10 Best Alison Brie Movies And TV Shows, Ranked

Best known for starring in hit television shows like NBC's "Community" or the Netflix animated comedy "BoJack Horseman," Alison Brie is always a welcome surprise at the movies. The primarily comedic actor has appeared with increasing frequency in streaming features like "Spin Me Round" and "Somebody I Used to Know," before landing "Freelance," her first marquee role in a theatrically released film. And while the latter film was, unfortunately, a major critical and commercial misfire, Brie's big-screen ambitions are far from thwarted with the recent release of Michael Shanks' "Together."

The 2025 horror film (in which she co-stars alongside Dave Franco) has been delighting audiences across the country with its disgusting and unexpectedly poignant exploration of relationships. Brie's performance specifically is remarkably impressive, drawing upon the wide range of characters and genres she has lent her talent to since "Mad Men." In excitement for the release of "Together" (and, admittedly, the hopes that its success will see her return to cinemas very soon), we've taken a close look at the roles that led Alison Brie to this achievement, ranking our favorite performances and projects along the way.

If you've ever felt that Christmas movies weren't made for you, Hulu's familiar but refreshingly subversive "Happiest Season" might change your mind. Kristen Stewart stars as Abby Holland, a New Yorker who is invited by her long-term girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis of "Black Mirror: San Junipero") to spend the holidays with her family at her childhood home. And, of course, as is expected in the subgenre, Abby bears some tragic, Christmas-adjacent trauma that wounds her holiday spirit — discomfort which is made even worse by the revelation that Harper has yet to come out as a lesbian to her parents.

Afraid of upsetting her mayoral-candidate father (Victor Garber) or, to an even greater extent, his conservative-leaning voters and donors, Harper convinces Abby to act as her straight roommate for the duration of their stay. Alison Brie plays Harper's overly-competitive older sister Sloane, the sort of charming, lightly villainous antagonist you'll find in all the best Christmas rom-coms streaming right now. Other notable faces in the cast include "Schitt's Creek" star Daniel Levy (who plays Abby's best friend and queer confidant John), frequent Brie-co-star Aubrey Plaza (as Harper's secret ex-girlfriend), and even "RuPaul's Drag Race" alums Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme.

The following section of this article discusses sexual assault.

The same year she appeared in "Happiest Season," Alison Brie was part of a far more disturbing project. From writer-director Emerald Fennell (also known for her viral and raunchy 2023 class satire "Saltburn"), "Promising Young Woman" stars Academy Award-nominee Carey Mulligan as Cassie Thomas, a woman whose promising career as a doctor was horrifically derailed. After her best friend died by suicide — traumatized by sexual assault and a subsequent perversion of justice — Cassie chose to leave her studies and future behind.

Now a barista who spends her nights baiting men at bars into trying to take advantage of her (so that she can scare them into never doing something like that again), Cassie learns that her friend's assailant is leading a happy, successful life, and is about to be married. Thus, the film follows her efforts to exact vengeance against the people that perpetrated or supported the crime — from the man himself (Chris Lowell) and his lawyer (Alfred Molina) to the college dean who failed to believe one of her students had been victimized (Connie Britton). Alison Brie plays Madison McPhee, a friend of Cassie's who becomes a target of her vengeance after her own role in this cycle of abuse comes to light. Distressing, terrifying, yet necessary and riveting until its final shot, "Promising Young Woman" is a hard-to-watch masterpiece that everyone should see once.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

One of the earliest shows to feature Alison Brie, "Mad Men" also happens to be one of the best television series ever produced. For younger readers who may not yet be aware of the classic AMC period drama, it stars Jon Hamm as Don Draper, an unforgettably suave ad executive with an unparalleled talent for telling stories that encourage (or, perhaps more accurately, manipulate) people into giving him what he wants. At work, that translates to large paychecks, lucrative ad campaigns, and an office that treats him like a creative genius; after hours, he's a womanizer, liar, and cheat, caught in a self-torturous cycle of dishonesty that secretly extends far into his past.

Brie had a major recurring role across all seven seasons as Trudy Campbell, the wife of Vincent Kartheiser's Pete Campbell. Their relationship is fraught with infidelity apparently obligatory of men working at Sterling Cooper, but Pete is especially and cruelly neglectful of Trudy. Without spoiling anything, Brie's performance as Trudy brilliantly walks the line between tragic devotion to Pete and a self-possessed distrust that gradually builds as his misdeeds become more careless and public. Despite never being a main cast member, we'd rank Trudy Campbell as one of the best characters on "Mad Men."

"Horse Girl" is a defiantly perplexing yet strangely haunting movie that has a smaller target-audience compared to other films on this list. The 2020 Netflix feature was one of many collaborations between co-writers Alison Brie and Jeff Baena. After "Life After Beth" saw Baena's career as a filmmaker resurge in the alt-slash-indie comedy scene, he directed Brie in the 2016 dramedy "Joshy," in which she plays a prominent supporting role as the titular character's (Thomas Middleditch) fiancé. Baena, Brie, and much of the cast, including Baena's future spouse Aubrey Plaza, reunited once more in the ensemble farce "The Little Hours" in 2017 before the two set out to create this trippy star-vehicle for the small-screen stalwart.

