Zendaya is a very busy woman this year with four film projects set for release and the return of her HBO series Euphoria for its third season. The first of these releases is The Drama, a darkly comedic take on rom-coms that is said to offer up more than a few surprises.

She has come a long way since her Disney Channel days in the sitcoms Shake It Up and K.C. Undercover, which made her a hit with the youth market before she transitioned into more mature roles in film and television. At 29-years-old, she’s a two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for work on Euphoria, becoming the youngest performer to win in that category in the process, and the series also earned her a Golden Globe Award.

The sky is the limit for Zendaya, and she’ll more than likely show off all of her acting chops across her five projects this year, so, as she gets her run started, this feels like a good time to dive into her five best performances so far.

Honorable Mention: Anne Wheeler in The Greatest Showman (2017)

The Greatest Showman was released during a significant year for Zendaya. Her series K.C. Undercover was still airing but would complete its run in 2018, and earlier that year, she made her debut as Michelle, aka “MJ,” in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The Greatest Showman allowed Zendaya to solidify what would become a film career to watch while also playing to the multiple talents she began utilizing when she stepped into the Disney Channel spotlight.

Zendaya can act, sing, and dance, something she puts to great use in The Greatest Showman, a musical that became one of the bigger worth of mouth hits in recent years. Directed by Michael Gracey from a screenplay by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon, The Greatest Showman is a musical period drama that follows the heavily fictionalized life of P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), the man who ultimately created the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Zendaya portrays Anne Wheeler, an acrobat and trapeze artist who is also the love interest of Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), a playwright and partner in Barnum’s business. Zendaya proves to be a committed performer in the film, reportedly having trained extensively so could perform her trapeze stunts without a safety net. She’s also featured in one of the film’s best numbers with Efron (“Rewrite the Stars”), which continues to be a standout sequence in a movie full of dazzling musical moments.

Her chemistry with Efron sparks just enough as they have to navigate racial tensions during the 1800s because of their romance, but if there is one complaint, which has nothing to do with Zendaya, Phillip is given way more agency in terms of the racism the two face so Zendaya’s participation feels a bit more surface level in their romantic subplot but there is no denying acquits herself and her high-flying musical number with Efron continues to ignite magic.

5. Michelle Jones-Watson aka “MJ” in the Spider-Man Film Series (2021-Present)

The impressive thing about watching Zendaya navigate through the three Spider-Man films she has appeared in so far is that the character has been able to grow across installments, her chemistry with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man has naturally grown (with real-life love happening off-screen), and she has become the strongest female lead of any Spider-Man live-action IPs because the writing for MJ has been strong throughout, something that some of the other female love interests can’t really brag about (Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane being a big example of this).

Beginning as a no-nonsense, blunt high schooler in Spider-Man: Homecoming to someone who breaks down her walls in Spider-Man: Far From Home to ultimately become the love interest we hate to see Peter lose in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Zendaya infuses MJ with youthful energy while not allowing her to simply be a damsel in distress. Sometimes superhero romantic subplots can feel like a means to an end, so that the hero has someone to save, but, after what was a more brief appearance in Homecoming, Zendaya got to be involved more in the plots of its follow-ups, and it allowed for the incredibly endearing chemistry she shares with Holland to shine through.

She feels like his equal in all of their awkward teen angst moments as they figure out how much they like each other, but also as she becomes someone he can trust, as she’s already figured out that her high school crush is also moonlighting as a superhero. One of the reasons the ending of No Way Home works so well, when they are forced to say goodbye because the only way the world can be saved is if everyone forgets Peter Parker, is partly because the audience has seen her develop from someone with a snarky line delivery to someone who truly cares about the man standing in front of her.

Zendaya is completely charming as MJ, and it’s a role that may not get as much credit from most, considering the work she has put in across other projects, but she makes MJ more than a thankless high school character along for the ride. It’ll be great to see how much more she progresses in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

4. Marie Jones in Malcolm & Marie (2021)

While Malcolm & Marie received mixed reviews at the time of its release, one thing that couldn’t be denied was Zendaya’s commanding performance as Marie, a role that proved the actress was fully capable of essaying adult roles and moving beyond the young adult fare that helped make her a star. Directed and written by Sam Levinson, Malcolm & Marie is a romantic drama following writer-director Malcolm Elliott (John David Washington) and his girlfriend Marie Jones (Zendaya), whose relationship is put to the test on the night of his latest film premiere.

Malcolm & Marie is a very dialogue-heavy affair, played out like a stage play in one location while focusing on two characters. The heavy-lifting falls on both actors, and while Washington more than holds his own, it’s surprisingly the much younger Zendaya that commands a bulk of their scenes with a performance that is raw to its core as her character has to frequently shift moods from scene to scene. At times she’s simply exhausted by the issues surfacing within their relationship, and other times she’s downright violatile has hard truths begin to emerge between the two as the night progresses.

