The best Anna Faris movies and TV shows include some slapstick comedies and a few interesting dramatic turns along the way. Faris got her acting start in the drama club in school and took on several roles in school plays before she got her first taste of success when she appeared in the movie Eden, which screened at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Faris then appeared in a straight-to-video slasher movie called Lover’s Lane, which led to her breakout role one year later when she starred in the horror-parody Scary Movie.
While she took on a smaller role in a critically acclaimed indie horror movie called May after that, it wasn’t horror that Faris ended up typecast in, but the comedy genre. Faris picked up several comedy roles over the years, all to varying success, including the critically panned The Hot Chick and the highly underrated The House Bunny. However, Faris earned her highest critical acclaim on television when she took on the lead role in the sitcom Mom, with Allison Janney.
You are watching: Anna Faris’ 10 Best Movies And TV Shows
10
The Dictator (2012)
Zoey
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The Dictator
R
Comedy
6/10
5/10
Release Date
May 15, 2012
Runtime
83 Minutes
Director
Larry Charles
Writers
Alec Berg, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeff Schaffer, David Mandel
Cast
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Sacha Baron Cohen
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Ben Kingsley
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In 2012, Sacha Baron Cohen was back for another comedy, but this was not like his mockumentaries where he fooled people into believing he was someone else. Instead, this was a straight fictional comedy where Cohen plays Admiral General/Prime Minister Haffaz Aladeen/Allison Burgers, a dictator who is trying to ensure democracy doesn’t come to his country since he has ruled it so well as a dictator for years. The movie sees him visit the United States, only to end up in a comedy of errors.
Anna Faris plays Zoey, a human rights activist with whom Aladeen eventually falls in love and who convinces him to allow democracy into his country. The film received mixed to positive reviews, sitting at 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it uneven but funny. It was also a major box office success, making $190.2 million, with praise going to Cohen’s comic timing.
9
Scary Movie (2000)
Cindy Campbell
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Scary Movie
R
Horror
Comedy
7/10
10/10
Release Date
July 7, 2000
Runtime
88 minutes
Director
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Writers
Jason Friedberg, Shawn Wayans, Phil Beauman, Buddy Johnson, Aaron Seltzer, Marlon Wayans
Sequel(s)
Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 5, Scary Movie 4
Cast
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Regina Hall
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Marlon Wayans
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The movie that made Anna Faris a star was Scary Movie, a parody film that plays as a version of Scream but with the comic sensibilities of the Wayans Brothers. Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans and written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, the movie starts off as a straight spoof on Scream, with the killer in a similar mask and costume, but everyone plays it all for laughs. Anna Faris takes on the lead role, playing Cindy Campbell (a version of Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott from Scream).
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In fact, everyone in the movie is based on a character from another horror film, with this mostly parodying Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The film was a monster success, making $278 million on a $19 million budget with a surprising positive 51% Rotten Tomatoes score. It resulted in a franchise that saw five total movies with a sixth on the way in 2026, although Farris left the franchise after the fourth installment.
8
Waiting… (2005)
Serena
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Waiting…
R
Comedy
Release Date
October 7, 2005
Runtime
94 Minutes
Director
Rob McKittrick
Writers
Rob McKittrick
Cast
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Ryan Reynolds
Monty
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Anna Faris
Serena
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Justin Long
Dean
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David Koechner
Dan
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What Kevin Smith’s Clerks tried to do for convenience store workers, the 2005 comedy Waiting… tried to do for people who wait tables in restaurants. The film takes place in a franchise restaurant called Shenaniganz, and it follows the crew who work there and the terrible customers they have to deal with throughout their shifts. The cast was impressive, with Justin Long and Ryan Reynolds in the two lead roles as Dean and Monty, two friends who work at the restaurant and often pull pranks on co-workers.
As for Anna Faris, she stars as Serena, Monty’s ex-girlfriend, a waitress. Just like Clerks, this is a day-in-the-life movie. Critics mostly panned it, complaining that the gross-out comedy was more gross than funny. However, anyone who has ever worked in the restaurant industry will likely relate to a lot of what is shown in the movie, and there are some great laughs for those fans. It has since gained a small cult following since its release.
