Lucy Halehas been acting and singing since she was a child and her best movie and TV roles show how far she has come. Hale got her start in singing, competing in a reality singing competition as a teenager before pursuing an acting career. Some of her best roles have allowed her to combine both of those talents, but for the most part, she has been demonstrating her acting chops on screen instead of her vocal ones.
Hale’s most widely recognized role is as Aria inPretty Little Liars, and for a generation of TV watchers, she will likely always be Aria. She also has a lot of other roles that demonstrate how talented she is. Many of her best roles allow her to show off both her comedic and her dramatic talents. In addition to the drama of Pretty Little Liars, Hale has also appeared in TV sitcoms, romantic comedies, and plenty of thrillers.
Wizards of Waverly Placewas one of the most popular television shows on the Disney Channel in the late 2000s. In 2024, the show received a sequel series with David Henrie reprising his role as Justin Russo. Henrie’s character is how Lucy Hale is linked to this series as well.
The show follows the Russo siblings as they learn about magic from their father. Though he was born a wizard, wizarding law says that a magical competition meansonly one child in a wizard familygets to keep their power, and once they complete their training, the siblings compete, so he does not have any power as an adult, but he does have immense knowledge. The series is built around the mishaps with magic and adolescence that the characters experience.
Hale appears in only two episodes of the series, but she plays Justin’s girlfriend early in the series. Though his love interests later in the series would be more connected to the supernatural world, Hale’s Miranda was not. In fact, one of her episodes involves her freaking out when his zit begins talking to her.While she was not in the series much, Miranda’s creative spirit and her tendency to buck authority is shades of who Hale would be as Aria inPretty Little Liarsa few years later, making this a strong early role for her.
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One of the fun things aboutHow I Met Your Motherwas getting to know the extended family of the main characters. It helped the audience to see how the characters became the people they were, and it was interesting to see them interact with those outside of the main cast and their own love interests.
How I Met Your Motherwas framed around the idea of a man telling his kids the titular story. The series, however, took a meandering route to that, focusing instead on the friendships among the main five characters before finally having the meet-cute the kids were waiting for in the final season of the show.
Hale’s Katie is the little sister of main character Robin (Cobie Smulders). She really helps to bring out the caring side of the main characters who are usually more focused on having a good time and finding a new hook-up. In her first appearance, for example, she is considering having sex for the first time, and the entire group of friends (who are much older than her), all take the time to convince her to wait.
While Katie might not get to do much in the show herself, her appearances demonstrate that Hale is not averse to comedy. Her best-known roles are much more dramatic turns, so this is a much lighter part for her.
Hale takes on the rapid-fire meta dialogue and the fakeout opening perfectly.
Scream 4is something of a reset for theScreamfranchise. Set several years after the original trilogy, the movie sees Sidney (Neve Campbell) return to her hometown of Woodsboro when her young cousin (Emma Roberts) and her friends appear to betargeted by a new Ghostface.The meta horror franchise takes a new track as it sees the cousin and her friends attempt to become famous as a result of the attacks.
Lucy Hale does not spend a lot of time in theScreamfranchise.Like a lot of scream queens before her, she appears in one of the iconicScreamopening sequences, only to quickly be taken out by Ghostface. That’s why, despite this being one of her best movies, it does not rank higher.
Hale’s place in the opening signifies that she was an in-demand actress at the time. This is when her career was really beginning to take off, and as a member of the ensemble, Hale takes on the rapid-fire meta dialogue and the fakeout opening perfectly. It’sScream 4that makes it clear Hale could have a future in horror movies, though many of the horror projects she has taken on since have not been as successful.
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7Privileged (2008-2009)
As Rose Baker
Privilegedwas a very short-lived series on the CW. Though the network seemed confident in the series, ordering additional episodes after it premiered, it canceled the show after the first season was done.
Inspired by the novelHow To Teach Filthy Rich Girls, the series sees a dow-on-her-luck woman with a journalism degree struggling to find a job. She ends up as the tutor for a wealthy woman’s granddaughters, but her own family drama tends to mix with theirs, creating plenty of room for both comedy and drama.
Lucy Hale played one of those granddaughters. While the character is initially presented as spoiled and not very bright, that gradually changes throughout the show.Hale did get to play shallow, but she also got to show an emotional depth to the character as family secrets emerge. She was also able to sing on the show, and not many of her other acting roles have put her vocal talents to use.
Life Sentencewas a bit controversial due to its premise. Stella (Hale) believed she had terminal cancer, and because of that, she began acting without worrying about the consequences, including doing things like running her credit cards up to the limit because she did not believe she would end up having to pay them off. When she finds out she no longer has cancer, Stella has to deal with the consequences of all of the decisions she made when she believed she was going to die.
The show struggled to strike the right balance between humor and drama. Because it was dealing with such a dark subject, the humor was often used to lighten the series, and for some audience members, that just did not work.
Despite that,Hale sparkled in the leading role, her first on TV after the end ofPretty Little Liars. It was also the first time Hale was not part of a much larger ensemble series, and she had to bare much of the weight of the series.She did an admirable job fronting the show, but it just did not connect with viewers.
