Lucy Hale’s 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

Lucy Hale

has been acting and singing since she was a child and her best movie and TV roles show how far she has come. Hale got her start in singing, competing in a reality singing competition as a teenager before pursuing an acting career. Some of her best roles have allowed her to combine both of those talents, but for the most part, she has been demonstrating her acting chops on screen instead of her vocal ones.

Hale’s most widely recognized role is as Aria in Pretty Little Liars, and for a generation of TV watchers, she will likely always be Aria. She also has a lot of other roles that demonstrate how talented she is. Many of her best roles allow her to show off both her comedic and her dramatic talents. In addition to the drama of Pretty Little Liars, Hale has also appeared in TV sitcoms, romantic comedies, and plenty of thrillers.

10

Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2008)

As Miranda

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Wizards of Waverly Place

TV-G

Comedy

Fantasy

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7/10

9.8/10

Release Date

2007 – 2011

Network

Disney Channel

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Selena Gomez

    Selena Gomez

  • Headshot Of David Henrie

    David Henrie

Showrunner

Todd J. Greenwald

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Wizards of Waverly Place was one of the most popular television shows on the Disney Channel in the late 2000s. In 2024, the show received a sequel series with David Henrie reprising his role as Justin Russo. Henrie’s character is how Lucy Hale is linked to this series as well.

The show follows the Russo siblings as they learn about magic from their father. Though he was born a wizard, wizarding law says that a magical competition means only one child in a wizard family gets to keep their power, and once they complete their training, the siblings compete, so he does not have any power as an adult, but he does have immense knowledge. The series is built around the mishaps with magic and adolescence that the characters experience.

Hale appears in only two episodes of the series, but she plays Justin’s girlfriend early in the series. Though his love interests later in the series would be more connected to the supernatural world, Hale’s Miranda was not. In fact, one of her episodes involves her freaking out when his zit begins talking to her. While she was not in the series much, Miranda’s creative spirit and her tendency to buck authority is shades of who Hale would be as Aria in Pretty Little Liars a few years later, making this a strong early role for her.

Zack and Cody from The Suite Life on Deck, Riley from Girl Meets World, and Lizzie from Lizzie McGuire

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9

How I Met Your Mother (2007, 2014)

As Katie Scherbatzky

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How I Met Your Mother

Comedy

Drama

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9/10

41

7.6/10

Release Date

2005 – 2013

Network

CBS

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Josh Radnor In The NBC Universal Winter TCA

    Josh Radnor

  • Headshot Of Jason Segel

    Jason Segel

Showrunner

Craig Thomas

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One of the fun things about How I Met Your Mother was getting to know the extended family of the main characters. It helped the audience to see how the characters became the people they were, and it was interesting to see them interact with those outside of the main cast and their own love interests.

How I Met Your Mother was framed around the idea of a man telling his kids the titular story. The series, however, took a meandering route to that, focusing instead on the friendships among the main five characters before finally having the meet-cute the kids were waiting for in the final season of the show.

Hale’s Katie is the little sister of main character Robin (Cobie Smulders). She really helps to bring out the caring side of the main characters who are usually more focused on having a good time and finding a new hook-up. In her first appearance, for example, she is considering having sex for the first time, and the entire group of friends (who are much older than her), all take the time to convince her to wait.

While Katie might not get to do much in the show herself, her appearances demonstrate that Hale is not averse to comedy. Her best-known roles are much more dramatic turns, so this is a much lighter part for her.

8

Scream 4 (2011)

As Sherrie

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Scream 4

R

Horror

Thriller

ScreenRant logo

7/10

9.3/10

Release Date

April 15, 2011

Runtime

111 Minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Courteney Cox In The Los Angeles Premiere Of Warner Bros. Television's 'Shining Vale'

    Courteney Cox

  • Headshot Of Neve Campbell

    Neve Campbell

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Hale takes on the rapid-fire meta dialogue and the fakeout opening perfectly.

Scream 4 is something of a reset for the Scream franchise. Set several years after the original trilogy, the movie sees Sidney (Neve Campbell) return to her hometown of Woodsboro when her young cousin (Emma Roberts) and her friends appear to be targeted by a new Ghostface. The meta horror franchise takes a new track as it sees the cousin and her friends attempt to become famous as a result of the attacks.

Lucy Hale does not spend a lot of time in the Scream franchise. Like a lot of scream queens before her, she appears in one of the iconic Scream opening sequences, only to quickly be taken out by Ghostface. That’s why, despite this being one of her best movies, it does not rank higher.

