Sexiest Stars of 2018

People magazine named Idris Elba as the Sexiest Man Alive this year. The Internet's collective reaction was probably, "Finally!" He was number-one on my list last year, so of course I feel as though the magazine is behind the times. In terms of other interesting magazine picks, Time magazine selected Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, as its runner-up for Person of the Year. The selection has nothing to do with Coogler's looks, but I certainly feel like a case could be made that in this example, the director is actually better looking than the actor. It's not that Chadwick Boseman who plays the titular Black Panther isn't a very handsome, young guy, but Coogler is so handsome that I could see him giving Boseman a run for his money.

Ryan Coogler (pictured on right)

It's not often that a person's wedding is discussed a lot in the news these days. However, the wedding for Priyanka Chopra was the talk of the town and of the country when it happened on December 1st. Chopra is a huge, Bollywood star. She started to make a name for herself in the United States back in 2015 until she began a whirlwind romance with pop star Nick Jonas who is 10 years her junior. The two look very much in love. If nothing else, Chopra looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress.

20. MEGHAN MARKLE - The only other celebrity wedding that was the talk of 2018 was that of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, which happened on May 19 on live, international television. She's 36, biracial, a former model and actress. Her most notable role was in USA's Suits. Her life changed when she was set up on a blind date with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, sixth in line of succession to the British throne. The wedding was amazing. Time and Britain's Vogue magazine named the couple one of the most influential in the world. She is now a princess and will forever be called your Royal Highness.

19. CHRISTOPHER GORHAM - I first took notice of this guy 20 years ago when he was a regular on the WB's Popular (1999). I've followed him here and there as he bounced from one TV show to the next. He didn't reveal how much of a hottie he was until UPN's Jake 2.0, which was short-lived. I forgot about him, only hearing him as The Flash in the Justice League cartoons. This year put him back on my radar when he appeared as the bisexual lawyer, Bob Barnard in Netflix's Insatiable. Despite the fact that almost, every episode has him shirtless and flexing his muscles, the show's narrator keeps coming up with alliterative, if not sexual nicknames for him. Here's some I noted: Bob "Bag of Bones" Barnard, Bob "Baywatch Body" Barnard, Bob "Box of Butt Plugs" Barnard, Bob "Bulging Bicep" Barnard, Bob "Bra Burglar" Barnard, Bob "Bukake" Barnard, Bob "Boy Barbie" Barnard, Bob "Booster Club" Barnard, Bob "Blackmail" Barnard, Bob "Balls for Brains" Barnard, Bob "Boy Crazy" Barnard and Bob "Back Door Man" Barnard.

18. GEMMA CHAN - If you've seen the hit film Crazy Rich Asians, then you are familiar with this actress from London who was an absolute knockout on screen as Astrid. I first saw her in 2015 when she was playing a very sexy robot in the series Humans. She had a pretty good year otherwise. She popped up in several other high-profile projects. She's scheduled to also appear in Captain Marvel (2019), so hopefully her star-power will only continue to rise.

17. NOAH CENTINEO - In 2015, this teen actor from Miami took over the role of Jesus Adams in the TV series The Fosters. In 2017, he was cast as the love interest in Camila Cabello's music video, "Havana." However, in 2018, the young man became the Internet's collective love interest when he appeared in three, romantic comedies all on Netflix. The main one, which caused everyone to lose their minds and wanted him to lose his shirt was To All the Boys I'ved Loved Before. He made the cover of The Hollywood Reporter, which noted his social media following had jumped from 800,000 to over 13 million. For Christmas, Netflix even released a video of Centineo that was five-hours long that is just him in a hot tub staring at the camera.

16. SAOIRSE RONAN - The 24-year-old, Irish-American was nominated for an Oscar in 2018. She was up for Best Actress for Lady Bird. She also appeared in another Oscar-nominated film. She was the voice of Marguerite Gachet in the animated film Loving Vincent. What's interesting is that she had two movies back-to-back in which she has a romance with Billy Howle. The first is The Seagull, based on the Anton Chekhov play, and the other is On Chesil Beach, based on the Ian McEwan novel. It's funny to see her have intense, sexual tension with the same actor in two different movies, released literally one week from each other, but it worked. She's lovely and stunning in both.

15. ANTONI POROWSKI - He's the breakout star from Netflix's Queer Eye, the reboot of the Bravo series about five gay men who give a makeover to a person in need. Porowski is the resident food expert. He started out as a busboy and worked his way up to personal chef. He's reportedly even in the works to open his own restaurant in New York. He's done some acting, which qualifies him for this list but even if he hadn't, there's no way someone as charming and as jaw-dropping as this guy can be excluded here. If nothing else, he deserves a follow on Instagram.

14. JAMEELA JAMIL - She's a British actress whose father is Indian and mother is Pakistani. She mostly worked as a fashion model until someone had the brilliant idea to put her in NBC's The Good Place in which she's fantastic, funny and beautiful.

13. BRANT DAUGHERTY - The first time I saw this guy was on NBC's Days of Our Lives. His most successful and most popular role to date was on Pretty Little Liars. He was also on Dancing With the Stars back in 2013. In 2018, he played the sexy bodyguard Sawyer in Fifty Shades Freed who couldn't help but be sheer eye-candy. He participated in ABC's Battle of the Network Stars where he was part of the group labeled "TV Sex Symbols" and it's not hard to see why.

12. RAÚL CASTILLO - Essential Homme magazine recently did a profile on the 41-year-old, Mexican-American, which sums up why he is one of the sexiest of the year. The profile was probably done in light of the fact that Castillo was nominated for a Spirit Award for his role in We the Animals, an independent film this summer that has become one of the most critically acclaimed of 2018. This year, Castillo also had prominent roles on two Netflix shows. One was Atypical. The second was Seven Seconds, which won an Emmy Award and is up for a Golden Globe as well. That series and Castillo's performance in it was incredible. But, of course, I can't forget his sexiest role, which was back in 2014 in HBO's Looking.

