Miles Teller is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting young movie stars working in Hollywood. Having arrived on the scene in the early part of last decade, Teller has worked consistently with some of the best filmmakers of the day, creating lasting characters in the process. The year 2022 was a particularly successful year for Teller, starring in two major movies — Top Gun: Maverick and Netflix’s Spiderhead — as well as playing the lead in the Paramount Plus show The Offer.
Teller, 35, was born and raised in Downingtown, Pennsylvania — just outside Philadelphia — before moving to Florida around his 12th birthday. Teller soon left to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied acting. Ultimately, Teller’s story is one of early and fortuitous success, having landed major film roles very early on. It was after his roles in The Spectacular Now and — to a larger extent — Whiplash that Teller became the movie star he is today. There are surely decades of work left in Teller’s career, but he has already made quite a name for himself in Hollywood.
15. 21 & Over (2013)
Any fans of The Hangover series are certain to enjoy the Miles Teller vessel that parodies it. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore share directorial duties, while Teller is joined by Justin Chon, Skylar Astin, Sarah Wright, and Jonathan Keltz. 21 & Over follows a trio of friends (Chon, Miller and Astin) who go ‘out on the town’ to celebrate one of their 21st birthdays, despite knowing the dangers and hinderances of drinking and preparing for a medical school interview the next morning.
If you’re wondering why the storyline seems so familiar, that would be because Lucas and Moore were the joint-writers on The Hangover, so 21 & Over almost ‘revamps’ the narrative for — what was at the time — a more modern, mature audience. Although some unfavorable reviews leave 21 & Over in The Hangover‘s shadow, it’s still a worthwhile nod to the trilogy and an amusing performance from Teller.
14. Project X (2012)
Project X is a movie, technically speaking, but it is really quite unlike anything else on this list, especially when you consider Miles Teller’s role in it. Teller really stretches his acting chops here, playing the role of Miles Teller attending a party where there will be “tons of highschool girls.”
Everything seems to be pretty tongue-in-cheek here, as far as Teller is concerned, but he does add an interesting flourish to Project X, which, ultimately, is more like one long music video than it is an actual movie. There is plenty to be a little grossed out about this movie — misogyny and homophobia most notably — but, if you can get past that, it remains pretty entertaining.
13. Fantastic Four (2015)
It’s practically an unwritten rule at this point that any Fantastic Four remake is destined to bomb. We saw a rather poor rendition of Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, played by John Krasinski, so at least Teller does a marginally better job. No remake nor reboot will ever be as comic-accurate and thoroughly entertaining as 2005’s Fantastic Four, which stars an ensemble cast of Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis.
That being said, the 2015 version does have some saving graces, particularly its star-studded actors, which consist of Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell. As anyone who knows the F4 story is well aware of, the origins of the superhero team are built around the invention of a transdimensional portal, which grants the four friends with otherworldly and superhuman abilities. Although critics panned 2015’s Fantastic Four, Teller does do the role of Reed Richards justice.
12. Two Night Stand (2014)
We know, Two Night Stand looks just as cheesy and trope-heavy as every other rom-com out there — and you’re right, it is. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You see, the classic rom-com formula is timeless and never fails to reel in an audience. Just look at the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy; it’s raunchy, predictable and downright unbearable, but it still turned a huge profit at the box office, so someone — somewhere — must be appeased.
As for Two Night Stand, it suffered the same backlash and criticisms that every other rom-com in existence comes under fire for at some stage, but stand-out performances from Teller and Lio Tipton (credited as Analeigh Tipton, but Lio came out as non-binary and changed their name in 2021) make the tried-and-true storyline feel unique. Lio plays Megan, an unemployed singleton looking for love. She meets Alec (Teller) on a dating app and has a one-night stand, but when a snowstorm hits and traps Megan and Teller in the latter’s apartment, sparks begin to fly.
11. Thank You For Your Service (2017)
2017’s Thank You For Your Service, based on a book of the same name by Washington Post reporter David Finkel, sees Teller play the role of Adam Schumann, an Iraq-war veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This film, written and directed by Jason Hall (American Sniper), is very much a character study, carefully examining the effect of war on both Teller’s Schumann and his fellow veterans, played by Beulah Koale, Joe Cole, and Scott Haze.