7
Friends (2004)
Erica
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Friends
Comedy
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Drama
Sitcom
8/10
100
8.3/10
Release Date
1994 – 2004-00-00
Network
NBC
Showrunner
Marta Kauffman
Directors
David Crane, Marta Kauffman
Writers
David Crane, Marta Kauffman
Cast
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Jennifer Aniston
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Courteney Cox
Franchise(s)
Friends
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Anna Faris only appeared on four episodes of Friends, but she played a very important role. In the final season, she played Erica, a young woman from Ohio who was pregnant and agreed to allow Chandler and Monica to adopt her baby. The role was a fun one, despite the limited appearances. She thought Chandler and Monica were a doctor and reverend, but the two eventually won her over despite their careers being nowhere near as impressive.
Erica then appeared in the final episode, “The Last One,” when she delivered the baby and shocked Monica and Chandler when she delivered twins. Despite her low number of appearances, Faris was impressive in her role and was given a Gold Derby Award nomination for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She was also the last-ever recurring guest star on Friends before the show came to an end.
6
The House Bunny (2008)
Shelley Darlington
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The House Bunny
PG-13
Comedy
Romance
Release Date
August 22, 2008
Runtime
98 minutes
Director
Fred Wolf
Writers
Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith
Cast
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Anna Faris
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Colin Hanks
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Emma Stone
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Kat Dennings
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Anna Faris appeared in more than one poorly reviewed comedy over her career, making her average of good-to-bad movies in the negative. However, one of her underrated gems is the 2008 comedy The House Bunny. This film sees Faris play Shelley Darlingson, a Playboy Bunny and hopeful Playmate who lives in the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner. However, she gets a note saying she has to leave (it was from a rival Playmate pretending to be Hugh Hefner), so she moves out.
Faris received praise for her performance and comedy timing.
Not knowing where to go, she moves into a college sorority of outcasts and their new Housemother and helps these misfits come out of their shells and become confident women. The film was a moderate box office success, and while it received mixed to negative reviews, Faris received praise for her performance and comedy timing. Critics believed this could catapult Faris into a comedy leading lady, although that never happened on the big screen.
5
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)
Sam Sparks (Voice)
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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
PG
Animation
Comedy
Family
Fantasy
Release Date
September 17, 2009
Runtime
90 minutes
Director
Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Writers
Judi Barrett, Ron Barrett, Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Cast
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Bill Hader
Flint Lockwood (voice)
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Anna Faris
Sam Sparks
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James Caan
Tim Lockwood
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Andy Samberg
“Baby” Brent
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Anna Faris has voiced characters in several animated movies, but the best of these came in 2009 when she voiced Sam Sparks in the adaptation of the children’s novel Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller before they took on The Lego Movie and the Spider-Verse movies, this film tells the story of the citizens on an island who have to deal with a failed experiment that causes water to turn into food, which causes giant good to rain down on the island.
The movie received rave reviews from critics and earned four Annie Award nominations.
Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is a young scientist who wants to be a successful inventor, while Sam Sparks (Faris) is a meteorologist who becomes his love interest. The movie received rave reviews from critics and earned four Annie Award nominations (Animated Effects, Best Animated Feature, Directing, and Writing). It also spawned a sequel that arrived four years later, with Hader and Faris returning to their roles.
4
May (2002)
Polly
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May
R
Comedy
See more : Sonic’s 10 Best Quotes In The Sonic The Hedgehog Movies
Drama
Horror
Release Date
April 11, 2003
Runtime
93 minutes
Director
Lucky McKee
Writers
Lucky McKee
Producers
Eric Koskin, Marius Weisberg, Scott Sturgeon
Cast
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Angela Bettis
May Dove Canady
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Jeremy Sisto
Adam Stubbs
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Anna Faris
Polly
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James Duval
Blank
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One of Anna Faris’s lesser-known roles came in 2003 with the indie horror movie May. Directed by up-and-coming horror filmmaker Lucky McKee, May is a take on the Frankenstein story. Angela Bettis stars as May Canady, an awkward young woman with a troubled childhood who begins dating a mechanic named Adam (Jeremy Sisto) and finds interest from a lesbian colleague named Polly (Anna Faris). When Adam dumps her and Polly cheats on her, she ends up breaking down.
