12 Best Erin Moriarty Movies & TV Shows, Ranked
For the past decade, Erin Moriarty has slowly developed a Hollywood career that many actresses would be envious of. Born in New York City in 1994, Moriarty made her acting debut at 16 with a six-episode arc on the popular soap opera "One Life to Live." From there, she took on larger parts, appearing as Vince Vaughn's daughter in 2012's "The Watch," and earning a starring role in "Red Widow," an ABC drama that ran for one season in 2013.
But despite that false start on television, today Moriarty enjoys a thriving career. She is perhaps best known for her work as Annie January, aka Starlight, on Amazon's "The Boys," as well as a slew of other films and TV series. And she's just getting started. Moriarty's 2023 projects include the horror film "True Haunting," about the first televised exorcism, that she stars in opposite Jamie Campbell Bower of "Stranger Things," and "Catching Dust," a crime drama with Jai Courtney. Read on for a glimpse of the very best roles in her relatively short — but impressive — career.
12. Within
Though far from a scream queen, Erin Moriarty counts among her credits several horror films. "Within" — also released under the title of "Crawlspace," but not to be confused with the 2022 film of the same name starring Henry Thomas — features Moriarty as the teenage daughter of a family who moves into a new house. The home of their dreams? In a great neighborhood? And somehow on the market for much less than it should cost? Naturally, there's something horrifyingly wrong with it. But whether it's possessed by supernatural forces or merely occupied by an all-too-human evil, audiences must wait to find out.
Filmed in 2014, early on in Moriarty's career, she establishes herself as a young actress with potential, even if director Phil Claydon often uses his camera lens to cast a lascivious eye on her, filming Moriarty the way that Michael Bay shot Megan Fox in "Transformers." "Within" received largely negative reviews from critics at the time, although now it seems accepted as a passable if extremely generic entry into the "spooky house" subgenre.
11. The Miracle Season
It feels like every young actor's filmography includes an inspirational sports movie, which brings us to Erin Moriarty and "The Miracle Season." Based on a true story, it chronicles the efforts of a high school girls' volleyball team to recover after the sudden death of their captain, Caroline Found, in a moped accident. Wracked with grief, the young athletes overcome incredible odds to win their state championships in honor of their lost teammate.
Moriarty stars as Kelley, Caroline's best friend, and the player asked to take over as team captain. Although not a natural fit for the leadership position, she grows into the role, taking her team all the way to the finals. "The Miracle Season" is a standard sports drama, but one with plenty of heart and sentiment, and fans of the genre likely won't be disappointed. At the very least, the film delivers exactly what it says on the tin.
10. After the Dark
Less of a film and more of an extended philosophical exercise, "After the Dark" opened in theaters under the alternate title "The Philosophers." It stars James D'Arcy as a teacher at an international school in Indonesia, who runs his students through a series of ethical exercises that — through the power of cinema — come to life for them. These are no longer just thought experiments: They're life-or-death scenarios.
The group works through a doomsday situation, attempting to decide which of their fellow students deserve saving. They've all been given specific characteristics that will make them more or less valuable in an apocalypse. Moriarty's Vivian draws the short straw. Designated as a zoologist (and even worse, a blogger for PETA), she doesn't make the cut for survival. Featuring a cast of both rising stars of the 2010s (Freddie Stroma, Katie Findlay) and former child actors (Daryl Sabara of "Spy Kids" fame and Bonnie Wright from the "Harry Potter" franchise), "After the Dark" serves up an admirably interesting concept, even if it doesn't necessarily nail the execution.
9. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Based on a novel by French author Romain Puertolas, "The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir" lives up to its name, capturing an international adventure that flits between India, France, England, Italy, and Libya. It stars Dhanush as a young street performer from Mumbai who travels to Paris in search of his long-lost father, but before long, his efforts take him much further afield. While in Paris, he meets Marie (Moriarty) at an IKEA. Although his first instincts are to swindle her, the spark between them prevents him from running a con like he probably would under different circumstances, and the two eventually fall in love.
"The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir" ranks as an eccentric production, with bold stylistic choices that don't always work. But it's difficult not to be charmed by the film's supremely unreliable narrator, and he and Moriarty prove a likable enough couple to ground what The New York Times called a "bustling, whimsical voyage."
8. Driven
2023 will go down in history as the year that saw half a dozen different narrative films about popular consumer items ("Air," "BlackBerry," "Flamin' Hot," just to name a few), but "Driven" took a stab at the oddly specific subgenre back in 2018. Lee Pace plays the famously eccentric John DeLorean, a car inventor with grand visions of creating the next great American automobile, while Jason Sudeikis takes on the role of FBI informant James Hoffman, who entraps DeLorean in an effort to dodge drug trafficking charges. Moriarty assumes a small but memorable role as Katy Connors, the girlfriend of drug boss Morgan Hetrick, whose hard-partying ways give the film an appropriate sense of chaos.
"Driven" received generally positive reviews from critics, although its limited release prevented it from finding mainstream audiences. Although it's a lightweight film that didn't have a huge impact upon its initial release, it deserves praise for its strong performances across the board — Moriarty's included.
7. Monster Party
"Monster Party" served as Moriarty's second foray into the horror genre. This one falls somewhere between "The Bling Ring" and your classic serial killer slasher, as a trio of high-end burglars infiltrates a fancy dinner party in Malibu, only to learn that it's actually being held for murderers in recovery for their addiction to ... well, killing. They initially plan to pose as catering, crack the safe, and get out of there, but things become increasingly complicated as the body count rises. Moriarty plays Alexis, the daughter of the wealthy family hosting this macabre event, who secretly promises to help the group of burglars escape the house.
