Elsie Fisher

In adolescence, kids only a couple years older can seem so much more sophisticated that they’re almost from another planet. Hollywood entertainment perhaps unwittingly helps reinforce this psychological divide, often casting performers in their 20s as high school students and older teenagers as middle school students, in order to avoid some of the protective mechanisms of American child labor laws for younger actors.

When comedian-singer-songwriter-rapper-performer-poet and general YouTube age multi-hyphenate Bo Burnham premiered the first film he wrote and directed, 8th Grade, it was met with wide acclaim from Sundance audiences and critics. That praise was earned by the fresh originality of the film as well as by the remarkable performance of its young star.