Mary Elizabeth Winstead got her start as a child star on a daytime soap, and has quickly become one of the most interesting actors of her generation. From horror and action to comedy and drama, Winstead has remarkable range, and imbues every performance with an undefinable star quality that sets her apart.

Below is a list of her best performances. They reveal her growth from child star to movie star in a variety of mediums (TV shows, modern cult classics, blockbusters, and indie dramas), gaining widespread critical acclaim and earning her spot as one of Hollywood’s most interesting and magnetic actors to watch.

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9 Passions

     NBC

Winstead got her start on this NBC soap opera when she was just 14, playing the role of Jessica Bennett. It’s a small role amongst a sprawling ensemble cast of characters, but already Winstead had a presence on screen that foreshadowed her career to come.

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MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Though the character would later go through the kinds of highly emotional arcs that soaps are known for, during Winstead’s run Jessica Bennett was the quiet, responsible, ‘good child,’ mainly serving as a foil for her older sister’s scheming plots, allowing Winstead to do some subtle work and display early signs of an uncanny ability to be utterly compelling onscreen even without much dialogue or action.

8 Sky High

     Walt Disney Pictures

Disney’s 2005 teen superhero comedy Sky High was a minor success upon its release, and in the years since, its reputation has steadily grown, to the point that it’s now something of a cult classic for Gen Z with many wondering where the cast is today. Winstead plays Gwendolyn “Gwen” Grayson a misunderstood character who’s presented as both the ‘weird’ kid and the object of widespread crushes.

Ultimately, Winstead is revealed to be something of a supervillain. These contrasting dynamics allow Winstead to show off an impressive range at a young age, and her performance is one of the key reasons the film still works to this day.

7 BrainDead

     CBS

Winstead would return to the small screen in 2015 to play documentary filmmaker-turned-political operative Laurel Healy in BrainDead. Healy is forced to work for her politician brother when funding for her latest documentary falls through, and soon discovers an extraterrestrial conspiracy to take over the brains of politicians.

The show didn’t see much success, being canceled after just one season, but the strange mix of heavy-handed political satire, sci-fi, and drama allows Winstead to shine. The actress is a master of conveying mixed signals, both in terms of characters’ emotions and her vehicle’s genres, and her performance here is the standout element of the series.

6 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

     Universal Pictures

In 2010, Winstead took on the role of Ramona Flowers, the love interest of Michael Cera’s titular Scott Pilgrim. As the cipher-like Ramona, Winstead proved her ability to be the center of attention without having to draw that attention to herself, slotting beautifully into Edgar Wright’s highly stylized comic book adaptation. The role also required her to go through two months of fight training, and would earn her a Teen Choice Award for Choice Action Actress.

5 Kate

     Netflix

2021’s Kate sees Winstead taking on a full-blown action role as the titular assassin. Assigned one final job by her handler Varrick, Kate soon learns that she’s been poisoned and has less than 24 hours left to live. This sends her on a quest to find out who’s behind the poisoning and exact revenge. While this Netflix original borrows a lot from other films in the female assassin, ticking clock, and revenge movie genres, Winstead’s savage performance elevates it significantly, displaying a side of the actress not seen very often.

4 Death Proof

     Troublemaker Studios

Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino’s half of the exploitation film pastiche Grindhouse, features Winstead as Leanna “Lee” Montgomery, a reference to the actor Lee Montgomery, who starred in several B-movies throughout the 70s. Winstead’s Montgomery is a naive young starlet left behind as her friends take a fateful test drive of a 1970 Dodge Challenger.

It’s a small role in a large ensemble cast, but Winstead, clad in a cheerleader outfit and thrust repeatedly into comically suggestive scenarios, delivers an arch, hilarious performance that perfectly captures the self-aware tone Tarantino’s film is going for.

3 Birds of Prey

     Warner Bros.

Winstead plays Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress, in this stylish comic-book movie also known as Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), among other things. The film under-performed at the box office and garnered mixed reviews, but delivers a fun, garish variation on the superhero genre.

Winstead’s Huntress is tasked with presenting a brooding, anti-heroic counterpart to Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, adding a bit of gravity to the proceedings and plausibility to the success of Quinn’s ragtag team as they go up against the formidable villain Black Mask.

2 Fargo (Season 3)

     FX

The Daily Beast called Winstead’s Fargo character, Nikki Swango, “the 21st century’s first truly great TV antiheroine,” and it’s easy to see why. As the bridge-playing parolee and love interest of Ewan McGregor’s Ray Stussy, Winstead is magnetic. In the third season of the anthology series, most of the standout scenes belong to Winstead’s Swango as she slowly emerges as the storyline’s surprise protagonist.

Even surrounded by talents like McGregor, Carrie Coon, and an incredibly disturbing David Thewlis, Winstead steals the show. Swango’s passion for competitive bridge and her strategic approach to life plays right into what might be Winstead’s greatest talent as an actress: a singular ability to portray thinking on film.

1 10 Cloverfield Lane

     Bad Robot

This 2016 standalone follow-up to 2008’s Cloverfield sees Winstead playing Michelle, a young woman who wakes up from a car crash in the bunker of a man (John Goodman’s Howard Stambler) who claims that the outside world has become uninhabitable in the wake of an alien invasion.

This claim may or may not be true, and it’s not clear if Michelle is the recipient of remarkable good fortune or the victim of a conspiracy-addled madman until the very end of the film. Throughout 10 Cloverfield Lane, Winstead carries the audience along in this disoriented terror, and standout performances from her, Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. make this the best entry in the Cloverfield franchise.