella Thorne

Actress | The Duff

Actress and singer Annabella Avery "Bella" Thorne, known for Shake It Up (2010), The DUFF (2015), Blended (2014), and Midnight Sun (2018), was born in Pembroke Pines, Florida, to Tamara (Beckett) and Delancey Reinaldo "Rey" Thorne. She has three siblings, Remy Thorne, Dani Thorne and Kaili Thorne, ...

10. Mia Wasikowska

Actress | Alice in Wonderland

Mia is an Australian actress, born and raised in the country's capital, Canberra. She is the daughter of photographers Marzena Wasikowska and John Reid. Her mother is Polish and her father is an Australian of British ancestry. She has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai. At age eight,...

11. Alexandra Daddario

Actress | Baywatch

Alexandra Anna Daddario was born on March 16, 1986 in New York City, New York, to Christina, a lawyer, and Richard Daddario, a prosecutor. Her brother is actor Matthew Daddario, her sister is actor Catharine Daddario, and her grandfather was congressman Emilio Daddario (Emilio Q. Daddario), of ...

12. Amanda Seyfried

Actress | Les Misérables

Amanda Seyfried was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Ann (Sander), an occupational therapist, and Jack Seyfried, a pharmacist. She is of German, and some English and Scottish, ancestry. She began modeling when she was eleven, and acted in high school productions as well as taking ...

13. AnnaSophia Robb

Actress | Bridge to Terabithia

Actress AnnaSophia Robb most recently starred in two of Hulu's most critically acclaimed limited series. In 2019, she co-starred opposite Patricia Arquette in THE ACT. This spring, she portrayed the flashback version of Reese Witherspoon's "Elena Richardson" character in LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, ...

14. Ashley Benson

Actress | Spring Breakers

Ashley Victoria Benson was born on December 18, 1989 in Anaheim Hills, California, to Shannon (Harte) and Jeff Benson. She has Irish, English, and German ancestry. She has been dancing competitively since she was 2 with hip hop, jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical. She has been singing since she was ...

15. Clémence Poésy

Actress | In Bruges

Clémence Poésy was born Clémence Guichard in Paris in 1982. She took her mother's maiden name, Poésy, as her stage name. She attended an alternative school for most of her education, but spent her last year at L'École alsacienne.

She trained at the "Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique",...

16. Emilie de Ravin

Actress | Remember Me

Emilie was born on December 27 and grew up in Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia. When she was 15, she was accepted at the highly selective Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. However, after only a year, she dropped out and undertook acting courses.

Her first starring role was on the fantasy drama ...

17. Eva Mendes

Actress | The Other Guys

Eva Mendes is an American actress, model and businesswoman. She began acting in the late 1990s. After a series of roles in B movies such as Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998) and Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), she made a career-changing appearance in Training Day (2001). Since then, ...

18. Gemma Arterton

Actress | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Gemma Christina Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she was raised. She is the daughter of Sally-Anne (Heap), a cleaner, and Barry J. Arterton, a welder. Her mother's cousin is singer-songwriter Eric Goulden.

Her parents divorced when she was age five, and Gemma subsequently lived ...

19. Hayden Panettiere

Actress | Heroes

Hayden Lesley Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisades, New York, to actress Lesley Vogel and fire department captain Skip Panettiere. Her younger brother was actor Jansen Panettiere (1994-2023). Her parents are both of half Italian descent, along with German and English. Her mother got ...

20. Jamie Chung

Actress | Big Hero 6

Jamie Chung was born and raised in California, the daughter of Korean parents. She studied Economics at the University of California, Riverside. Chung's break came in 2004, when she was working in a sports bar. MTV held auditions for The Real World (1992) there, she tried out, and was successful, ...

21. Jessica Alba

Actress | Fantastic Four

Jessica Marie Alba was born on April 28, 1981, in Pomona, CA, to Catherine (Jensen) and Mark David Alba, who served in the US Air Force. Her father is of Mexican descent (including Spanish and Indigenous Mexican roots), and her mother has Danish, Welsh, English, and French ancestry. Her family ...

22. Julianne Hough

Actress | Rock of Ages

A true triple-threat, Emmy Award-winner Julianne Hough is known to audiences around the world for her success in the worlds of film, television and music. She became a household name virtually overnight as a two-time professional champion on ABC's top-rated "Dancing With the Stars," before making a...

23. Melissa Joan Hart

Actress | Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Melissa grew up in Sayville, New York. Her acting career started at the age of four, when she did a commercial for a bathtub toy called Splashy. Her mother, Paula Hart, has been her agent from the beginning. Melissa is the oldest of eight children, some from her mother's second marriage. Six ...

