LISTEN: Inside Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood Issue With Tyla, Sam Nivola and Finn Wolfhard; WGA 2026 Contract Priorities Take Shape

What does it take for a rising star to make the cut for Variety‘s Power of Young Hollywood issue?

Ramin Setoodeh, Variety co-Editor in Chief, offers insights into how the annual issue and celebration of young talent is assembled on the latest episode of “Daily Variety” podcast.

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“We spend a lot of time discussing who should be on the cover of the issue. We do a lot of editorial meetings, people brainstorm, people pitch,” Setoodeh says. “For this issue in particular, I always ask a lot of our reporters who are in their 20s to weigh in and tell me who they think represents the future of Hollywood and who they think is cool. And often they’ll come up with names and sometimes I’m not as familiar with some of the names that they pitch, but they always have really good ideas and really good suggestions for this issue.”

This year’s honorees are musician Tyla and actors Sam Nivola (“The White Lotus”) and Finn Wolfhard (“Stranger Things”). The Aug. 6 issue, available in print and at Variety.com, also features the Young Hollywood impact report, the annual New Leaders section surveying up-and-comers in a range of industry sectors. And we serve up another installment of 10 Assistants to Watch.

“This issue is full of names that you should know. Maybe you’re not familiar with every single name in this week’s issue, but you will be for sure in the months and years to come,” Setoodeh says.

The episode also features a conversation with Gene Maddaus, Variety‘s senior media reporter, on the upcoming Writers Guild of America West election for a new president, officers and board members. The commentary that has emerged around the election process has yielded some clues about what guild leaders are prepping for as a new round of master film and TV contract talks looms next year.

This time around, there’s a focus on securing an influx of cash to shore up the WGA’s health plan. There’s also growing momentum within the WGA West to begin an organizing drive for writers who work on YouTube shows. And that is another sign of the strides YouTube and its legion of creators have made to be seen as producing content that is akin to and competitive with traditional TV.

“I think people are really focused on that. If this is what television is going to be — if Netflix thinks YouTube is its number one competitor — [writers are] organized at Netflix, but we’re not organized at YouTube, and we need to be,” Maddaus says. “That’s something that bears a lot of attention going forward.”

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(Pictured: Finn Wolfhard, Tyla and Sam Nivola)

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