Born in 1984? Oscar doesn't love you (yet)
Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 2:45PM 
Since 1984 is our Year of the Month I was prepping a "vintage" list of the people, places, and things birthed that year and was alarmed to realize that I could find ZERO Oscar nominees born that year. Not a one. And I've spent all too much time scouring the web for it.
Actors born in 1984 are 31 or 32 years of age which is plenty of time to secure an Oscar nomination, at least for women. For comparison sake consider that a very quick glance at 1983, no more than one minute of research, turns up at least 5 nominees one of whom won (Lupita N'yongo). The same speedy glance at 1985 reveals 4 nominees instantly. Even 1986 has one that immediately pops out (Lady Gaga for Original Song) though the more recent years naturally have less as the field of contenders gets younger and younger. Unless I'm missing some fast-rising sound editor or makeup artist or some such, Oscar has yet to love any 1984 babies. Poor Millenial babies. If you were born in 1984 does this make you grumpy?
So who do you think will be first? Some options after the jump as well as the saving grace of Tony, Emmy, and Grammy nominees from that 1984 crop.
Tony Nominees / Winners Born in '84
Patina Miller & Nina Arianda
- Nina Arianda (2 noms | 1 win - she's done a lot of tiny supporting roles in film but the roles haven't been big and meaty enough considering what she can do)
- Patina Miller (2 noms | 1 win, both for musicals. Currently on Madame Secretary... but hasn't yet had film or tv roles that do her justice)
- John Gallagher Jr (1 nom | 1 win - best known for television roles but he is one of several stars to emerge from the original cast of Spring Awakening on Broadway)
- Scarlett Johansson (1 nom | 1 win - superstar)
- Robin De Jesús (2 nominations - you may remember him as the genderqueer star of that movie Camp in 2003 that Glee ripped off so hard)
- Joshua Henry (2 nominations, both for musicals. He hasn't made too many inroads into tv or film yet. Next up for Henry is the Aaron Burr role in the Chicago production of Hamilton, the role that just won Leslie Odom Jr the Tony)
- Jeremy Jordan (1 nomination - best known from TV's Smash)
- Sarah Greene (1 nomination - best known as Hecate from Showtime's Penny Dreadful)
Emmy Nominees / Winners Born in '84
- America Ferrara (2 noms/1 win, Ugly Betty)
- Kate McKinnon (4 nominations, SNL)
- Taylor Schilling (1 nomination, OITNB)
- Finn Wittrock (1 nomination, AHS: Freakshow)
- Katy Perry (1 nomination, Superbowl Halftime Show starring Katy Perry)
Grammy Nominees / Winners Born in '84
- Katy Perry
- Avril Lavigne
- Trey Songz
- Sam Hunt
So who will be Oscar nominated first?
At the moment we're assuming/hoping (?) it'll be one of these people...
Dastmalchian. Photograph by Braden Moran
When will casting directors realize that they need Melonie Diaz in their movies?
- Scarlett Johansson
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead
- David Dastmalchian
- Olivia Wilde
- Paul Dano
- Nina Arianda
- Melonie Diaz
- Jena Malone
...but you never know. New possibilities pop up all the time. All it takes is the right role and good timing to suddenly be on the showbiz map in a major way.
Reader Comments (33)
Oh I was born in 1984 and now I feel old.
Speaking of the 1984 Oscars, this was the last ceremony to recognize Asian actors.
Paul Dano and Scarlett Johansson have the best chance, IMO. They both should've gotten at least one each by now.
Some of these people are four years younger than I but look ten years older. Are they lying about their age? Hmm...
I have a special place in my heart for America Ferrera (loved her in Real Women Have Curves and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), so I'd love to see her Oscar nominated at some point, though I know that out of the aforementioned group Johansson currently stands the best chance.
Kate McKinnon and Olivia Wilde are the ones I'm more eager to see nominated.
But mostly, date of birth aside, Huppert and Wiig God please yes do it!
Ken Watanabe was nominated for 2003, right?
Forgot about him Marsha thanks. But 1984 is the first and only time I believe two Asian performers were Oscar nominated in an acting category together.
Definitely Jena Malone she's being doing great character work for a few years now,Her turn in Stepmom is another great example of child performances outshing the famous Leads.
Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for playing Mark Zuckerberg, who was born in 1984. So we at least have an Oscar-nominated character born that year.
In terms of Oscar hopefuls from 1984, given the right part and under the right circumstances I could definitely see Gaspard Ulliel sneak his way to an Oscar nomination (certainly a longer shot than ScarJo or Paul Dano, who both should be at least two-times nominees by now, but certainly not inconceivable).
As much as I'd like to rewrite history too, Lady Gaga lost the Oscar to Sam Smith.
Sadness reigns after typing that.