24. Michelle Trachtenberg

Actress | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Trachtenberg grew up in Brooklyn and started her acting career young; she began appearing in commercials at the age of 3.

She continued to act and dance through her school years, making regular television appearances from the age of 10. She landed a recurring role in the kids' TV show The Adventures...

25. Milla Jovovich

Actress | Le Cinquième Élément

Milla Jovovich is a Ukrainian-American actress, supermodel, fashion designer, singer and public figure, who was on the cover of more than a hundred magazines, and starred in such films as The Fifth Element (1997), Ultraviolet (2006), and the Resident Evil (2002) franchise.

Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich...

26. Nina Dobrev

Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Nina Dobrev is a Bulgarian-born Canadian actress. Her best-known television roles are Mia Jones in Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001) and Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce on The Vampire Diaries (2009). Her film work includes The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Let's Be Cops (2014), The ...

27. Vanessa Hudgens

Actress | High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Vanessa Anne Hudgens was born in Salinas, California. Her family moved to San Diego, California, while she was still a toddler. She has a younger sister, Stella Hudgens, who is also an actress. Her mother, Gina Hudgens (née Guangco), an office worker, is from the Philippines. Her father, Greg ...

28. Zooey Deschanel

Actress | New Girl

Zooey Deschanel was born in 1980 into a showbiz family. Her father, Caleb Deschanel, is an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer (perhaps most notably for The Passion of the Christ (2004)) and her mother, Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir), is an actress who appeared in Twin Peaks (1990). Her paternal ...

29. Keisha Castle-Hughes

Actress | Whale Rider

Keisha Castle-Hughes was born on March 24, 1990 in Donnybrook, Western Australia, Australia. She is an actress and producer, known for Whale Rider (2002), The Nativity Story (2006) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

30. Anne Hathaway

Actress | Les Misérables

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Kate McCauley Hathaway, an actress, and Gerald T. Hathaway, a lawyer, both originally from Philadelphia. She is of mostly Irish descent, along with English, German, and French. Her first major role came in the short-lived television series ...

31. Alyson Hannigan

Actress | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Alyson Hannigan was born in Washington, D.C. to Emilie (Posner), a real estate agent, and Al Hannigan, a truck driver. She began her acting career in Atlanta at the young age of 4 in commercials sponsoring such companies as McDonald's, Six Flags, and Oreos. She is a seasoned television actress, ...

32. Jennifer Morrison

Actress | House M.D.

Jennifer Marie Morrison was born in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest child of teachers David and Judy Morrison. She was raised in Arlington Heights, IL, with a younger sister and brother. She attended the same school her parents taught at, Prospect High School. As a child, she did some work as a model...

33. Gal Gadot

Actress | Wonder Woman

Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and model. She was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family (from Poland, Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia who Hebraized their name from 'Greenstein' to sound less European). She served in the IDF for two years, and won the Miss Israel title in ...

34. Emma Watson

Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years,...

35. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Actress | Mad Max: Fury Road

Rosie Alice Huntington-Whiteley is best known for her work as a Victoria's Secrets lingerie model and as a movie actress. She has appeared in five Victoria's Secret Fashion shows from 2006 through 2010 and became a Victoria's Secret Angel in November 2009. She has appeared on the cover of ...

36. Millie Bobby Brown

Actress | Enola Holmes

Millie Bobby Brown (born 19 February 2004) is an English actress and model. She rose to prominence for her role as Eleven in the Netflix science fiction drama series Stranger Things (2016), for which she earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series ...

37. Hailee Steinfeld

Actress | True Grit

Hailee Steinfeld was born on December 11, 1996 in Tarzana, California, to Cheri (Domasin), an interior designer, and Peter Steinfeld, a personal fitness trainer. She has a brother, Griffin. Her uncle is Jake Steinfeld, a fitness trainer, and her great-uncle is actor Larry Domasin. Her father is of ...

38. Madelaine Petsch

Actress | Riverdale

Madelaine Petsch was born on August 18, 1994 in Port Orchard, Washington, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Riverdale (2017) and Sightless (2020).

39. Isabel Lucas

Actress | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Isabel was born in Melbourne, Australia. Her father is Australian and her mother is Swiss. Her family lived in Switzerland, Melbourne, Jabiru, a small mining town in the Northern Territory, and Cairns, Australia. Along with her sister, Nina, she attended schools that included First Nations children...

