Chase Infiniti on Her Breakout Year and What Comes After

Two years ago she had never acted on camera. Now, after a Paul Thomas Anderson film and a lead role in the Handmaid's Tale sequel, the 26-year-old is one of Hollywood's most closely watched new names.

Introduction

Chase Infiniti's rise in Hollywood has happened at a pace that even she seems to find disorienting. Two years ago, she was a recent Columbia College Chicago graduate coaching kickboxing between acting classes. Today, she is a Gotham Award-winning lead actress, an Emmy nominee, and one of the most talked-about new faces to emerge from an Oscar Best Picture winner in years.

That trajectory, from a self-taped audition to an Academy Award-winning ensemble to a starring role in one of the year's most anticipated television adaptations, has made Infiniti a useful case study in how quickly a single well-cast role can reshape a career in the current Hollywood landscape, particularly for young performers without a traditional child-star pipeline behind them.

From Self-Tape to the Oscars

Infiniti's breakout came almost by accident. While still on set filming the Apple TV+ limited series "Presumed Innocent," her first professional acting role, she submitted a self-taped audition for Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another." During a callback that involved a four-day karate intensive with Anderson observing, she was cast in the film despite being, by her own account, the only true beginner in the room.

The film, loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland," cast Infiniti as Willa Ferguson, the daughter of a former revolutionary played by Leonardo DiCaprio, alongside Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor. It went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and Infiniti's performance earned nominations from the Critics' Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild's Actor Awards, along with a win for Breakthrough Performance from the National Board of Review.

A Feature Debut Alongside Hollywood Veterans

What makes Infiniti's "One Battle After Another" performance notable is not just the awards attention, but the company she kept in achieving it. Making a feature film debut opposite an ensemble that included DiCaprio, Penn, del Toro and Regina Hall carries obvious risk for any young performer, let alone one appearing in only her second on-camera role. Industry commentary around the film's release consistently singled out Infiniti's performance as a standout amid a cast of established names, describing her as the film's emotional anchor.

The attention extended beyond traditional film criticism. Musician Tyler, the Creator reportedly cast her in a music video after seeing her performance in the film's trailer, an early sign of the broader cultural notice her work was beginning to attract even before the film's awards season run began in earnest.

Leading The Testaments

Infiniti's next major role arrived quickly. She was cast to lead Hulu's "The Testaments," the long-awaited television adaptation of Margaret Atwood's sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale," playing Agnes Jemima, the daughter of one of the show's most powerful commanders. The casting came with a notable endorsement: Elisabeth Moss, an executive producer on the series and a returning cast member from "The Handmaid's Tale," has since praised specific scenes in Infiniti's performance as among the best work she has seen from her across the season.

The role required Infiniti to navigate difficult material, including her character's experience of abuse within the show's dystopian setting, which the production's writers approached with deliberate restraint compared to some of the more graphic treatment of similar themes in the original series. Infiniti has spoken about the challenge of balancing those heavier moments with scenes of ordinary teenage life within the story, a tonal range that has since earned her both a Gotham TV Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series and a Primetime Emmy nomination.

Keeping the Range Going

Rather than settling into a single genre following her breakout, Infiniti has moved quickly into markedly different territory. She is set to star in "The Julia Set," a film in which she plays a mathematician preparing for the Putnam Exam, one of the most demanding undergraduate mathematics competitions in the world. The project reflects a deliberate effort to diversify her range beyond the political thriller and dystopian drama genres that have defined her career so far.

That range has become a recurring theme in coverage of her rise. Profiles of Infiniti have repeatedly highlighted her background in musical theater and K-pop dance, including her role co-founding a K-pop dance collective during college, elements of her background that reportedly factored into "The Testaments" showrunner Bruce Miller's decision to cast her after seeing both her dramatic work and her dance content.

Navigating Visibility for the First Time

Infiniti's rapid rise has also meant adjusting to a level of public visibility she has openly described as new. Her first Met Gala appearance, in a custom Thom Browne dress under the "Fashion is Art" dress code, drew significant fashion press attention, while award season appearances throughout early 2026 placed her alongside far more established peers in a way she has described as still feeling surreal.

That adjustment has not appeared to slow her career momentum. Industry profiles published throughout the first half of 2026 have consistently framed her not as a one-role breakout, but as an actress whose subsequent choices, moving from a political thriller to a dystopian drama to an upcoming role built around competitive mathematics, suggest a deliberate effort to build a varied body of work rather than capitalize narrowly on a single successful type of role.

Key Takeaways

Chase Infiniti's feature film debut in "One Battle After Another" earned nominations from the Critics' Choice Awards, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild, alongside the National Board of Review's Breakthrough Performance award. She currently leads Hulu's "The Testaments," the sequel series to "The Handmaid's Tale," earning a Gotham TV Award and a Primetime Emmy nomination for the role. Her upcoming project "The Julia Set" reflects a deliberate move toward more varied roles following her dramatic breakout. Her background in musical theater and K-pop dance has featured prominently in how directors have described her casting.

Conclusion

Chase Infiniti's rise, from an unproven self-tape audition to an Oscar-winning ensemble to a leading television role in under two years, represents one of the more compressed breakout timelines in recent Hollywood memory. As she moves toward markedly different material with "The Julia Set," her early choices suggest an actress more interested in demonstrating range than capitalizing narrowly on the role that made her famous.