As an up-and-coming actress with a bright outlook for the future,Alycia Debnam-Careyalready has a worldwide following for her roles on some of the most popular TV shows around. She’s due to turn 30 later this year, and while she’s still relatively green in terms of mainstream film appearances, her fame from landing the main role as Alicia Clark inFear the Walking Deadhas already catapulted her to the kind of stardom other performers can only dream of.
Given more time and the right roles, there’s no telling how far the young star can go from here. After departing the show last year, she already has a new show and a film in post-production, with other exciting roles on the horizon. We’re virtually certain to see much more of the talented young actress in the future. However, for now, here’s a look at Alycia Debnam-Carey’s best performances in film and television to date.
11At the Tattooist
Alycia Debnam-Carey began her acting career at a young age with appearances in small, independent films.Hailing from Australia, the land down under seems to have provided Hollywood with another major star in the making. Between 2006 and 2011, Debnam-Carey appeared in four short films. While far from the big-budget, mainstream flicks she’ll likely be after now, these films proved to be a great launching pad for her career and a way of displaying her acting skills from a young age.
Related:10 Short Films For When You Don’t Have Time For a Full-Length Movie
In one of these films,At the Tattooist,Debnam-Carey joined other young actresses in a story that revolved around a group of young school friends as they partake in a rebellious afternoon at a tattoo parlor. While there, the girls wile away their time by indulging in flirtatious exchanges with boys in the dark and seedy joint. The fun and games don’t last, though, as a startling secret soon emerges. Even as a teenager at the time, Debnam-Carey already showed the kind of poise in the film that would go on serve her well in her bigger roles.
10McLeod’s Daughter’s
Three years after making her acting debut in an Australian film, Debnam-Carey made her quiet little start in television roles as she appeared in an episode of the Australian drama series,McLeod’s Daughters.She played the role of Chloe Anderson in an episode of it entitled"Second Best."
The show was a popular one in Australia and ran for eight seasons, winning many awards during this time. It revolved around two sisters who have to run a cattle station named Drover’s Run after inheriting it from their father. While it was a small once-off role in the show, the episode in question did mark the first time Debnam-Carey appeared in a TV series. As her fans know well, it certainly wouldn’t be her last.
9The Devil’s Hand
Given the kind of shows Alycia Debnam-Carey is famous for, and the films she’s been involved in, she’s probably earned the titleof being a scream queenby now. In 2014, as her fame was beginning to grow, she landed a role in the theological horror,The Devil’s Hand.The film had some creepy moments and was praised by some critics for its great cinematography.
However, it ultimately failed to wow any of them beyond critics who noted that the actors were the film’s strongest points. Playing the lead role in the film, Debnam-Carey was responsible for much of the little praise the film did receive. It was a good start for her introduction to the genre that would go on to be a major part of her career.
8A Violent Separation
By 2019, Alycia Debnam-Carey had already amassed fame from the shows she’s best known for. That led to roles in bigger films that were studio-backed. InA Violent Separation,she played Frances Campbell, a young woman on a mission for justice when she intersects with a corrupt deputy sheriff and his family members.
The film wasn’t particularly well-received. However, as a thriller, it worked well and had its moments. The story had a fair few twists and intriguing elements that perhaps left it a little more underrated than it deserved. Nevertheless, Debnam-Carey performed well in the film, which wasn’t like anything else she had been in before.
7The Safe House
Barely a teenager, that same year, Debnam-Carey could already boast of her range as an actress. In the 2006 Australianshort animated film,The Safe House, she lent her voice to the main character in the film, a little girl named Lee Whitmore. The film was a great little piece that was shown from a seven-year-old child’s perspective as she watches the strange happenings that occur in her usually quiet and boring neighborhood.
Nobody explains what’s happening to her and all she is able to glean from the events is from the bits of conversations she overhears while noticing strange black cars and very official-looking people milling around her street. Little Lee’s imagination takes over and her little brain isn’t able to actually grasp that she’s actually watching a part of history unfold. That’s because the film is actually based on the events of the infamous Petrov Affair, when a KGB agent defected and was tracked down in Australia.
6Jigsaw Girl
In the wonderful short filmJigsaw Girl,Debnam-Carey plays a 14-year-old girl named Caitlyn who comes across a woman she believes is her mother. The strange part is that her mother supposedly died when she was a baby. Amid the tumult of teenage angst, she pursues the woman, pushing her father away in the process as she believes he lied to her. However, as the story unravels she discovers that all is not as it seems. At a young age,Jigsaw Girlproved to be a great role for Debnam-Carey, and she excelled in it.
5Friend Request
In 2016, Debnam-Carey appeared inFriend Requestas the main character, Laura Woodson. The film was an English-language German horror film that hadan intriguing plotand added another title to her growing manifest of horror genre appearances.
It centered around Laura, a popular college student who accepts a friend request from a more socially inept student. The other student later commits suicide and when Laura unfriends her, strange things begin happening and her friends start dying one by one. Despite its entertaining premise, the film was largely panned by critics. However, Alycia Debnam-Carey was convincing in her role and probably played no part in why the film was poorly received.
4Into the Storm
As Alycia Debnam-Carey was just beginning to make her name for herself with Western audiences, her career was given a huge boost when she landed a role in a major mainstream film.Into the Stormwas a disaster film that featured some great effects and thrilling scenes. It took place in a small town that’s unexpectedly ravaged by a bunch of massive tornadoes.
While the film never fared well with critics (not many ever seem to these days), it was still relatively a commercial success and introduced Debnam-Carey to a new audience at a time when her career was slowly starting to reach new highs with each passing year.
Since leaving the show that has so far defined her career, one of the first new projects Debnam-Carey signed onto was the Hulu psychological drama series,Saint X.Based on a best-selling novel by Alexis Schaitkin, the show depicts Debnam-Carey as Emily Thomas, a young woman who takes on a dangerous journey as she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to her sister who was murdered during a trip to the Caribbean two decades earlier.
The show hasn’t been a hit with critics, which is a little sad given that itwas based on a great bookand so far, despite being a slow burn, hasn’t been bad really. Fans of the show and Debnam-Carey are waiting expectantly to see if it will be renewed for a second season since, no matter what critics may say about it, it still has many loyal viewers.
Back in 2013, Alycia Debnam-Carey appeared in an Australian documentary series calledNext Stop Hollywoodwhich followed young hopeful Australian performers as they tried to break into mainstream Hollywood. A year later, Debnam-Carey would reach this goal as she was cast in The CW’s hit post-apocalyptic sci-fi series,The 100.She was brought into play Lexa, a recurring character in Seasons 2 and 3 of the show, who returned in Season 7 as a guest character.
Related:The 100 Cast: Where They Are Today
The role proved to be a great one, both for how well she played it and also for her career — which has come leaps and bounds since then. The show follows a group of survivors from an otherworldly habitat as they return to Earth a century after it was destroyed. The show was highly popular and a huge critical hit with many of its seasons being rated at 100%. It would also prove to be the catalyst for Alycia Debnam-Carey’s career as it soared from there as she also joined the cast of her most famous show while working onThe 100.
