Sexiest Stars of 2014

Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, the new face of Giorgio Armani

It's difficult to overlook all of the jaw-dropping, gorgeous musicians like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. For example, Calvin Harris, the Scottish DJ, and music producer, is now the face of Emporio Armani. British newspapers like the Daily Mail to American magazines like Us Weekly were all drooling over Harris. Yet, I'll limit my drooling to actors, but if some can sing, so be it.

It's also difficult to overlook fashion models. A recent list of some of the hottest Asian models is one such example, but luckily some models become actors, so I can include one or two here.

Sexy actors are of course everywhere and actors having sex is everywhere. There's even a series on Showtime called The Affair that's dedicated to this idea. The only exception is CW's Jane the Virgin, which is predominantly a show about sexy Latinos not having sex.

Actually, I should amend the statement about actors having sex everywhere. There wasn't a lot of having sex on the silver screen. Independent films with foreign directors were the only brave ones to try. Take Lars Von Trier in Nymphomaniac or Alain Guiraudie in Stranger By the Lake. A couple of African-American films boldly went there like Addicted, but mostly films about sex were little to none.

Michael Sam in GQ magazine

But, if you want some sexy actors, soap stars are always the ones to check out. The Bold and the Beautiful is probably at the top of the list of eye-candy. I would be remiss if I didn't mention two additions this past year, two soap studs representing the supremely under-represented Asian community in daytime TV or anywhere. Ryan Paevey who is half-Indonesian debuted on General Hospital and Christopher Sean who is half-Japanese debuted on Days of Our Lives. Both are probably two of the sexiest things to appear on television in a while.

Even though I try to avoid adding athletes to my list, I have to give love to Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL. He was given the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at this year's ESPY Awards. He was named Outsports Person of the Year as well as GQ magazine's Man of the Year. The young man is beautiful inside and out, aside from his great skill on the football field.

So, here it is, my list of the Sexiest Stars of 2014.

21. NICK JONAS - he's only 22 and already he's a pop star and certified sex symbol. Aside from starring in the DirecTV series Kingdom as a MMA fighter, he also released his eponymous, second solo album. Listening to it, and looking at his career, Nick Jonas seems like the Millennial generation's Justin Timberlake. Jonas started acting and singing as a child on Broadway, but he went on to be in a boy band with his brothers where he made a name for himself. Things sparked last year when he posted a shirtless photo on Instagram, speaking out about his diabetes. It all culminated in a series of photo shoots for magazines that solidified his sexiness. His pictures for Britain's gay magazine Attitude were good, but his pictures for fashion mag Flaunt where he mimics the crotch-grab by Mark Wahlberg for Calvin Klein assured his place on this list.

20. KAREN GILLAN - Julianne Moore may win the Oscar this year, but Karen Gillan is the redhead that people should keep their eyes on. She just might be the ginger of the year. The Scottish actress who certain audiences would recognize from Doctor Who was nearly unrecognizable in the blockbuster film Guardians of the Galaxy as an all-blue female villain. She showed off more of her red locks and her smarts in the horror film Oculus. She certainly showed off her hot body in Esquire. Yet, what put her on this list is her fantastic performance in the short-lived ABC series Selfie. Opposite John Cho, she was bubbly yet lovely, stylish and a knockout physically and verbally.

19. THEO JAMES - he's the soulful Brit with some Greek in him who caught people's attention in his first leading role in the short-lived CBS series Golden Boy, but now he's melting hearts as the stud in the new YA adventure franchise, Divergent.

18. TESSA THOMPSON - She's been acting for about a decade now, but the African American Film Critics Association awarded her Best Breakout Performance. The Gotham Awards also gave her the prize for Breakthrough Actor. All this for her leading role in Justin Simien's Dear White People. She's also nominated for Outstanding Actress at the NAACP Image Awards. She currently plays civil rights activist Diane Nash in Ava DuVernay's Selma, which is up for four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture. The fact of the matter is the woman is beautiful and she's talented, pure and simple.

17. RUSSELL TOVEY - he's not well-known in the United States. He's an English actor who has done a lot of great British television like Being Human, Doctor Who, Little Dorrit and Sherlock. This year, he guest starred on the HBO series Looking playing the boss with whom some can't help but want to have sex. One quote from that show that I love in description of him is, "With those ears, he's like the white Will Smith." This picture below doesn't really show his ears, more his biceps, but Google him, he has the sexiest ears of any person I've seen in a while.

16. STACY MARTIN - she played the most convincing sex addict I've ever seen as the titular character in Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac, Vol. 1. I know she's a good actress because she actually got me to believe as hard as it was that she was in love with Shia LaBeouf and his accent. The 23-year-old French actress made her debut in that film and bared her all, and matches Charlotte Gainsbourg. I'll be curious to see more from her, although I've already seen a lot.

15. JUSTIN DEELEY - Yes, he's a ridiculously, good-looking, underwear model, but some might recognize him from the re-booted 90210 series on the CW. I first caught wind of him in the adaptation of the popular, young adult book Geography Club. He plays off his looks and the assumed dumb-jock persona in his current TV series Drop Dead Diva. Yet, through interviews, it's obvious that Deeley is actually a smart, very intelligent and compassionate guy.

14. LUPITA NYONG'O - she was recently named Glamour magazine's Woman of the Year. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave. The 31-year-old Kenyan born in Mexico also has her Master's Degree from Yale School of Drama. I was also happy to see her face in the cosmetics department of Macy's as I was passing through with my family for the holidays.

13. DEREK THELER - I have become a huge fan of ABC Family's Baby Daddy. It's a very funny sitcom. I wasn't totally on board for the first season, but now I'm hooked and watch every episode and Derek is very hilarious on the show. That and the dude is like six-foot-six and all muscle! He's like the freakin' Incredible Hulk. The writers and producers of the show seem to delight in finding some reason to get Derek shirtless with the obligatory girls' screaming in lust on the soundtrack.