Much of Baena's filmography uses comedy to bluntly confront mental health. But compared to those films mentioned above, "Horse Girl" stands out for its darker, far more unsettling tone. Brie plays Sarah, a lonely young woman who, after the death of her mother, essentially lives in total isolation, save for some interactions with her well-meaning roommate (former Disney Channel star Debby Ryan), her boss at a fabric store (Molly Shannon), and her horse. When she begins to experience nosebleeds, lapses in memory, and seemingly unexplainable phenomena, Sarah suspects that her life may be connected to extraterrestrial entities — those around Sarah suspect she's experiencing the early stages of schizophrenia. All at once a surreal, off-beat supernatural thriller and heartbreakingly transportive depiction of mental illness, "Horse Girl" is hard to classify as it is to look away from. It won't please everyone (perhaps not even fans of Baena's other work) but Brie is so captivating that it's at least worth watching for her performance alone.

Perhaps our favorite film in Jeff Baena's filmography, "The Little Hours" is a sweet slice of blasphemy that is about as bizarre as a religious comedy can get. Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, and Kate Micucci (of the viral comedy duo Garfunkel and Oats) carry the film as three rebellious nuns sowing mischief at a rural convent in 14th century Italy. Sister Fernanda (Plaza) is prone to fits of petty rage; Sister Ginerva (Micucci), helpless and desperate for friendship, is easily steered by the worst impulses of Fernanda; all the while, Sister Alessandra (Brie), longs to leave the convent behind for a loving husband.

Despite her father (John C. Reilly) being too cheap to pay a dowry, he unintentionally exacerbates her desires, and upsets the hilariously fragile sense of pious decency at the convent when he offers an attractive young laborer named Massetto (Dave Franco) shelter, after Massetto was forced to flee the wrath of a land-owner (Nick Offerman) whose wife (Lauren Weedman) he'd slept with. Almost immediately, the nuns are driven mad with jealousy, lust, and a craven need to use Massetto to their own devious ends.

Though "The Little Hours" faithfully adheres to its period aesthetic and narrative, the tone is anything but. Brie and co play these early-1300s nuns as awkward wannabe mean girls, gossiping into the night in huddled, dorm-like rooms, drunk on stolen communion wine. When we saw it back in 2017, it was quickly one of our early favorites of the year. Today, we still count it among Aubrey Plaza's best films — and, now, among Alison Brie's as well.

With such a distinctive voice, it makes total sense that Alison Brie would have ample opportunity to play roles in numerous popular animated films and television shows. She reunited with "Community" creator Dan Harmon for episodes of the series "Krapopolis" and "Rick and Morty," voiced characters on "Robot Chicken" and "American Dad," and can even be heard in some Marvel and "Star Wars" shows. But her most well-known voice role of all (aside from maybe a certain Netflix comedy drama we'll mention further down) is Princess Unikitty from "The Lego Movie."

Released by Warner Brothers in 2014, "The Lego Movie" was a miracle of IP-driven filmmaking that turned what could have been a cynical cash-grab into one of the best animated films of the 2010s. This is unquestionably due in large part to writers and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the architects behind Sony's critically acclaimed "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" series, who craft an incredible adventure with a surprisingly deft sense of humor, a satisfyingly tactical visual aesthetic, and a genuinely moving story that explores the deeper reasons why LEGOs are so popular in the first place.

It also can't be overstated that the voice cast is second to none. Chris Pratt is at the peak of his potential as empathetic everyman Emmett Brickowski, while Brie, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Charlie Day, and, most especially, Will Arnett, take turns trying to steal scenes from one another. Brie's manically positive Unikitty is particularly amusing, if occasionally overwhelmed by the sheer plastic chaos of every scene.

To a certain extent, it's almost hard to recommend "GLOW." This isn't because the 2017 Netflix series isn't good — in fact, it's great. So great, you'll inevitably be disappointed when you realize that it was canceled in 2020, making it one of Netflix's many shows that concluded with a cliffhanger "ending." Despite its abrupt departure, however, all three seasons of "GLOW" remain surprising, empowering, and largely satisfying on their own.

In arguably her most central television role as of writing, Alison Brie anchors the ensemble '80s wrestling drama as newcomer Ruth Wilder. A failing actor whose large, theatrical performance style prevents her from landing jobs in the film industry, Ruth is unwittingly sent out on a last-ditch audition for "Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling," a real, all-women professional wrestling league that was founded in 1986. The first season largely follows her struggle to adjust to the way stories are told inside of a wrestling ring, with director Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) struggling just to help her develop a solid persona. At the same time, the series explores her complicated relationships with the rest of the wrestlers in the league, primarily Betty Gilpin's Debbie Eagan.

