Isabel May

At only 25, Isabel May has achieved what most actors spend all their careers chasing: she has become the soul of a cultural phenomenon. Santa Monica-born actress, who was once an unknown teen who left regular school after ninth grade to chase acting, has grown into one of Hollywood’s most quietly magnetic young talents.

May had a modest journey. Her first major television role came as Katie Cooper in Netflix’s Alexa & Katie (2018–2020), a coming-of-age sitcom about two best friends trying to survive high school while one is undergoing treatment for cancer. The show was a modest success, well received, and May had a rare quality early on – the ability to carry emotional weight without melodrama.

She also had recurring roles as Veronica Duncan on the CBS smash Young Sheldon and made her debut as a lead in a dramatic film with Run Hide Fight (2020), in which she plays a high school student who survives an active shooter situation. It was a daring, powerful role that proved she would never be happy playing it safe.

The breakthrough came in 2021 when Taylor Sheridan, creative mind behind Yellowstone, found May during auditions for Mayor of Kingstown. He was so taken with her presence that he stopped and wrote 1883 around her. She never auditioned for the role. Sheridan just gave her Elsa Dutton.

That level of creative trust is virtually unheard of in Hollywood, and May earned it all. She was Elsa, the fiercely, romantically spirited daughter of James and Margaret Dutton, making the harrowing westward wagon trek. She carried the whole show. Her narration, lyrical and melancholic and deeply felt, became the emotional spine of the Paramount+ series. 1883 premiered to huge acclaim, with May singled out by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the most promising young stars in Hollywood.

It was more than a critical recognition. She won the Outstanding Actress in a Made for Television Movie/Limited-Series award at the 24th Women’s Image Network Awards. Most notable is her role in 1883 with country music royalty Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, whom she reportedly didn’t know were country royalty until filming started, a detail that speaks to her refreshing lack of pretension.

In 1923 (2022–2025), the sequel series starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, saw May reprising her role as Elsa Dutton – this time as narrator – further cementing her place within the Yellowstone universe. She also returned in the 2024 series finale of Yellowstone, completing a circle she, in many ways, helped to draw.

Between Western epics she proved she was no one-genre wonder, demonstrating her range in the romantic comedy I Want You Back (2022).

In 2026, May made one of her biggest career moves to date, joining the legendary Scream franchise as Tatum Evans, daughter of Sidney Prescott, in Scream 7. The role was allegedly presented to her on her 24th birthday. The film premiered in North America on February 27, 2026 and positioned her with one of the lasting legacies of horror.

She also stars with Jennifer Lopez in The Last Mrs. Parrish, directed by Robert Zemeckis — another example of the range she displays on film.

There’s something truly unique about Isabel May in today’s Hollywood environment. She has gravitas without pretension, warmth without sentiment. And she has a striking presence on screen that doesn’t so much demand attention as quietly command it. Taylor Sheridan saw it before the rest of the industry. The rest of Hollywood isn’t far behind.

May’s trajectory is clear, with a number of upcoming projects — Karoshi, Sunflower and Wild World, to name a few. She’s not a flash-in-the-pan streaming discovery. By all accounts, she is a generational talent building a career that will be discussed for decades.