11. CAST OF 'ALL AMERICAN' - Most TV shows have good-looking groups of actors that they employ. This is always particularly true of TV shows on the CW network, especially those produced by Greg Berlanti. However, the casting agents for this show really have to be congratulated for the sheer eye-candy for every single person here. Taye Diggs leads a cast of gorgeous people from head-to-toe, including Daniel Ezra, Greta Onieogou, Michael Evans Behling, Samantha Logan, Cody Christian, Bre-Z and Jay Reeves.

10. FLORIAN MUNTEANU - He's a 28-year-old, Romanian boxer known as "Big Nasty." He's 6'4, nearly 2 meters tall. He weighs 245 lbs. He has 8-pack abs, bulging arms, pecs of steel and a mean right-hook. He made his big-screen debut in Creed II as Viktor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren. Because his performance was so incredible, hopefully he'll get cast in more films, not only action films due to his amazing physique but also dramas or comedies as he proved he's got some good acting chops. Maybe Stallone will give him his own spin-off from the Rocky franchise and call it "Drago."

9. HENRY GOLDING - This 31-year-old Malaysian also made his big-screen debut this year with his role as the romantic lead in Crazy Rich Asians. The film made $174 million in the domestic box office, which puts it in the top twenty of highest-grossing films in 2018. For his efforts, he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. He followed that up immediately with an equally sexy role in A Simple Favor. Up until now, he was the host of BBC's The Travel Show, but he made the cover of GQ magazine, proving why he belongs on this list.

8. PENÉLOPE CRUZ - She did a small film called Loving Pablo that came out in 2018 where she was opposite her husband, Javier Bardem. Both Cruz and Bardem are from Spain. Cruz is from Madrid. Bardem is from the Canary Islands. Cruz and Bardem are the only two Spaniards to win the Oscar for acting. Bardem won Best Supporting Actor in 2008 at the 80th Academy Awards. Cruz won Best Supporting Actress at the 81st Academy Awards for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She's been acting since she was a teenager, most notably working with Pedro Almodovar, but, last year, what's really gotten her notice is her role as Donatella Versace in FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace where she is just this fierce, controlling, blonde bombshell.

7. GUS KENWORTHY & ADAM RIPPON - Kenworthy is a freestyle skier who competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. He won the silver medal in Men's Slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Kenworthy might not have won anything this year but he certainly won the genetic lottery. He graced the cover of Out magazine with fellow Olympian, Adam Rippon who won the bronze medal in PyeongChang for figure skating, making him the first, openly gay American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. Rippon didn't stop there though. He went on to win Season 26 of Dancing With the Stars, making him the first openly gay celebrity to win that competition too.

6. ANTOINETTE ROBERTSON - The 24-year-old from the Bronx was the best thing about Season 2 of Dear White People. The former model also had a crazy, sexy and heartbreaking turn in Tyler Perry's The Haves and Have Nots last year. For more stunning photos, check out her website.

5. ROME FLYNN - Speaking of The Haves and Have Nots, this 26-year-old from Chicago also had a devilish role in that Tyler Perry, soapy drama. Last year, however, he won an Emmy Award for his role in the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful, which is a perfect description for him. He also joined the cast of ABC's How to Get Away With Murder. He is a saucy mix of Cuban, Irish and black who will hopefully be igniting passions and breaking hearts for decades to come.

4. CAMILA CABELLO - I'm not usually one to include singers or pop stars on this list unless they've done some significant acting, but after first seeing her, I was so taken with this Cuban girl who was a contestant on the TV series The X Factor. She was part of the girl group, Fifth Harmony. She released her debut album this year, which made it to #1 on the Billboard charts. Her single "Havana" also made it to #1. The music video for which with the aforementioned Noah Centineo shows she's got some acting chops too.

3. JASON STATHAM - When it comes to 2018 and into 2019, there will really be only two Jasons in Hollywood who will be known for their sex appeal and box office success. The first would have to be the newly minted Aquaman, played by Jason Momoa. The other is the now 51-year-old from England who established himself with The Transporter films starting in 2002. He managed to make such an impact in The Fast and the Furious franchise that he's getting his own spinoff with Dwayne Johnson, scheduled for August 2019 called Hobbs & Shaw, but it's his work in The Meg that gets him on the list.

2. WINSTON DUKE - The 31-year-old is from Tobago of Trinidad and Tobago. He immigrated to the United States when he was 9. He attended Yale University along side Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o. He had a small role on CBS' Person of Interest in 2014 but he hadn't really done much before being cast as the now iconic M'Baku in the mega-blockbuster Black Panther. Instantly, he became a sex symbol, fueled mainly by chatter online. One article even labeled Duke as "the Internet's New Boyfriend." He appeared briefly in Avengers: Infinity War, but he's got a really creepy horror film called Us (2019) by the filmmaker of Get Out coming out in March.

1. LADY GAGA - The latest news is that the pop star just started her Las Vegas residency. It's called Lady Gaga Enigma. It will be at the Park MGM hotel and casino. Her premiere show on December 28 ended with her performance of "Shallow," which is the signature song from her film A Star is Born. The buzz around this film has been off the charts. It's been showing up at every, major award show. It'll be interesting to see how many Oscar nominations the film gets. It seems for sure that Gaga herself will get two nominations. One for Best Actress and the other for Best Song. "Shallow" has already been nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year, so an Oscar nod is all but guaranteed. The message of the film is about seeing the beauty in oneself that others might not, and I think Gaga's performance here is by far incredible and I hope she not only is nominated for two but that she wins both.