Nick Jonas

Nick Jonas was acting on Broadway at seven, which is where this career starts rather than with the band. Born in Dallas in 1992, he released a debut single in 2002 that led Columbia Records to sign him and, shortly after, his brothers Joe and Kevin as the Jonas Brothers. The band's debut arrived in 2006, the breakthrough self-titled record on Hollywood Records in 2007, and A Little Bit Longer in 2008 with a top-five single. Disney Channel did the rest: Camp Rock, its 2010 sequel, and two series.

His acting began as an extension of that machine, playing Nate Gray, a member of a band, in the Camp Rock films. The interesting stretch came a few years later, when he seems to have gone deliberately looking for parts designed to make people stop finding him nice. Boone on Scream Queens, a run on Kingdom, Brett Land in Goat. Those are the performances with something at stake in them.

Since then he has settled into franchise comfort. Seaplane McDonough in both Jumanji films is charm plus timing and no risk whatsoever, and it works fine. Bruno Gaido in Midway, Davy Prentiss Jr. in Chaos Walking, Lou in UglyDolls, Joel in Love Again, a pastor in You're Cordially Invited.

He is a competent screen actor whose best film work happened when he was actively trying to be disliked, and the studios have shown no interest in that version since. Music remains the main career; the coaching chair on The Voice is closer to the real job.