12. ARDEN CHO - she's the new love interest in MTV's Teen Wolf but check her out on YouTube because she's also a fantastic singer. She competed for the spot of Miss Korea in the Miss Universe pageant.

11. ROBBIE AMELL - the 26-year-old is the cousin of Stephen Amell, star of CW's Arrow. Good-looks and charm apparently run in the family. Robbie was the star of The Tomorrow People, a remake of a British series, which aired after Arrow. Sadly, the network cancelled Robbie's show after only one season, but to me it was still the best show on the CW and Robbie the better actor. Now, however, Robbie has landed on the CW's new hit series The Flash where he's burning things up.

10. KATE UPTON - the 21-year-old model who has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue many times got her first significant role in a film this year. She played Amber opposite Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann in The Other Woman, which opened as the #1 film during the final weekend in April. Some of that success must be attributed to the trailer, which has Kate running in slow-motion down the beach in her bikini.

9. MATT CZUCHRY -  he was Rory's boyfriend on the TV series Gilmore Girls where I first saw him. I fell in love with him in his current role of Cary Agos in the Emmy-winning series The Good Wife. He's always been ridiculously adorable. He radiated boyish charm with a nice mix of smooth sophistication. This sixth season of The Good Wife, however, has really upped his sex appeal. Aside from more intense sex scenes with his on-again-off-again love interest Kalinda, the season started with Cary having to be strip-searched while in prison. Homoerotic, but who cares?

8. ROSAMUND PIKE - the 35-year-old English actress made a splash in the Bond film Die Another Day (2003). Some might recall her from the Academy Award-nominated film An Education. More might recognize her opposite Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher. However, Rosamund Pike is on track to score her first Oscar nomination as Lead Actress in David Fincher's Gone Girl. Her role of Amy Dunne was scary and sexy for a lot of people.

7. MATT BOMER - he's been the star of USA's White Collar since 2009. His role in Magic Mike (2012) shot his sex appeal into the stratosphere. Proof of Bomer's sex appeal came last year when fans petitioned Focus Features to cast him in the titular role of 50 Shades of Grey. He didn't get the part, but his sexuality was used to great effect in TV shows like American Horror Story: Freak Show. He showed his comedic chops this year in the independent film Space Station 76 but also showed his dramatic chops, earning his first Emmy nomination in the phenomenal The Normal Heart on HBO. His performance in the film was devastating and by far his most powerful work.

6. SAMIRA WILEY - If you're not watching Orange is the New Black, then you are missing one of the best TV shows available right now, and one of the reasons is this beautiful young actress who plays Poussey. Her character's arc in Season 2 is outstanding. Check out the Valentine's Day episode, Episode 6, entitled "You Also Have Pizza" to see her particularly shine. Original episodes are new to Netflix and can be streamed there. She is simply fantastic.

5. MAHERSHALA ALI - Speaking of beautiful black people on Netflix, you can also check out House of Cards where this actor can be found in Season 2 of that show proving why he is indeed ridiculously sexy. If you're playing "Six Degrees of Separation" for TV actors, be aware of the NBC series Crossing Jordan where Ali and a lot of actors got their start in 2001. I didn't take notice of him until 2004 when he began co-starring in the USA series The 4400. He's appeared in several films, playing adopted or surrogate fathers in two different movies: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Place Beyond the Pines, though his role as Remy Danton has got to be his best.

4. GUGU MBATHA-RAW - She was in a failed NBC series called Undercovers. I first took notice of her in the first season of the short-lived FOX series Touch opposite Keifer Sutherland. She really jumped onto a lot of people's radars this past year in the British period film Belle, which was about a famous slavery case in England. Her sex appeal came into view in the recent film Beyond the Lights and her someone who had to be on this list.

3. PIERRE DELADONCHAMPS - In 2011, I named Jean Dujardin as the sexiest star of that year. The French actor's charisma was off the charts. The following year, I named Matthias Schoenaerts, a French-speaking Belgium. He appeared in Bullhead and Rust and Bone within the space of 2012 and represented sexuality in two extreme forms, but there was something raw and unafraid about his performance that really intrigued me. The same can be said for Pierre Deladonchamps. He only appeared in one film this year Stranger By the Lake but he is again a French-speaking actor who has shown an extreme form of sexuality where the performance is so raw and seemingly unafraid that you're just drawn to him. The 36-year-old actor is boyishly handsome as a fully nude babe in the woods. For this role, Delandonchamps won Most Promising Actor at the 39th César Awards.

2. SCARLETT JOHANSSON - A lot of people became aware of her in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998). She caught my eye in Ghost World (2001), but I didn't fall in love with her until Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003). Ever since then, her beauty has been commented upon countless times and she has risen to one of this generation's definite sex symbols, rather solidifying that status in Tom Ford's Vanity Fair cover where she posed nude. Every magazine has named her one of the sexiest women alive. It's undeniably true, but not only is she gorgeous but she is a good singer. One of her songs Chasing Ice was even nominated for an Oscar last year. This year, she's been a very busy girl, appearing in the independent film Under the Skin, as well as the Marvel blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the summer sizzler Lucy.

1. CHRIS PRATT - People magazine might have named Chris Hemsworth as the Sexiest Man Alive 2014, I instead go for another actor named Chris in the Marvel Studios employ. From Everwood to Parks and Recreation, the guy has shown range on TV. Then, he started popping up in various films, including Moneyball (2011) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012), two films that got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Pratt getting the lead in this year's Guardians of the Galaxy seemed like a solid move, but it wasn't until he dropped the selfie of his body in the best shape of his life that put him on the sexy map.