ACTOR
DAN BUTLER
Best known for his role as the irascible Bulldog on Frasier, Dan Butler recently premiered the satirical documentary Karl Rove, I Love You, in which he falls in love with the film's diabolical subject while researching him for a role. Butler cowrote, codirected, and produced the film, which continued to play in festivals throughout 2008. This fall Butler won great reviews for his performance in the New York production of Michael Weller's new comedy, Beast, about two soldiers' return from Iraq.MUSICIAN
BRADFORD COX
Self-proclaimed "queer art punk" Bradford Cox was one of the most talked-about musicians of 2008. Despite his controversial blog posts and live performances (in which he wore fake blood and ill-fitting housedresses), the prolific front man of psych-rock band Deerhunter garnered stellar reviews for the group's most recent albums, Microcastle and Cryptograms, and for Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, his ambient "healing" solo debut recorded under the pseudonym Atlas Sound.PLAYWRIGHT
TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY
Once the assistant to playwright August Wilson, McCraney has shot to success of his own since his first production, The Brothers Size, premiered in 2007 simultaneously in New York and London, winning him the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. This year, his drama Wig Out!—set in rival New York drag houses—also hit both theaters, and he was appointed international writer-in-residence to the Royal Shakespeare Company.