Emily Blunt
The Devil Wears Prada

After winning praise for 2005's coming-of-age drama My Summer of Love, Blunt turned a minor The Devil Wears Prada character into a Golden Globe-nominated, career-defining role. Her neurotic Emily Charlton — a fashion-mag serf oppressed by her villainous boss (Meryl Streep) and threatened by a new hire (Anne Hathaway) — is lovably hateful and uproariously sarcastic. ''It's been overwhelming,'' says the 23-year-old Brit of her newfound popularity in Hollywood. ''Up until this point, I'd done good work, but it didn't have mass appeal. Prada gave me a push in the right direction.'' Next year, Blunt will take on a thriller (Wind Chill), a quirky dramedy (The Great Buck Howard), a romantic drama (The Jane Austen Book Club), and a romantic comedy (Dan in Real Life). ''I'm trying to be as chameleonlike as possible,'' she says. ''I'm drawn to slightly off-the-wall characters.'' Despite her passion for challenges, Blunt says Prada was a labor of sheer pleasure: ''I'm such a masochist that I had to play the character that Meryl Streep would torment.'' — Margeaux Watson