Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

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KAVEH AKBAR
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AMELIA DIMOLDENBERG
LUCY SANDLER
Photography by LUCY SANDLER

OWEN THIELE

ACTOR & PODCASTER

After breakout roles in Hacks and  I Think You Should Leave, the actor and podcaster is preparing for turns in this year’s upcoming series Adults and Overcompensating—and developing a semi-autobiographical series for Amazon.

WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? I’m legally obligated to record my podcast, In Your Dreams, in the middle of the night. So probably that—and rereading the cringe texts I sent the day before.

ARE PEOPLE EVER STARSTRUCK BY YOU? When I started dating my boyfriend, I didn’t like to use the bathroom at his apartment because I was shy. Instead, I would go to the Starbucks down the street. The barista was so nice and always gave me the code. Three years later, I randomly saw her at LAX. She was definitely starstruck by “bathroom boy.”

"Is what I’m doing funny, or will it make people worry about my mental health?"

WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind. I was in my peak puberty awkward years (imagine the worst-case scenario, then multiply that by five), and I would come home every day, turn on A Mighty Wind, and laugh my ass off. It’s a masterpiece.

WHO DO YOU CALL THE MOST? My mom. I call her every 15 minutes. Is that not normal?

WHAT QUESTION DO YOU ASK YOURSELF MOST OFTEN WHILE YOU’RE MAKING WORK? I mostly do comedy, so I often ask myself, Is what I’m doing funny, or will it make people worry about my mental health? There’s a fine line, and I teeter.

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KAVEH AKBAR
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AMELIA DIMOLDENBERG