Teller is consistently excellent as Schumann, showing an acute ability to inhabit this challenging role. Though Thank You For Your Service was ultimately a small movie when looking at box office results, it certainly played a crucial role in Teller’s career.
10. Divergent (2014)
There’s nothing like a good old dystopian sci-fi action movie, especially one with Theo James front and center. Based on the novel of the same name by Veronica Roth, Divergent is set in post-apocalyptic Chicago, which has been divided into fractions based on every individual’s human virtues. Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) realizes that she does not fit into any particular fraction, so she takes it upon her shoulders to prove herself worthy of respect when a sinister plot brews in the seemingly idyllic society. Here,
Teller plays Peter Hayes, a member of the Dauntless fraction (the brave), who is actually Beatrice’s nemesis, whom bests her in a fight when she first begins training for the Dauntless. We wouldn’t go so far as to call Teller a ‘bad guy’ in Divergent, but he certainly makes life a lot harder for our protagonist, so it’s hard to not feel some resentment towards him. All that tells us, however, is that Teller is doing a fine job.
9. Bleed For This (2016)
Bleed For This follows in the footsteps of so many biopics focused on the greats of boxing’s past. Here, Teller plays Vinny Pazienza, a lightweight boxer who heroically recovers from a severe spinal injury to once again enter the ring. Teller is well-cast as the pugnacious, determined Vinny “The Pazmanian Devil” Pazienza and, ultimately, is the best part of this movie that very often takes the twists and turns you might expect for a movie of its kind.
Also making appearances in Bleed For This are Aaron Eckhart as Vinny’s trainer and confidant Kevin Rooney, and Katey Sagal and Ciaran Hinds as Vinny’s mother and father, respectively. Though this film received middling to positive reviews, it failed to recoup even half of its budget of $16 million at the box office.
8. War Dogs (2016)
War Dogs is a practical bingo card of trite, clichéd storytelling techniques. We have cheap, unnecessary voiceover, pointless title cards, a montage every half hour, paint-by-numbers female roles which fail the Bechdel Test mightily, and, to top it all off, perhaps one of the most basic movie soundtracks in the history of film — they actually use “Fortunate Son” as a helicopter flies by in a war zone. And yet, War Dogs is not unwatchable. This can be attributed perhaps solely to the performances of Teller and his co-star Jonah Hill, two electric and commanding performers doing their best to save a very basic movie.
While War Dogs was a modest success at the box office, it was seen as a bit of a disappointment, especially when you consider this marked director Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his wildly successful Hangover series. However, it did garner Jonah Hill a Golden Globes nomination for his performance as Efraim Diveroli. Still, you kind of can’t shake the feeling that you are watching more of an echo of other movies than something original. Phillips’ eventual success with Joker was certainly a marginal improvement.
7. Spiderhead (2022)
Spiderhead is a movie so frustratingly close to being great that you can kind of forget the fact that it is — ultimately — still pretty damn entertaining. Very loosely based on a George Saunders short story titled Escape From Spiderhead, it varies wildly in tone but is most frequently a kind of action/science-fiction you will be fairly familiar with. Teller stars here as Jeff, an inmate in a futuristic institution in which you can shorten — and seemingly ease — your sentence by agreeing to be part of experimental drug testing.
Starring opposite is Chris Hemsworth, playing the maybe-brilliant-but-definitely-psychotic Steve Abnesti, a hot-shot pharmaceutical bro with nefarious goals aplenty. The first half of Spiderhead is excellent, and while the ending gets a bit lost tonally and narratively, Teller remains well-cast as the stoic hero of our story. It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t get made all that much these days, but it is a welcome addition to Teller’s filmography.
6. Only The Brave (2017)
Only The Brave marks Teller’s first collaboration with director Joseph Kosinski, who he would go on to work with on Spiderhead and 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. In many ways, you can see why both Kosinski and Teller were soon tapped to bring that long-awaited sequel to screens. Only The Brave is the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of firefighters tasked with fighting massive wildfires in Arizona, a group not dissimilar from the collection of hot shot pilots in Top Gun.