Brittani: ScarJo seems to have recognized that "prestige" doesn't fit her at all. Her next performance oriented movie is a trashy mystery comedy where three friends have to solve the death of a male stripper. (The other friends are Kate McKinnon and Zoe Kravitz. That could be GOOD, but it's not going to be an Oscar movie.) (I get she's young, but if ScarJo sustains herself in, roughly, these genres of performance for the rest of her career? I'd honestly tell people: "She's got a great thing going. She's going to often be on a lot of personal ballots of those whose taste in acting places the performance challenges of Guardians of the Galaxy as equal to the performance challenges of Selma as equal to the performance challenges of Under the Skin as equal to the performance challenges of Inside Out or Her for her entire career. But those people aren't, and have never been, the Academy. Scream for an Honorary, not a nomination.") As for Dano? I like the guy (I think he should have gotten in for 2006), but if it didn't happen in 2007, when he was THE crucial supporting performance in one of the two movies fighting for the Best Picture WIN...? I don't know how it would ever happen.
Its still a travesty ScarJo never got in for Lost In Translation :(
Brittani: And this is not to say I even LIKE Dano's performance in There Will Be Blood that much, not even getting in my top 10 that year. (Note: Javier Bardem and Casey Affleck (Philip Seymour Hoffman, meanwhile, was just a confusing inclusion from both quality and category standpoints) are excellent, and would push a couple performances off if I believed in the Academy's placement of them, but they're leads.) What is that top 10? Here:
1. Peter O'Toole, Ratatouille
2. Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
3. Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
4. Jim Broadbent, Hot Fuzz
5. Timothy Dalton, Hot Fuzz
6. Jason Marsden, Enchanted
7. Robert Downey Jr., Zodiac
8. Sacha Baron Cohen, Sweeney Todd
9. Michael Cera, Juno
10. J.K. Simmons, Juno
Angelina is OUT of the remake of Murder On The Orient Express Charlize Theon IN.
My favorite movie of all time was released in 1984.
Love Streams.
It'd be nice to read something about it here. 1977 was the last year of the month and Opening Night was not mentioned.
SAG is honoring Tomlin with their lifetime achievement award.
Scarlett should've been nominated for Lost in Translation. Fuck you Diane Keaton.
Scar-Jo 3:16 and Cactus Jena will both get their Oscars and will rule the cinema with the rest of THE BULLET CLUB.
I'm a 1984 baby! What a talented bunch of us born that year. :-D
I am most proud to share my birth year with Scarlett and Nina Arianda (who is just FIRE and I truly hope the movies will give her the chance to show the world at large what she can do someday), and I refuse to believe Kate McKinnon is the same age as me; even when she was on The Big Gay Sketch Show she projected older (she has a very calm, wise air about her).
I genuinely am shocked that NO ONE from this vintage has even been nominated for an Oscar yet. And also that we're considered "millennials". I sure don't feel like one. (Damn kids! Get off my lawn!)
Where are Nina Arianda and America Ferrera's movie careers?
It is about time for the academy to notice Paul Dano. He is exceptionally talented and he is putting the work and effort in. He also picks very very interesting projects. How he wasn't nominated for There Will Be Blood I will never understand.
Denny -- i am happy to report that Nina Arianda is SO MUCH FUN in Florence Foster Jenkins so at least she's working in the movies regularly. But need her to have bigger roles.
I'm an 85' kid and sometimes it can be very disheartening to know how much more people your age - or younger - have done, lol. Hell, Quvenzhane Wallis was born months after I graduated high school and she's a nominee! Anyway, it's pretty weird that no one from 84' has been nominated yet (or at least that we know of). I can't imagine that'll last for too much longer, though. Scarjo will at some point become too big of a star for the academy to ignore and I have to imagine others from that year will gain traction.
@Cal: If it helps, Nathaniel and I definitely cooed about Blondell in Opening Night at the end of the podcast, though it was rushed, and once you open the Opening Night bottle it's hard to discuss anything else. Some part of me is always thinking about it. (I've only seen Love Streams once, years ago, but crushed on that one, too.) (Also, you are so great.)
ScarJo was unfairly snubbed for Lost in Translation or even Girl w a Pearl Earring, both her breakout roles in 2003. I blamed the stupid Oscar campaign to place her in supporting consideration for Lost in Translation, so as not to compete w Pearl (& hopefully she could pull a double nom). She might;ve gotten a nom for Under the Skin, had the pic been more widely released in the States.
Dano shld've been nom for Love & Mercy this yr
It will clearly be me. I don't know why this a contest. ;)
Joshua Henry may be my date, however. 1984-woot, woot!!
It's a shame that Scarlett hasn't been nominated, but at least she HAS a Tony. This fact always makes watching her as Black Widow even more exciting for me.
Dano was clearly over-the-top awful in There Will Be Blood. One of the only bad things about that film actually.
Thank you, Nick.
I love Love Streams because my favorite genre of all is "humanist drama about messy people". My second favorite film ever is Kings and Queen. That's my niche.
I believe that you missed Ahmad Balshe, also known as Belloy, who cowrote "Earned It" from Fifty Shades of Gray. He was born on April 7, 1984.
I meant to say Belly, not Belloy, in that last post. Also Jimmy Napes, co-writer of ""Writing's On The Wall" with Sam Smith, is listed as being born in 1984 as well.
I was born 1983. (*yay*)
Trivias can be very interesting. I love it.
Although it's quite depressing that not a single female cinematogrpher was nominated ever at the Oscars. Will Fences finally change it? I hope so, because it's about f*cking TIME!!!
Cal Roth -- you'll be happy to hear that LOVE STREAMS is actually on our schedule for this month
Yay!