40. Selena Gomez

Actress | Spring Breakers

Actress and singer Selena Gomez was born on July 22, 1992 in Grand Prairie, Texas. She is the daughter of Mandy Teefey and Ricardo Gomez. Her mother is of part Italian ancestry, and her father is of Mexican descent. She was named after Tejano singer Selena, who died in 1995.

Her first acting role ...

41. Dakota Fanning

Actress | War of the Worlds

Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on the 23rd of February 1994, in Conyers, Georgia, USA, to Heather Joy (Arrington) and Steven Fanning. Her mother played professional tennis, and her father, now an electronics salesman, played minor league baseball. She is of German, Irish, English, French, and ...

42. Kristen Bell

Actress | Frozen

Kristen Anne Bell (born 1980) is an American actress and singer. She was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and is the daughter of Lorelei (Frygier), a nurse, and Tom Bell, a television news director. Her ancestry is Polish (mother) and German, English, Irish, and Scottish (father). ...

43. Shay Mitchell

Actress | The Possession of Hannah Grace

Shay Mitchell (born Shannon Ashley Mitchell; April 10, 1987) is a Canadian actress, model, entrepreneur and author. She rose to prominence starring as Emily Fields in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars (2010) (2010-2017).

She was born in Mississauga, Ontario, the daughter of Precious Garcia and...

44. Dianna Agron

Actress | The Family

Dianna Elise Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia to Mary and Ronald Agron and grew up in a middle-class family in Savannah before moving to Texas and, later, San Francisco, California, because her father was a general manager for Hyatt. Dianna and her brother Jason were raised Jewish and she ...

45. Emma Stone

Actress | La La Land

Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born on November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker & Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish, German & British Isles descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the ...

46. Bryce Dallas Howard

Actress | Jurassic World Dominion

Bryce Dallas Howard was born on March 2, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. She was conceived in Dallas, Texas (the reason for her middle name). Her father, Ron Howard, is a former actor turned Oscar-winning director. Her mother is actress and writer Cheryl Howard (née Alley). Her famous relatives ...

47. Idina Menzel

Soundtrack | Frozen

Idina Menzel was born on May 30, 1971 in New York City, New York as Idina Kim Mentzel. She's an American actress, singer & songwriter. She's best known as Maureen in Rent, Elphaba in Wicked & the voice of Elsa in Frozen (2013). Her mother Helene Goldberg was a therapist & her father Stuart Mentzel ...

48. Zoë Kravitz

Actress | The Batman

Zoë Kravitz has stood out in blockbuster big screen franchises such as The Batman, Mad Max and Fantastic Beasts and the celebrated EMMY Award-winning series Big Little Lies. She has captivated audiences in diverse group of acclaimed major motion picture films and notable independent releases.

...

49. Naomi Scott

Actress | Aladdin

Naomi Scott is a multi-talented actor, singer, and songwriter. She stars as "Jasmine" in Disney's blockbuster live-action remake Aladdin (2019), alongside Mena Massoud and Will Smith, directed by Guy Ritchie. Disney released the film in May 2019, and it became one of the biggest films of the year.

...

50. Ariel Winter

Actress | Sofia the First

Ariel Winter is one of Hollywood's most promising young talents with notable roles in both television and film. Ariel stars on ABC's critically acclaimed and Emmy® winning hit series, "Modern Family (2009)." Winter plays 'Alex Dunphy,' the brainy middle child in the Dunphy family, opposite Ty ...

51. Zendaya

Actress | Spider-Man: Homecoming

Zendaya (which means "to give thanks" in the language of Shona) is an American actress and singer born in Oakland, California. She began her career appearing as a child model working for Macy's, Mervyns and Old Navy. She was a backup dancer before gaining prominence for her role as Rocky Blue on ...

52. Elizabeth Olsen

Actress | Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Chase "Lizzie" Olsen (born February 16, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films Silent House (2011), Liberal Arts (2012), Godzilla (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Captain America: Civil War (2016). For her role in the critically-acclaimed Martha ...

53. Nathalie Emmanuel

Actress | Fast & Furious 7

Nathalie Emmanuel is an English actress, known for her role as Missandei on the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011) and Ramsey in Furious 7 (2015).

Nathalie was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, to a father of Saint Lucian and English descent and a mother of Dominican origin. Nathalie ...

54. Holliday Grainger

Actress | Cinderella

Holliday Clark Grainger also credited as Holly Grainger, is an English screen and stage actress. Some of her prominent roles are Kate Beckett in the BAFTA award-winning children's series Roger and the Rottentrolls, Lucrezia Borgia in the Showtime series The Borgias, Robin Ellacott in Strike, DI ...