Teller plays Brendan McDonough, a down-and-out drug abuser who looks to join the Hotshots as a way to redeem himself in the eyes of his ex-girlfriend and mother. This movie is perhaps most notable for its absolutely killer cast — featuring the likes of Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly, Andie MacDowell, and Taylor Kitsch — as well as its epic and sweeping set pieces, and perhaps the best example of firefighting on film since Backdraft.
5. Rabbit Hole (2010)
2010’s Rabbit Hole is a filmed version of David Lindsay-Abaire’s play of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart alongside Teller in his first role. Rabbit Hole is what you would call a difficult watch, telling the story of two parents grieving the loss of their four-year-old son, who was struck and killed by a car. As you can imagine, Kidman’s Becca and Eckhart’s Howie are having a difficult time adjusting to life after such a traumatic event.
Miles plays the part of Jason, the teenage driver of the vehicle that killed the couple’s young son. Eventually, Becca and Jason begin talking, working through the trauma they both experience due to the accident. It’s a subtle movie, full of understated performances, but it feels incredibly lived in and well observed. The fact that Kidman reportedly handpicked Teller to play the role of Jason — a critical if relatively small part — is a testament to his skill even as a young actor.
4. The Spectacular Now (2013)
Rabbit Hole might have been Teller’s first movie role but The Spectacular Now is when he truly started to make his mark with a wider audience. This coming-of-age tale of young love was a critical darling, receiving a nomination for Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. Teller plays an eighteen-year-old boy named Sutter, a habitual drinker and general screw-up who one day happens upon Aimee (Shailene Woodley).
As the movie progresses, the two fall deeper and deeper in love. Director James Ponsoldt captures this wonderfully and Teller and Woodley have dynamic chemistry, all leading to a movie that turns out way better than you might expect. If you are interested, you can stream The Spectacular Now today on Showtime.
3. Footloose (2011)
As we touched on briefly earlier, remakes can be extremely touch-and-go when it comes to success. There’s oftentimes no middle ground, so they’re either really good or really bad. As for Craig Brewer’s remake of 1984’s Footloose, it actually manages to fall more on the ‘good’ side of the scale. The cast includes Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough, Andie MacDowell and Dennis Quaid, but Teller himself plays Willard Hewitt, a senior at Bomont High who befriends Wormald’s Ren.
Essentially, the plot tells the story of Ren, who moves to a small town after the death of his mother. However, he learns that the town has enforced a strict ban against dancing and loud music, so Ren teams up with Ariel (Hough) in the hopes of reviving the town’s energy. There’s a lot of dancing in Footloose, so if that’s your thing, you’ve hit the jackpot. Think of it as an updated High School Musical — and look how well that performed.
2. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Without a shadow of a doubt, Top Gun: Maverick has proven to be one of the most important performances of Teller’s career. This is — to put it mildly — a huge movie, managing to snag more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Teller plays Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, whose character tragically died in the first Top Gun film back in 1986. It’s the relationship between his character and Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell that largely drives the movie, creating a heartfelt friction that keeps the stakes raised throughout.
Teller’s Rooster is a quiet character here — when he isn’t singing “Great Balls Of Fire,” of course — but Teller does an excellent job allowing subtle facial expressions to fill in any gaps present in the screenplay. Working alongside the man who may or may not be responsible for your father’s death would not be an easy situation to navigate and Teller plays it with the anguished conflict you might expect.
1. Whiplash (2014)
Miles Teller is likely to have a long and successful career as a leading man in Hollywood, but he may never be in a movie as accomplished as Whiplash ever again. That’s not to diminish him, but rather dish praise for a film so kinetic and arresting that it launched the career of one of Hollywood’s most exciting young directors, Damien Chazelle. Teller stars here as Andrew Neiman, a young man attending the Shaffer Conservatory in New York City to study as a jazz drummer. He stars sopposite is J.K. Simmons, who plays Andrew’s extremely demanding teacher Terence Fletcher.
The best parts of this film occur when the two lock horns during Andrew’s many, many practice sessions. Simmons plays Fletcher as an absolute force of nature, driving Andrew to greatness, even if it means breaking his body and mind in the process. The fact that Teller can keep up and often match such a performance is an impressive feat and one that garnered him a lot of attention around the release of the film. Whiplash would go on to be a huge success both financially and critically, receiving nominations for both Best Screenplay and Best Picture, an impressive accomplishment for such a small-budget movie.