"Monster Party" earned positive reviews from both critics and horror aficionados, with Norman Gidney of HorrorBuzz describing it as "a fun, gloriously gory romp into the fetishes and entitlement of the upper crust." It may not have the pop culture cache of "Scream" or "Halloween," but it merits much more attention from horror fans.
6. True Detective
Although "True Detective" ended up airing for three seasons, most audiences would agree that the first, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, worked best, by far. A slow-burning crime drama, it follows the efforts of two Louisiana detectives to investigate a 1990s murder, both at the time it occurred and when it went left unsolved 17 years later. Moriarty plays Audrey Hart, the teenage daughter of Marty Hart (Harrelson), whose disturbing notebook sketches bizarrely mimic the gruesome ritual acts of the cult her father believes responsible for the murder.
A massive hit, "True Detective" scored HBO its biggest premiere ratings since "Boardwalk Empire" in 2010. It eventually grew to become an awards player, earning 11 Emmy nominations for its first season, including acting nods for McConaughey and Harrelson. It ultimately won five that year, including an Emmy for Cary Joji Fukunaga, celebrating his accomplishments as a director. Critics almost universally praised the show, with Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com calling it, "dense, complex, rewarding storytelling, heightened by a sense of location from its writer and director that is mesmerizing and a character-driven storytelling aesthetic that brings to mind great films like David Fincher's "Zodiac" and Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder."
5. Jessica Jones
Before Marvel started sending its content directly to Disney+, Netflix streamed a series of four television shows all set in the New York City of the MCU: "Daredevil," "Luke Cage," "Iron Fist," and "Jessica Jones." Moriarty got some of her pre-"The Boys" superhero cred from her seven-episode arc on "Jessica Jones," where she played Hope Shlottman, a New York University student with an extremely dark backstory — even by Marvel standards. Hope is one of the villain Kilgrave's (David Tennant) most tortured victims: Not only did he sexually assault her, but he used his mind control powers to force her to murder her parents. (Yes, really — Marvel was not holding back on the disturbing subject matter with its Netflix shows.)
Moriarty's performance as the tragic figure whose death convinces Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) to get serious about killing Kilgrave is both horrifying and genuinely moving. She holds the distinction of playing the Marvel character who suffers arguably the worst fate, and she does so with empathy and pathos.
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4. Blood Father
In "Blood Father," Moriarty plays second fiddle to Mel Gibson, who dominates the film as a father attempting to protect his estranged daughter from a vengeful gang. Moriarty co-star as Lydia, a drug addict who has fallen in with a violent crew, and after she accidentally shoots her boyfriend Jonah (Diego Luna) in a robbery gone wrong, becomes their latest target. With nowhere else to turn, she contacts her absentee father, who has been out of the picture since a prison stint years earlier. In the vein of "Taken," "Blood Father" capitalizes on the father-daughter bond to lend emotional weight to the otherwise by-the-books crime thriller.
Despite its generic and predictable take on the genre, "Blood Father" elicited positive reviews from many critics, who praised the performances of both Gibson and Moriarty. And coming in at just under 90 minutes, its action antics and outlandish plot contrivances never wear out their welcome.
3. The Kings of Summer
A breezy coming-of-age story, "The Kings of Summer" captures the kinds of friendships and experiences that only seem to exist on the brink between childhood and teen years. A group of friends in a small town decide to spend their summer almost exclusively outdoors, building a makeshift home in the woods where they can escape the tension and dysfunction of their families.
But matters become more complicated when Joe (Nick Robinson) brings the girl that he likes (Kelly, played by Moriarty) around to see their forest house, upsetting the delicate relationship between the boys when Kelly ends up preferring his friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso) to him. A less subtle version of coming-of-age dramas we've seen about teenage boys in the past, it doesn't quite hold a candle to classics like "Stand By Me" or "Son of Rambow." Still, it boasts an off-kilter charm that makes it worth watching despite any flaws.
2. Captain Fantastic
In "Captain Fantastic," Viggo Mortensen plays a father determined to raise his large brood of children outside the corrupting influence of American mainstream culture. He teaches them to be "philosopher kings" in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest who are as comfortable hunting a deer as they are crafting an argument about the literary merits of Vladimir Nobokov's "Lolita." When their mother dies, however, they travel to her funeral, where rifts begin to emerge in the family — and it becomes more difficult to keep the outside world out.
Along the way, their family bus stops at an RV camp for the night, where eldest son Bodevan (George MacKay) meets Claire (Moriarty). She shares a mutual attraction with Bodevan, even though his social graces make him seem more like an alien than a teenage boy. Their brief connection provides an impetus for Bodevan to realize how little he knows about the world at large and a growing desire to explore on his own. Moriarty received a SAG Award nomination for "Captain Fantastic" as part of the ensemble acknowledged in the outstanding performance by a cast category.
1. The Boys
In the cynical world of "The Boys," Annie January shines as a beacon of light. Her superpower as Starlight is as much a metaphor as a skill. Season 1 introduced Starlight as a new member of the Seven, an elite task force of superheroes who are not just crime fighters and defenders of the public good, but celebrities with endorsement deals and tie-in movies. Led by the tyrannical and often sociopathic Homelander (Antony Starr), the group serves the agenda of its parent corporation — for better or worse. But when Annie begins to discover the seedy underbelly of the supposedly altruistic organization, she teams up with Hughie (Jack Quaid) and friends to undermine the regime.
This is Erin Moriarty's most famous and best role, and it's not hard to see why. She accomplishes the difficult task of making Annie's naivete about the superhero community come from a place of idealism and innate goodness, thereby upping the empathy factor. A woman who has been sexualized and manipulated while doing her job, Annie's resilience offers hope in a show that frequently gives into its darkness.