The success ofRiverdaleled to a spinoff seriesfrom the show. The new series was built around another group of characters fromArchie Comicsand included Josie (Ashleigh Murray) from the flagship series. Again, Hale was placed in the leading role, but this time, there was a larger ensemble to back her up.
Katy Keenecentered on a group of creative young adults following their dreams in New York. Set five years after Hale appeared as Katy in an episode ofRiverdale, the series sees her pursuing a career in fashion design while her friends all pursue creative dreams as well - singing, acting, and more.
A big point inKaty Keene’s favor is that the series did not attempt to be as gritty as other young adult dramas on at the time. That helped it to stand apart fromRiverdaleas well, though it did share some ofRiverdale’s soapy tendencies.The lighter series was a welcome change for Hale who really seemed to find her footing in the titular role. This is another rare series that also allowed her to sing in musical sequences.
Unfortunately, the series was canceled after the first season, likely due to delays in production of new shows as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing restructuring at the CW.
Which Brings Me To Youis a clever romance. That’s because it does not go beyond one day, though it does offer plenty of flashbacks.
Jane (Hale) and Will (Nat Wolff) meet at a wedding. They hit it off and decide to hook up, but when they attempt to, they do not seem to be on the same page and almost go their separate ways. Instead, they decide to talk for a while and see if they want to try again, trading stories about their past relationships for a long time. Their fledgling relationship is almost ruined again when Jane realizes that Will kept a momentous relationship from her during their trading stories, but they find their way back to one another.
Which Brings Me To Youis inspired by the novel of the same name, and the screenplay was in development for a few years before it actually made it to the filming process.The big selling point for the movie is that it does not play out like a typical romance, focusing on how past mistakes and heartbreaks can lead people to find their match.
Hale and Wolff have fantastic chemistry together. While she has tried her hand at several romantic comedies since her time onPretty Little Liarsended,this one is definitely Hale’s best.
Lucy Hale previously starred opposite Alex Wolff, Nat Wolff’s younger brother, inDude.
3The Unicorn (2018)
As Jesse
The Unicornis yet another comedic story for Lucy Hale. Despite playing in dramas for so long on television, recent years have demonstrated that she really should delve into more comedy. She has a knack for it that she has not been able to explore as much.
The Unicornis also an unconventional romance movie. It sees a couple (Lauren Lapkus and Nick Rutherford) on the hunt for “unicorns.” Those unicorns are the people they think would be a good fit for a threesome with them, and Hale’s Jesse is the person they choose.
Not many people actually saw this movie outside of critical circles, but critics offered up a lot of praise for it.The dialogue is hilarious as is the delivery among the three main cast members.What works here is that the movie is not just about the couple out to have a good time. They believe, because one of their parents revealed it works for them, that having a third person involved in their relationship once in a while will keep them together. Instead, they find attempting to add that third person exposes some cracks in the foundation.
Even though there are elements of a comedy-of-errors here, the movie has a lot of heart behind the humor.
Pretty Little Liarsis definitely the role Hale is best known for. Some might consider it her big break, though that really came while competing on the reality singing competitionAmerican Juniorsyears earlier. It’s that series that opened up casting doors for her.Pretty Little Liarscemented her as a successful dramatic actress.
Pretty Little Liarsfollows a group of friends who are targeted by someone who only signs their messages with the letter A. They are bonded by the threats from A, their own secrets they kept while friends with Alison, and their grief over Alison’s disappearance. The series plays with horror conventions while still being a teen soap opera, acting as a thriller, a coming-of-age series, and even a romance.
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Hale’s Ariais the most creative of the group of friends. She has slightly different tastes in music, fashion, and writers than the rest of her friends. Because she has spent some time living in other countries, she is also a bit more worldly than her friends, seeming more mature for her age.Hale also, however, spends much of the series keeping secrets from her family and her friends, allowing her to play some of her scenes in more subtle ways as she lies and withholds information.
Because of the thriller aspects of the show, Hale also perfected her shocked expressions and her startled behavior.All of the titular Liars were constantly being placed in high-stress situations and getting caught doing things they were not supposed to do. It’s a great show to prepare Hale for any dramatic roles that come her way in the future.
Pretty Little Liarsproduced three spin-offs:Ravenswood,The Perfectionists, andPretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
This role is both drastically different from anything Hale has done before, and also still very similar.
It seems like all of the dramas and thrillers that Lucy Hale did previously prepared her to take on the miniseriesRagdoll.It offers up her best performance to date with elements of many of the past characters she has played fused into Lake Edmunds.
The miniseries is a murder mystery with a group of law enforcement officers tracking down a serial killer. The killer is someone who sews their victims back together like a ragdoll after dismembering them. It’s also set in the UK with Hale appearing as a former police detective in the United States who takes on the job in the UK.
This role is both drastically different from anything Hale has done before, and also still very similar. She has appeared in a lot of mysteries, thrillers, and even horror projects. After playing Aria as someone who both kept secrets and tried to unearth them, she is not a stranger to playing inquisitive characters who end up in dangerous situations. This role, however, finally allows Hale to play beyond her teen or college years, something only a handful of her rom-com roles have allowed her to do.
Ragdollis where it feels like Lucy Hale has finally found a more mature place in her art, taking everything she has learned from growing up in the industry to really hone her performance.