"GLOW" consistently received positive reviews, and was regularly talked about as one of the best streaming series being produced at the time. Everyone thought it deserved another round in the ring — including Netflix, who initially greenlit "GLOW" for a 4th season. But when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire world, the streamer — wary of a series that could not be produced without close physical contact, sweat-inducing athletics, a large ensemble cast, and an even larger production crew – rescinded their renewal. Fans have campaigned for a feature film finale instead, but Brie herself has been less-than-optimistic about a "GLOW" movie's chances.

Despite being her most recent project as of writing, "Together" is, in our opinion, the best Alison Brie movie yet. Written and directed by Australian indie filmmaker Michael Shanks, this Neon unholy and wickedly entertaining fusion of body-horror and romantic drama has received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences so far, with unanimous praise being heaped upon the dynamic between Brie and her co-star Dave Franco — who is not incidentally her husband in real life.

It isn't the first film to feature a collaboration between the two. As we noted below, Franco co-starred with Brie in "The Little Hours," and she even played the girlfriend of Franco's Greg Sestero in the Academy Award-nominated "The Disaster Artist" in 2017. Franco has also directed Brie in horror thriller "The Rental" and the romantic comedy "Somebody I Used to Know." But "Together" is the first film in which the actors are asked to dig so ferociously into what it means to be in a committed relationship while struggling — at times literally — to remain separate people. (The movie is nearly impossible to talk about without spoiling its twisty plot — suffice it to say, Brie and Franco play a couple who develop a dangerous supernatural bond that threatens their individual agency.)

As Brie and Franco told /Film in an interview that took place ahead of the release, their "borderline" co-dependency coupled with the necessity of spending every waking and sleeping moment together throughout the fast-paced production of "Together" made it all somewhat ironic, but also illuminating. "Dave is my favorite person in the world to work with, and it's a great comfort to have that person with you on set," she told /Film, before going on to say that the experience "also stressed the importance of doing our jobs that we do separately. Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Hopefully that absence won't have us waiting too long for another Brie-Franco feature – as funny as it is delightfully disgusting, "Together" is a horror hit that proves they're just as good together as they are apart.

Putting aside for a moment the valid criticisms of her casting as a Vietnamese-American woman (even those involved with the show agree it should never have happened), there's no debating that "BoJack Horseman" stands as Alison Brie's greatest achievement as a voice actor. For all six seasons of the Netflix animated tragicomedy, she voices Diane Nguyen, a human writer who is initially introduced to audiences (in the series' bafflingly uneven debut season) as the ghost-writer of the title character's blatantly self-serving memoir. Their dynamic immediately seems clear. Diane, an educated millennial with a promising career and two feet seemingly planted firmly in the real world, is the perfect foil for Will Arnett's BoJack, an aging, washed-up sitcom star obsessively retracing his hoofprints back to the '90s.

While this dynamic could have easily created hours upon hours of the middle-of-the-road animated sitcom "BoJack Horseman" first seemed it would be, the show's brilliance is how quickly it diverges from this path, especially in regards to Diane. She isn't merely a moral and intellectual counterpoint to BoJack, nor is she written with the purpose of giving the audience someone to project themselves onto. As it quickly grows into a deeply moving psychological drama, some of the series' best episodes like "The Dog Days Are Over" and "Underground" reveal how flawed Diane is. Her passionate advocacy can be shallow, selfish, or misinformed; her relationship with the loveable Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) can be toxic and destined for disaster, while also feeling like the only solid ground she has to stand on; and her neglect of her own mental health — a recurring theme among most, if not all "BoJack" characters — can make her harmful to be around.

By the time the series reaches its triumphant finale, viewers have been allowed to know Diane and much of the cast like close, complicated friends. It's one of the many qualities that make "BoJack Horseman" a show like very few others.

To the majority of our readers, especially those who clicked on this article, Alison Brie will always be Annie Edison. For six seasons (and indeed, to even her surprise, a movie that will be made ... probably) she starred as the high-strung, perpetual teacher's pet on the absurd comedy series "Community," which ran from 2009 to 2014 on NBC (with a final season that aired somewhat unceremoniously on the now-defunct Yahoo! Screen streaming platform). Annie was a core member of a tight-knit study group surviving Greendale Community College, which included disgraced lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), failed football star Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), aspiring filmmaker Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi), single mother Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown), and the belligerently old wet-wipe scion Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase).

Best remembered for its genius, genre-bending episodes (which humorously combined everything from explorations of classic films and TV tropes to subversive and meta-fictional storytelling), the series struggled to maintain a consistent audience despite being streets ahead of anything else on TV at the time. Their stable of directors included future Marvel Studios heavyweights Joe and Anthony Russo and Justin Lin of the "Fast and Furious" franchise, and creator Dan Harmon was already flexing the kind of creative muscle that would eventually make "Rick and Morty" a cultural phenomenon.

For Brie, it became the perfect showcase of the range she had only brief moments to share in "Mad Men." She expertly adapted Annie's sweetly abrasive personality to a ruthless paintball-gunslinger, a delusional glee-clubber, a crazed assistant director, and so many other strange kinds of characters that all still felt strangely true to the Annie Edison we knew and loved. It's one of the greatest sitcom performances of the 2010s, continuing to garner further praise as new audiences discover "Community" on streamers like Netflix and Peacock.