Hale’s place in the opening signifies that she was an in-demand actress at the time. This is when her career was really beginning to take off, and as a member of the ensemble, Hale takes on the rapid-fire meta dialogue and the fakeout opening perfectly. It’s Scream 4 that makes it clear Hale could have a future in horror movies, though many of the horror projects she has taken on since have not been as successful.

Five images from the Scream movies including Arquette, Campbell, Ulrich, and Ghostface

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7

Privileged (2008-2009)

As Rose Baker

Ashley Newbrough, Joanna Garcia, and Lucy Hale posing in a doorway for Privileged

Privileged was a very short-lived series on the CW. Though the network seemed confident in the series, ordering additional episodes after it premiered, it canceled the show after the first season was done.

Inspired by the novel How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls, the series sees a dow-on-her-luck woman with a journalism degree struggling to find a job. She ends up as the tutor for a wealthy woman’s granddaughters, but her own family drama tends to mix with theirs, creating plenty of room for both comedy and drama.

Lucy Hale played one of those granddaughters. While the character is initially presented as spoiled and not very bright, that gradually changes throughout the show. Hale did get to play shallow, but she also got to show an emotional depth to the character as family secrets emerge. She was also able to sing on the show, and not many of her other acting roles have put her vocal talents to use.

6

Life Sentence (2018)

As Stella Abbott

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Life Sentence – Season 1

TV-14

Drama

Comedy

Release Date

March 7, 2018

Network

The CW

Episodes

13

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Life Sentence was a bit controversial due to its premise. Stella (Hale) believed she had terminal cancer, and because of that, she began acting without worrying about the consequences, including doing things like running her credit cards up to the limit because she did not believe she would end up having to pay them off. When she finds out she no longer has cancer, Stella has to deal with the consequences of all of the decisions she made when she believed she was going to die.

The show struggled to strike the right balance between humor and drama. Because it was dealing with such a dark subject, the humor was often used to lighten the series, and for some audience members, that just did not work.

Despite that, Hale sparkled in the leading role, her first on TV after the end of Pretty Little Liars. It was also the first time Hale was not part of a much larger ensemble series, and she had to bare much of the weight of the series. She did an admirable job fronting the show, but it just did not connect with viewers.

5

Katy Keene (2020)

As Katy Keene

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Katy Keene

Comedy

Drama

Release Date

2020 – 2019

Network

The CW

Showrunner

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Directors

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Ashleigh Murray

    Ashleigh Murray

  • Headshot of Lucien Laviscount

    Lucien Laviscount

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The success of Riverdale led to a spinoff series from the show. The new series was built around another group of characters from Archie Comics and included Josie (Ashleigh Murray) from the flagship series. Again, Hale was placed in the leading role, but this time, there was a larger ensemble to back her up.

Katy Keene centered on a group of creative young adults following their dreams in New York. Set five years after Hale appeared as Katy in an episode of Riverdale, the series sees her pursuing a career in fashion design while her friends all pursue creative dreams as well – singing, acting, and more.

A big point in Katy Keene’s favor is that the series did not try to be as gritty as other young adult dramas on at the time. That helped it to stand apart from Riverdale as well, though it did share some of Riverdale’s soapy tendencies. The lighter series was a welcome change for Hale who really seemed to find her footing in the titular role. This is another rare series that also allowed her to sing in musical sequences.

Unfortunately, the series was canceled after the first season, likely due to delays in production of new shows as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing restructuring at the CW.

4

Which Brings Me To You (2024)

As Jane

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Which Brings Me To You

Not Yet Rated

Comedy

Drama

Romance

ScreenRant logo

5/10

Release Date

January 19, 2024

Runtime

98 Minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Lucy Hale

    Lucy Hale

  • Headshot Of Nat Wolff

    Nat Wolff

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Which Brings Me To You is a clever romance. That’s because it does not go beyond one day, though it does offer plenty of flashbacks.

Jane (Hale) and Will (Nat Wolff) meet at a wedding. They hit it off and decide to hook up, but when they try to, they do not seem to be on the same page and almost go their separate ways. Instead, they decide to talk for a while and see if they want to try again, trading stories about their past relationships for a long time. Their fledgling relationship is almost ruined again when Jane realizes that Will kept a momentous relationship from her during their trading stories, but they find their way back to one another.

Which Brings Me To You is inspired by the novel of the same name, and the screenplay was in development for a few years before it actually made it to the filming process. The big selling point for the movie is that it does not play out like a typical romance, focusing on how past mistakes and heartbreaks can lead people to find their match.