After killing her first victim, she decides she needs “more parts” to create her perfect companion. Critics praised the film’s bizarre nature, calling it an above-average slasher flick with a darker, deeper subtext that is also strangely moving. It was also a film festival darling, winning awards for Angela Betts and Lucky McKee at four different festivals worldwide.
3
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Lawshawn Malone
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Brokeback Mountain
R
See more : Sonic’s 10 Best Quotes In The Sonic The Hedgehog Movies
Drama
Romance
10/10
8.5/10
Release Date
December 9, 2005
Runtime
134 minutes
Director
Ang Lee
Writers
Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana
Cast
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Jake Gyllenhaal
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Heath Ledger
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Ang Lee’s masterpiece, Brokeback Mountain, was a movie that starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two ranchers who fall in love. They have to keep their love a secret and hidden thanks to the homophobia rampant in their line of work, and both men end up in relationships with women as well to cover up their true selves. While Ennis (Ledger) was married to Michelle Williams’s Alma, Jack (Gyllenhaal) married Anne Hathaway’s Lureen.
Anna Faris, who plays Lashawn Malone, also fits into the story. She is a friend of Jack and Lureen and is married to Randall (David Harbour), a man with whom Jack ends up having an affair. It is a small role, but the movie is such an important piece of filmmaking that everyone in it is elevated. It landed on several top ten lists that year and was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and Ang Lee won Best Director.
2
Lost In Translation (2003)
Kelly
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Lost in Translation
R
See more : Sonic’s 10 Best Quotes In The Sonic The Hedgehog Movies
Drama
Comedy
9/10
Release Date
October 3, 2003
Runtime
102 minutes
Director
Sofia Coppola
Writers
Sofia Coppola
Cast
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Fumihiro Hayashi
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Bill Murray
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Another movie in which Anna Faris only had a small role was the Sofia Coppola drama Lost in Translation. This film stars Bill Murray as Bob, a fading actor having a midlife crisis who ends up in Japan to shoot a whiskey commercial. While there, he meets a disillusioned American named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), and the two of them develop a close friendship throughout the story. Anna Faris stars as Kelly, a Hollywood actress staying at the same hotel as Charlotte and Bob.
It is an interesting role for Faris, as her character is meant to be the antithesis to Johansson’s Charlotte. While Charlotte is contemplative and disillusioned, Faris’s Kelly is vacuous and is in Japan to promote her new film. While she repulses Charlotte, Kelly is overwhelmed with admiration for Charlotte’s husband, John, a celebrity photographer. The film received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
1
Mom (2013-2020)
Christy Plunkett
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mom
Sitcom
Release Date
2013 – 2021-00-00
Network
CBS
Directors
James Widdoes, Ted Wass
Writers
Chuck Lorre, Nick Bakay
Cast
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Anna Faris
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Allison Janney
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Sadie Calvano
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Nate Corddry
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The biggest and best role of Anna Faris’s career came on television. In Mom, Faris stars as Christy Plunkett, a single mother battling alcoholism and drug abuse. She decides she needs a fresh start and wants to clean up, so she moves to Napa, California, gets a job as a waitress, and starts attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Her mother, Bonnie (Allison Janney), is also a recovering addict and attends meetings. This series is about beating the addiction, but it has a great sense of humor throughout.
The series lasted for eight seasons, but, shockingly, Faris left before the final season and didn’t return for the finale, saying her character’s story was over with. It was a surprise because this was Faris’s most prestigious work of her career. While not attracting attention from the Primetime Emmys or Golden Globes, Anna Faris earned three People’s Choice Awards nominations, while Allison Janney won two Primetime Emmy Awards for playing her mother.
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Category: Entertainment