Amy in Booksmart

The quieter half of a pair of overachievers — and the comedy performance that announced a dramatic actress could do anything.

In Booksmart (2019), Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, Dever co-leads as Amy, the quieter half of a pair of high-achieving best friends (with Beanie Feldstein as Molly) who realise, the night before graduation, that they have calculated their school lives incorrectly — and set out to compress four years of fun into one night. The film premiered at South by Southwest and became one of the year's critical favourites.

Why it mattered

Dever arrived at Booksmart known for drama. Amy proved the comedy range: deadpan, warm, and completely believable as a teenager whose competence is both her armour and her problem. Paired in the same year with Unbelievable — about as far from a teen comedy as a role can get — the two performances together are the clearest statement of her range in a single calendar year, and the reason 2019 reads as her breakthrough in every serious profile since.