Shannon Purser

Purser's career effectively starts with a bang. Her debut role — Barbara "Barb" Holland in *Stranger Things* (2016) — wasn't a lead part, but it didn't need to be. Barb's fate in the Upside Down hit viewers hard, and the performance landed Purser an Emmy nomination before she'd appeared in another project. That's a genuinely unusual way to enter an industry. She followed that with her film debut in the supernatural horror *Wish Upon* (2017), playing June Acosta, and then took on the recurring role of Ethel Muggs in The CW's *Riverdale*, a part she'd continue returning to through 2023 (Wikipedia). Her first leading film role came with the Netflix romantic comedy *Sierra Burgess Is a Loser* (2018), where she played the title character — a much heavier lift than a guest arc, and a clear signal that she was being trusted with more. She also appeared in the NBC drama *Rise* (2018) during this stretch, which, honestly, didn't get nearly the attention it deserved before its cancellation. The years since have seen Purser working steadily across formats — *Room 104* (2020), the docuseries *Equal* (2020), and *The First Lady* (2022) on television, alongside voice work for the animated series *Final Space* and the 2025 series *Mono* (Perplexity research). It's a career that doesn't follow one clean trajectory so much as it spreads outward in several directions at once, which, for an actress who was 18 when *Stranger Things* first filmed, is probably exactly the right approach. Hard to say if a single defining "next chapter" role has arrived yet — but the range is there.