‘Euphoria,’ returning for a third season, launched a generation of new stars

Few TV shows have served as a launchpad for an array of new talent quite like “Euphoria,” which returns for a third season Sunday on HBO Max.

Premiering in 2019, this is the series that showcased the rising careers of Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney — all of whom have since become bona fide stars.

The dark suburban teen drama has also featured more established figures like Colman Domingo, who has received two best actor Oscar nominations in the last few years, and the late Eric Dane. And it’s given visibility and recognition to other actors: Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, Maude Apatow and Barbie Ferreira. Angus Cloud, another of its breakout performers, died in 2023.

Series creator Sam Levinson says it’s a thrill to see many cast members thriving.

“The thing is when you’re casting, every person that walks in, you’re hoping this is the person, this is going to be the character,” he told The Associated Press at the season premiere. “And sometimes when they do, they walk in, they have the talent, they’ve got the passion, the enthusiasm for it, and they inspire you.

“To see them working with such incredible filmmakers like (Christopher) Nolan and (Guillermo) del Toro … it’s just exciting.”

Here’s a look at how some of the “Euphoria” stars got their starts — and how they’ve been keeping busy since we last saw their characters four years ago.

Zendaya (Rue Bennett)

She soared, quite literally, as a trapeze artist in “The Greatest Showman” in 2017, two years before “Euphoria” premiered.

But Zendaya has soared far higher in the seven years since she first played Rue Bennett.

The actor began as a Disney Channel star and went on to play MJ in “Spider-Man” movies opposite her eventual partner, Tom Holland. She won her first Emmy in 2020 for “Euphoria” — the youngest to win for lead actress in a drama. The following year, she became the youngest two-time winner.

Then came the “Dune” movies, the sexy, tennis-themed “Challengers” — and more “Spider-Man.”

She’s currently appearing in “The Drama,” a controversial film in which she and Robert Pattinson play a couple whose impending nuptials are thrown into chaos following a dark revelation.

There were mixed reviews for the movie, but not for her fashion choices: She teased the movie’s bridal theme on carpets around the world by wearing something old, then something new, then something borrowed — and a spectacular, feathered Schiaparelli couture ball gown that was, yes, blue.

Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs)

Launched by “The Kissing Booth” and shortly thereafter “Euphoria,” Elordi has become nothing less than a monster star — and an Oscar nominee, as the Creature in del Toro’s “Frankenstein, ”

But before that, his achievements were already pretty, well, monstrous.

In 2023, Elordi channeled a magnetic Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s biopic “Priscilla.” Then, he made waves — are there waves in a bathtub? — with his memorably rakish appearance as golden-boy rich kid Felix in Emerald Fennell’s salty “Saltburn.”

Other major roles followed, including another TV series, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” playing a medical officer forced to work on the Thai-Burma railway during World War II. And then, Fennell’s recent “Wuthering Heights,” where in a smoldering turn as Heathcliff, he somehow managed to pick up co-star Margot Robbie by her corset strings.

Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard)

Before her breakout “Euphoria” role, for which she earned an Emmy nod — along with another for “The White Lotus” — Sweeney was perhaps best known for her role as tragic teen Eden Spencer in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In a story arc bleak even for that show, she was forced to marry an uninterested Nick Blaine, and later punished for falling in love with someone else, leading to a horrific watery demise.

Sweeney played a teenager in a psychiatric ward in “Sharp Objects,” and appeared as a Manson family member in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” the same year she joined the “Euphoria” cast.

In recent years, her career has blossomed, with her most challenging role coming in a movie she produced, “Christy,” playing boxer Christy Martin, a trailblazer for women in the sport who also suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her trainer and husband. The film tanked at the box office but Sweeney received critical praise — and indeed, Oscar buzz — for her immersion in the difficult role.

On the other side of the box office spectrum, Sweeney struck gold with “The Housemaid” — Paul Feig’s psychological thriller that took a satirical look at the depravity of the ultra-rich.

Alexa Demie (Maddy Perez)

Demie — an actor, singer-songwriter, and designer — made her feature debut in the 2017 movie “Brigsby Bear.” She appeared in Jonah Hill’s skate movie “Mid90s” and then “Waves,” a 2019 drama by writer-director Trey Edward Shults.

That same year Demie became a breakout star of “Euphoria,” playing Maddy Perez, who is involved in an abusive relationship with Elordi’s Nate.

In 2020, Demie appeared in Gia Coppola’s “Mainstream,” with Andrew Garfield.

In September 2021, she released the single “Leopard Limo (Archive LL11).” Her previous single, “Girl Like Me,” was released in 2016.

Hunter Schafer (Jules Vaughn)

Schafer started her career as an activist and model, and made her acting debut with “Euphoria.” She followed up in 2023 as Tigris Snow in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”

The following year she appeared in both the science-fiction horror film “Cuckoo” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.”

This year, she appears in the yet-to-be-released “Blade Runner 2099” opposite Michelle Yeoh, and later this month in psychological thriller “Mother Mary,” with Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.

Colman Domingo (Ali Muhammad)

An established actor well before he began playing Ali in “Euphoria,” Domingo soared to two consecutive best actor Oscar nominations in 2023 and 2024, for playing Bayard Rustin in “Rustin” and then a prison inmate in “Sing Sing.” He’s also had a host of other accolades, including an Emmy win for “Euphoria” (2022) and a nomination for “The Four Seasons” (2025).

The actor-director-producer stars as Joe Jackson in the Jackson biopic “Michael” later this month.

But perhaps his most high-profile move comes this Saturday — he’ll be hosting “Saturday Night Live” for the first time.

Maude Apatow (Lexi Howard)

The daughter of Judd Apatow appeared in her father’s “Knocked Up,” “Funny People,” “This is 40” and later, “The King of Staten Island.” She also appeared in the TV series “Girls.”

Later movies included “Other People” (2016), “The House of Tomorrow” (2017) and “Assassination Nation” (2018) — the last written and directed by Levinson, who then cast her in “Euphoria.”

Apatow’s feature directorial debut, “Poetic License,” stars her mother, Leslie Mann, and is awaiting release.

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Associated Press journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed to this report from Los Angeles.