The film was a step in the right direction for her because it arrived during a time when just about everyone would be paying attention to it. The movie was the first Hollywood feature to be entirely written, financed, and produced during COVID-19 lockdowns, and much of that creativity was sparked because Zendaya and Levinson, who were anticipating starting Season 2 of Euphoria, were hungry to use the creativity they wouldn’t be able to on the show and pour it into something that could create and sell during the pandemic.

Netflix secured the rights to the film for $30 million, and with Zendaya also serving as a producer, she helped ensure that the crew, many of whom worked on Euphoria, would benefit from those profits. Malcolm & Marie garnered significant attention because of this, but it also allowed audiences to see Zendaya as an adult with tremendous screen presence and talent.

3. Chani in Dune: Part Two

Some Zendaya fans were disappointed to discover that her role as Chani is Dune: Part One was essentially a glorified cameo, despite her being heavily used in the promotional materials but the actress and director Denis Villeneuve promised when that film was released that the character would be explored further in the follow-up and what she becomes in Dune: Part Two is that film’s emotional anchor.

Written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, Dune: Part Two is the second of the two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune and follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he prepares to wage war against House Harkonnen with the Fremen people on the desert planet of Arrakis. Chani appeared as mere visions to Paul in Dune: Part One, but in Part Two, she becomes much more. Once again, similar to her role in the Spider-Man films, this could’ve easily been a thankless love interest role, but Zendaya’s portrayal, which is also a change from the source material, turns Chani into a much-needed counterpoint to Paul’s rise to power as she comes to see someone she loves becoming someone who could be losing his soul as he moves closer to tyranny.

That being said, Zendaya portrays a fierce magnetism as Chani that elevates her above someone who is serving as the de facto female lead. Her dedication to her people shines through immensely, and it’s her open-hearted performance that gives Chani her strength and humanity while also infusing the film with genuine, real emotion that may have been absent had her character not been given more agency beyond her creation on the written page in the source material.

2. Tashi Duncan in Challengers (2024)

Zendaya’s transition to more mature roles became complete with the release of Challengers, which allowed her to prove she was capable of portraying someone ruthless and unapologetic while still allowing complexities to shine through that expressed why she was driven by ambition. Directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers follows a love triangle between injured tennis star-turned coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), her tennis champion husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and her low-circuit tennis player ex-boyfriend Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) across thirteen years as it all culminagtes in a match between the two mean at the ATP Challenger Tour.

Guadagnino allows Zendaya to portray someone who is presented as unlikable at times with zero apologies, and it begins with hints early in the film as she first comes off as someone young and ambitious, but there is an unquenchable thirst for power within her field that is boiling beneath the surface. Going for tennis ingenue to a coach fully in command of her tennis star husband, she handles the evolution of Tashi throughout the film in a believable manner that makes the audience sense there is more to her than someone who is blinded by power and ambition.

She has the grief of her own tennis dreams being shattered, and this has led her to control everything in her life, including the two men vying for her attention (both of whom she shares a different, yet blistering chemistry with). She brings an alarming sensuality to the role without being overtly sexual, and even though Tashi may be so flawed at times that she’s hard to like, she’s always captivating to the point that you simply can’t take your eyes off her.

1. Rue Bennett in Euphoria (2019-Present)

Despite Rue Bennett being another character that Zendaya began portraying who was in high school, the emotional realism she brings to the role on HBO’s Euphoria stands as her most mature role to date overall. Her portrayal of addiction is completely nuanced as it jumps from the manic characteristics of someone in the grip of the disease to someone who is feeling vulnerable and trapped because of it. Created by Sam Levinson, Euphoria follows Rue Bennett, a troubled teenage drug addict who is struggling to get sober while also navigating her relationships with family and friends after getting out of rehab.

Even though the show, most notably during its second season, shines a light on the supporting characters, Euphoria is at its best when it’s focused on Rue. Like most drug addicts and recovering drug addicts, her mood switches from complete mania to that of someone sweet and charismatic, despite the very battle she is facing. Zendaya has put in masterful work across two seasons so far a few of her best moments include her begging and pleading her dealer Fezco (Angus Cloud) for drugs during a gripping moment in Season 1, Rue searching for drugs in her house while crashing out on her mom (portrayed by Nina King) and sister (portrayed by Storm Reim), and an intervention scene that she turns on its head but making sure the focus falls on someone else and not herself.

She’s also top-notch during some of the series’ quieter moments, which typically involve Hunter Schafer’s Jules as they begin their friendship. As previously mentioned, Zendaya won two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal, and these accolades were very much deserved. As an actress, she can carry the heaviness of the role and show without missing a bit while giving an honest portrayal of drug addiction that avoids cliches and manages to be intense, grounded, and surprisingly empathetic.

The Drama hits screens nationwide this Friday.