Who's The 'Next' Jennifer Lawrence? Get To Know The New Wave Of Movie Stars

dane dehaan

lupita nyong'o

oscar isaac

jessica chastain

lee pace

elizabeth olsen

anthony mackie

adam driver

benjamin walker

nicole beharie

Lupita Nyong'o is getting all of the hype this awards season for her star-making role in 12 Years A Slave.  But could the insanely talented actress (and recent Yale School of Drama grad) be the next Jennifer Lawrence? Is Anthony Mackie going to be the next Denzel Washington? Or Oscar Isaac the next Christian Bale?

Buckle up, Hollywood fans, because there's going to be a new A-list in town soon, and while they're all original, they have one thing in common: a U.S. drama school degree...

For about a generation, the big movie stars in Hollywood were either groomed from child and teen stars into adulthood in front of the camera or snatched from foreign drama schools and television programs. Gone were the days when Marilyn Monroe and James Dean came out of the Actors' Studio and leading men and women did a requisite turn of Shakespeare in the Park.

However, there's a new crop of young actors invading Hollywood, working with film's brightest auteurs and snatching up superhero roles from more established faces --- and they're coming out of American drama schools! (Well, seven out of 10 of them are coming straight out of Julliard, followed by Broadway, followed by years of film work.)

To help give you the head's up on this new wave of American stage-trained actors, we've compiled this dossier on where you've seen their faces, where you're going to see them soon and we've done the math on which established movie stars they're all most like.

For instance, Lupita Nyong'o is getting compared to Jennifer Lawrence and Audrey Hepburn for her talent and poise. Dane DeHaan gets constantly compared to Leonardo DiCaprio because of their similar boyishly handsome looks, but it's really James Franco who might want to look out. After all, DeHaan is the new Harry Osborn.

Established household names might want to be wary of each of the actors on our list. Because they're character actors at heart, they can more easily sell superheroes and Oscar bait alike. It seems American theater actors might be the new Hollywood movie stars.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]