Hale and Wolff have fantastic chemistry together. While she has tried her hand at several romantic comedies since her time on Pretty Little Liars ended, this one is definitely Hale’s best.

Lucy Hale previously starred opposite Alex Wolff, Nat Wolff’s younger brother, in Dude.

3

The Unicorn (2018)

As Jesse

Lucy Hale in between a couple who wants to have a threesome in The Unicorn

The Unicorn is yet another comedic story for Lucy Hale. Despite playing in dramas for so long on television, recent years have demonstrated that she really should delve into more comedy. She has a knack for it that she has not been able to explore as much.

The Unicorn is also an unconventional romance movie. It sees a couple (Lauren Lapkus and Nick Rutherford) on the hunt for “unicorns.” Those unicorns are the people they think would be a good fit for a threesome with them, and Hale’s Jesse is the person they choose.

Not many people actually saw this movie outside of critical circles, but critics offered up a lot of praise for it. The dialogue is hilarious as is the delivery among the three main cast members. What works here is that the movie is not just about the couple out to have a good time. They believe, because one of their parents revealed it works for them, that having a third person involved in their relationship once in a while will keep them together. Instead, they find attempting to add that third person exposes some cracks in the foundation.

Even though there are elements of a comedy-of-errors here, the movie has a lot of heart behind the humor.

2

Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017)

As Aria Montgomery

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Pretty Little Liars

TV-14

Drama

Mystery

8.2/10

Release Date

2010 – 2016

Network

ABC, Freeform

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Troian Bellisario

  • Headshot Of Ashley Benson

    Ashley Benson

Showrunner

Ina Marlene King

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Pretty Little Liars is definitely the role Hale is best known for. Some might consider it her big break, though that really came while competing on the reality singing competition American Juniors years earlier. It’s that series that opened up casting doors for her. Pretty Little Liars cemented her as a successful dramatic actress.

Pretty Little Liars follows a group of friends who are targeted by someone who only signs their messages with the letter A. They are bonded by the threats from A, their own secrets they kept while friends with Alison, and their grief over Alison’s disappearance. The series plays with horror conventions while still being a teen soap opera, acting as a thriller, a coming-of-age series, and even a romance.

The main cast of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School and the Antler Queen of Yellowjackets over the original cast of Pretty Little Liars

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Hale’s Aria is the most creative of the group of friends. She has slightly different tastes in music, fashion, and writers than the rest of her friends. Because she has spent some time living in other countries, she is also a bit more worldly than her friends, seeming more mature for her age. Hale also, however, spends much of the series keeping secrets from her family and her friends, allowing her to play some of her scenes in more subtle ways as she lies and withholds information.

Because of the thriller aspects of the show, Hale also perfected her shocked expressions and her startled behavior. All of the titular Liars were constantly being placed in high-stress situations and getting caught doing things they were not supposed to do. It’s a great show to prepare Hale for any dramatic roles that come her way in the future.

Pretty Little Liars produced three spin-offs: Ravenswood, The Perfectionists, and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.

1

Ragdoll (2021)

As Lake Edmunds

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Ragdoll

TV-MA

Mystery

Crime

Drama

Thriller

Release Date

2021 – 2020

Network

AMC+

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Amita Dhiri

    Deputy Commissioner Vanita

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Ginny Holder

    Therapist

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Natasha Little

    Andrea Wyld

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    Paul McEwan

    Richard Brown

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This role is both drastically different from anything Hale has done before, and also still very similar.

It seems like all of the dramas and thrillers that Lucy Hale did previously prepared her to take on the miniseries Ragdoll. It offers up her best performance to date with elements of many of the past characters she has played fused into Lake Edmunds.

The miniseries is a murder mystery with a group of law enforcement officers tracking down a serial killer. The killer is someone who sews their victims back together like a ragdoll after dismembering them. It’s also set in the UK with Hale appearing as a former police detective in the United States who takes on the job in the UK.

This role is both drastically different from anything Hale has done before, and also still very similar. She has appeared in a lot of mysteries, thrillers, and even horror projects. After playing Aria as someone who both kept secrets and tried to unearth them, she is not a stranger to playing inquisitive characters who end up in dangerous situations. This role, however, finally allows Hale to play beyond her teen or college years, something only a handful of her rom-com roles have allowed her to do.

Ragdoll is where it feels like Lucy Hale has finally found a more mature place in her art, taking everything she has learned from growing up in the industry to really hone her performance.